Laptop advice please

[Icey]

Now I'm really lost!

I'll be using said laptop at home for general studying stuff - writing notes, assignments, general household accounting etc etc. Your everyday knows-zilch-about-computers usage.

I'm not looking for an all-singing-and-all-dancing-top-hat-and-tails number just something that will allow me to go online and do the usual web pages (ebay, amazon, ceroc scotland forum to name a few), use excel and word as these are what I currently know and use and get my work done. I don't play games as I don't have the hand-eye coordination and I'm just crap at them anyway (I'd rather read a book, even an accountancy text book ) so I don't need some super-dooper game card thingie with extra clever sounding effects.

The problem is I simply wouldn't know what is good and fair even if it jumped out and bit me!

[David Franklin]

Originally Posted by Icey

Now I'm really lost!

I'll be using said laptop at home for general studying stuff - writing notes, assignments, general household accounting etc etc. Your everyday knows-zilch-about-computers usage.

Even so, it really is worth asking your college. They may have special deals available (especially for software). And they may have specific reasons for recommendations that none of us would guess. (e.g. they have a specific networking system that only works on machines that take a specific adaptor). [This is probably less common than when I went to Uni, but it was pretty much the norm then].

[Icey]

I'm not actually studying at a college or universiry but a private academy that is running the ACCA course. So there won't be any special offers or recomomendations about technical things like that. I won't be running any specialised accounting software or anything other than the usual word, excel, outlook, internet, solitaire, blah blah blah stuff.

My parents have made the laptop offer so that I can make the most of my non working time for studying. Previously I was staying late at work to use my desktop and then going over the their place to use their PC. I think I may also have outstayed my welcome on the "what's that you're cooking for dinner? Is there enough for me?" front

So, I think what I'm asking is: The detailed laptop below (Toshiba something) is it suitable for my needs? And if so is it a fair price or can I find the same thing much cheaper elsewhere?

Icey (aka "The-knows-bugger-all-about-computers-icicle")

[Franck]

Originally Posted by Icey

So, I think what I'm asking is: The detailed laptop below (Toshiba something) is it suitable for my needs? And if so is it a fair price or can I find the same thing much cheaper elsewhere?

Icey (aka "The-knows-bugger-all-about-computers-icicle")

Hey Icey, sorry about adding to the confusion, but before jumping onto the Toshiba I would read this review: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1777933,00.asp

The bottom line is they say that despite low weight and good battery performance, they don't like it.

The interesting fact is they quote 3 hours as good battery performance (compared to 6 hours on the ibook).

The last factor, and it is a very important one, is that you'll have to be very careful with virus infections if you use your laptop for email / web browsing (another bonus for Apple software, no virus).

Make sure you get a larger hard-drive though.

Now that I realise you're studying accountancy, then you might be better off with a standard Windows laptop, most of the serious accounting software (Sage etc... ) only works on Windows.
I recently bought 5 Dell laptops for £350 and while not very fast, they are fine for general use. With Dell though, make sure you remove their useless extended guarantee, and if you can get free delivery as it is very expensive (over £50).

[philsmove]

I have a IBM think pad .Its Very reliable and I would buy another, Its more expensive than Dell but much tougher

I would go for something like this


http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpr...t_id=IBYA0420L

But upgrade to at least 500 thingamajigs of RAM

An equivalent dell will be about £500

If you are going to store photos and music on it you need at least 40 GB of what not
Cant recommend second hand unless its less than a year old
Don’t forget to include an anti virus program e.g. Norton

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by Franck

The interesting fact is they quote 3 hours as good battery performance (compared to 6 hours on the ibook).

Yup battery life on most PC laptops is shocking

I recently bought 5 Dell laptops for £350 and ..

er...each I assume ? or are they a really bad spec and very cheap from an auction or something ?

[Franck]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

Yup battery life on most PC laptops is shocking

indeed!

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

er...each I assume ? or are they a really bad spec and very cheap from an auction or something ?

Yeah each, including vat and Delivery though...

Originally Posted by David Franklin

P.S. 12 inch screen is too small in this day and age..

Only if you're old and your eyesight isn't what it used to be
I find that my 12 inch ibook is brilliant, and more often than not, you'll be struggling for space and if your laptop sticks out on the table, more chances of being knocked off...

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by philsmove

I have a IBM think pad ...

Do the ThinkPads still not have a "Windows" key? What do you do instead?

(This is one of the reasons I'd recommend a Dell over an IBM. The other reason is a friend swears by his ThinkPads, but still has needed to send each one back to IBM at least once due to some fault or other... YMMV)

[killingtime]

Originally Posted by ducasi

Do the ThinkPads still not have a "Windows" key? What do you do instead?

Ctrl-Esc like the good old days (what am I talking about I still use that).

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by killingtime

Ctrl-Esc like the good old days (what am I talking about I still use that).

And Windows-R, and friends???

[frodo]

Originally Posted by Icey

Here's one I've found:
Toshiba Tecra A2
512MB Ram, 400 Mhz Data speed, Intel Celeron M 340 1.5Ghz Processor, 40Gb Hard drive, CD-RW/DVD-Rom combo drive, Microsoft Windows XP Professional OS. £500 inc vat.

Is this a fair price or should I be looking elsewhere for something better?

Thank you very much so far for all your help!
Icey

Thats is certainly a fair price ( Note the machine you've found has more memory than the one in the review ).

I think providing you haven't got thousands of mp3 tracks you want to keep on it I would have thought the hard drive size would be fine. It is not impossible to upgrade it later, and more space on a cheaper external hard drive may suit your purposes.

One nice thing about Toshiba laptops is they usually come with Microsoft OneNote, which is a fairly decent note taking application you may find useful.

While you might get something slightly better for the price, it looks attractive, and is probably not worth the trouble to look for something marginally better.

The main reasons I can think for looking for something else around this price range or a little above, would be if you were looking for something lighter or with a bigger screen ( for example wide screen ), or a DVD writer.

[Robin]

This is all getting far too technical methinks. Lets try and boil it down for you.

1. Whats the budget - you need to know how much to "set the stage"
2. Are you going to be moving it around a lot?
3. Are you going to use it on battery
4. You've answered this already - what will you be doing - aka how fast
5. You've answered this already too - not a gamer

To be honest with you, if you aren't going to move it around a lot and its never running on batteries than you can look at the more "desktop replacement" style - bigger, heavier, less battery life but generally more ooomph for your money

Personally, I don't move mine around very much anymore and rarely use it on batteries and now play the odd game, so the spec on my new laptop was very different from my old one.

[Icey]

The favouirte so far is:

Dell Inspiron 6000

Intel Celeron M360 processor (1.40Ghz, L2 cache, 400Mhz whatever that means), Microsoft XP Home OS, 512Mb RAM, 40Gb Hard Drive, Intel Media Accelerator 900 graphics video card (???), DVD/CD Combi drive,

£511

Any opinions?

[Dreadful Scathe]

seems reasonable - but did you buy Micro Mart like I said ?

[frodo]

Originally Posted by Icey

The favouirte so far is:

Dell Inspiron 6000

Intel Celeron M360 processor (1.40Ghz, L2 cache, 400Mhz whatever that means), Microsoft XP Home OS, 512Mb RAM, 40Gb Hard Drive, Intel Media Accelerator 900 graphics video card (???), DVD/CD Combi drive,

£511

Any opinions?

The current newspapers (and Dell web site) have it as above but with a DVD writer for I think £514. I think the £3.00 is worth it for the DVD writer.

Essentially the £514 version has the DVD writer over the CD writer/DVD reader on the Toshiba.

The operating system being XP Home is not as good as XP Pro on the Toshiba, but it may well not matter for your purposes.

The screen is widescreen at 1280 * 768 rather than 1024 * 768 which is worth having.

The Dell has more USB ports and a firewire port and an SD card memory port ( which doesn't support MMC cards though ).

The internals of the Dell are more up to date than the Toshiba, so the performance should be a little better.




My current laptop is a Dell Inspiron 6000 so these are my impressions:-




I suspect the keyboard may be better on the Toshiba, though the keyboard is OK.

I'm less than impressed with the touchpad - sometimes I just cannot control the mouse pointer at all with it.

I cannot directly comment on the screen as I bought a higher resolution one. The one I have could be brighter and is not completely even but has no dead pixels.

I'm perfectly happy with the integrated graphics video card speed ( I don't play 3d games though ).

The Dell is very sensitive to power supply noise - I've two power supply adapters and using both the screen sometimes goes bright and dim, until I switch to battery power.

I'm do get memory errors sometimes when I start the machine. When I took a look at the memory card it wasn't properly seated ( though seating it correctly didn't solve the intermittent memory problem ).

Navigating the Dell Web Site and doing the order was a real pain, and took alot of time.

I spoke to a Dell sales representative and he said the higher resolution screen at 1680 * 1080 was brighter. At £35.00 extra or so the extra screen space is probably worth having (I've got the really high resolution one).
Excepting the spare battery and the screen upgrades, most options are ridiculously overpriced and best avoided.

Battery life is OK - probably not quite as good as the toshiba but you can buy an extended battery which fits in exactly the same space if necessary.

The hard disk is really easy to remove for safekeeping or to replace with a new one, or swap between two - it stays in even without the two screws ( which is a good thing since Dell forgot to put the screws on ).

The Dell is fairly quiet - not silent - the fan is always going how fast depends what you're doing - but quite acceptable - this is important for me.





Dell's customer service seems less than good.


Apart from missing the screws, there were 3 or 4 other minor things wrong with my system, including the anti-virus software I paid for being missing. I don't recommend going for the anti-virus software they sell as I cannot see how you can reinstall it when you reinstall the operating system - better to buy from PC World when they have an offer on.

Though I got a reference number about 2 months ago for my queries they haven't responded - I understand this is pretty typical of Dell - I'll have to go and chase them up.

It is worth taking a look at Dell Outlet and comparing, but sometimes the Outlet is more expensive than new (????). My purchase was from the outlet so you may have better luck with a non outlet purchase - it doesn't include VAT making it more difficult to compare and do a good job of hiding the money off offers.

The Outlet do seem to have good offers on flat screen monitors if you buy them at the same time.


Despite the problems I haven't seen the price I paid bettered anywhere, and overall I'm still happy I made the purchase, ( I would have been very happy without all the problems ).

[Dreadful Scathe]

Is that all you could manage Frodo - a 15 page thesis ?

I wouldnt worry about the flash card reader - you can get a 13 in 1 flash card reader from ebuyer.co.uk for £5 including postage.

[Icey]

Wow Frodo! What a post! Thanks for the opinions and feedback on your laptop.

We ordered it last night as per my description below (DELL) and the final price came to £650 ish including Windows and AV software. It's going to take a week or so to arrive and our family friend who is going to set it all up for me reckons it was a fair price for what's there.

The budget was the biggest limiting factor of the whole exercise so I had to balance the build vs the price.

Huge thanks to you all for your replies - I have actually learnt some interesting stuff about what's what on these things now.

I'm sure I'll be coming back to you shortly with other queries as I have a "Information Systems" module on my accountancy course starting this weekend

Thank you again x

[frodo]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

Is that all you could manage Frodo - a 15 page thesis ?

I wouldnt worry about the flash card reader - you can get a 13 in 1 flash card reader from ebuyer.co.uk for £5 including postage.

Half a page on my screen

[Icey]

Well, here I am with my lovey new and very shiny laptop. All I can say is that it is beyoooutiful!

I am at home and I'm on the internet, will wonders ever cease?

Thank you to you all for your help, it's very much appreciated.