Laptop advice please

[Icey]

Evening Peeps,

My parents have decided to buy me a laptop to assist my studies and I haven't the faintest idea of what I should be looking to have included as part of a package.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
ICEY x

[Robin]

Originally Posted by Icey

Evening Peeps,

My parents have decided to buy me a laptop to assist my studies and I haven't the faintest idea of what I should be looking to have included as part of a package.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
ICEY x

absolutely nothing - you can buy software at students rates - ie ms office proffesional for £99 if my memory serves . Get a canon printer - ie pixma range as you can pick up consumables dirt cheap ( am currently buying a full set of 5 cartridges for 4.95 + postage)

As for the laptop, it really depends what you want to spend and whether you'll be carting it around - you need to decide on portability vs battery vs weight etc.

Just got a new laptop myself - its a bit of a desktop replacement though - 17" widescreen !!! - *awesome* and quick

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Icey

My parents have decided to buy me a laptop to assist my studies and I haven't the faintest idea of what I should be looking to have included as part of a package.

What will you use it for and where will you use it?

As Robin says, you can get some software cheap if you're a student, though it's sometimes not much of a difference against the better bundled deals.

Be wary of bundles that throw in lots of things you don't need. Bigger bundles usually means this is the stuff they couldn't shift on its own.

Make sure to get a good make – a big name is really worth the difference.

If I were looking for a Windows Laptop, I'd probably start with Toshiba, Dell, HP and Sony.

Perhaps you could also consider an Apple laptop... The iBooks are rather nice and come with software that'll do pretty much everything you need. If you do particularly need full MS Office compatibility, there's Office for Mac 2004, which has a similar low-price student edition.

HTH

[Dreadful Scathe]

If its your first laptop you should start here as laptops start at £79. £200 will probably do you for general use with Operating System and Microsoft Office : extra software you would want to use is probably available freeware.

[DavidY]

One thing I would suggest is making sure you have something with an appropriate backup device to save your files.

Many people don't think about how much they would lose if their computer either failed to start one day or if all data on it was lost.

Having a laptop that can write CDs is one way to do it (although there are other approaches).

[frodo]

Originally Posted by Icey

Evening Peeps,

My parents have decided to buy me a laptop to assist my studies and I haven't the faintest idea of what I should be looking to have included as part of a package.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
ICEY x

For comparison it may be useful to look at the basic Dell Laptops, even though you may not go for one.

The cheapest advertised over this long weekend is £349.00 incl VAT and delivery, which gets you a basic new laptop with DVD reader and CD writer.




Things that might be important to you depending on what you're intending to do with it are:-

Screen - size / visibility.
Weight - usually from 1.5 - 3.0 kg.
Optical driver - cd reader, dvd reader, cd writer, dvd writer.
Battery life,
Software - Operating System such as Windows 95 / 98 / XP ect.
Software - Application Software - Office etc.
Keyboard quality
Robustness.
Disk space.


Your average new cheap laptop is going to weigh a little under 3 kg, have a battery life around 2 hrs, have a cd writer, and dvd reader, come with Windows XP Home, and have a screen resolution of 1024 * 768. Pretty much all vendors do one like this.



Most of these are more of a consideration if you go for a second hand laptop.

The only unconditional recommendation I have is if going for a second hand laptop you get one with Windows XP (or alreast Windows 2000). Anything less is just a whole lot of hassle, and the most modern software won't work with it.



One reason to go for a second hand laptop is if you want a more portable laptop. For example there is a Dell laptop (C400 ?) which can be had on Ebay for about £200.00 with Windows XP and comes in at not much more than half the weight of the standard ~3kg laptop. ( It doesn't have a built in CD though ).



You may find you don't need Microsoft Office depending on what you do. While the Student Teacher version of Microsoft Office can be had for around £100.00, you can only use it while you're a student. The latest Open Office, a heavyweight free office, may meet your needs.

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by frodo

... While the Student Teacher version of Microsoft Office can be had for around £100.00, you can only use it while you're a student. ...

[Icey]

Unfortunately I'm not technically a student as I work full time. I'm studying for chartered accountancy and will be using the laptop for all my work and also for home computing, internet etc etc. At the moment I use my work or my parents PC which has limitations of either time spent at the office or having to go over to my parents house several times a week which eats into my study time.

My dad bought their current PC which is a DELL and he wants to get me a DELL laptop - obviously fine by me as I'm over the moon that they want to help me out.

What I don't know about is all the stuff about RAM, Ghz, processors, Mhz etc etc. Haven't got a clue

What are the bog standard things that I should be looking at?

Thanks

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by Icey

Unfortunately I'm not technically a student as I work full time. I'm studying for chartered accountancy and will be using the laptop for all my work and also for home computing, internet etc etc. At the moment I use my work or my parents PC which has limitations of either time spent at the office or having to go over to my parents house several times a week which eats into my study time.

My dad bought their current PC which is a DELL and he wants to get me a DELL laptop - obviously fine by me as I'm over the moon that they want to help me out.

What I don't know about is all the stuff about RAM, Ghz, processors, Mhz etc etc. Haven't got a clue

What are the bog standard things that I should be looking at?

Thanks

Ignore the hobbit I wouldnt worry about XP if you are going for a 2nd hand laptop - the link I gave before will provide you with a laptop for £200 that includes windows 98 and ms office which is probably the bulk of what you need. The biggest slowdown with any PC is caused by installing lots of programs you don't need and spyware you install by accident. Tips: use firefox or opera as a web browser and dont use Outlook express for email. Then install ad-aware, AVG anti-virus and Zone Alarm.


A cpu faster than 300mhz i would say is perfectly usable for office/study use. If you can get at least 256mb of memory, all the better. If you want to play modern games, you'd find you would have to spend about £1000 for a laptop with a decent gfx card built in, in which case, get a desktop for half the price (a mini case in fact). So dont spend money just for the sake of it.

[El Salsero Gringo]

Here's my thought: I'd rather have a second-hand but well-built laptop than a new but built-down-to-a-price one. I have an ageing IBM laptop that's been going for nearly five years and is still fast enough for all general purpose tasks that I do.

So without having used the company before, I'd look closely at this page

http://www.student-laptops.co.uk/aca..._with_DVD.html

especially the IBM T21/22/23 models because I know they're built well.

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by Icey

My dad bought their current PC which is a DELL and he wants to get me a DELL laptop - obviously fine by me as I'm over the moon that they want to help me out.

Can I just say, if you're not using your Dad, can I have him please

Originally Posted by Icey

What I don't know about is all the stuff about RAM, Ghz, processors, Mhz etc etc. Haven't got a clue

Don't worry about it.

Basically, all these specs tell you is how powerful (fast) the PC is, how much memory it has etc. Think of it as the equivalent of engine size / mpg / etc for cars. These measures used to be important, but I'd imagine any new laptop you get will have enough oomph for your purposes. Same applies to the operating system; from your point-of-view it's not important.
I'm sure I'll be geek-flamed for saying that...

Originally Posted by Icey

What are the bog standard things that I should be looking at?

I'd say the main things to consider in any "package" are:
- software (e.g. Microsoft Office / accountancy / learning software)
- accessories (e.g. printers, DVD players / writers etc.)

I'd also say: shop around. PC World has some good packages, but so do a lot of other vendors online, and it's worth doing the research to save you time and money in the long term.

[ducasi]

Originally Posted by Icey

... My dad bought their current PC which is a DELL and he wants to get me a DELL laptop - obviously fine by me as I'm over the moon that they want to help me out.

What I don't know about is all the stuff about RAM, Ghz, processors, Mhz etc etc. Haven't got a clue

What are the bog standard things that I should be looking at?

Dell is a good choice.

Go on to their web site, have a look around... Make sure and check out the "Dell Outlet" area for some good bargains.

Don't worry too much about the processor or GHz, though "Intel Centrino" is a good thing to look for. Watch out for the weight and battery life. Avoid things that say "desktop replacement". You'll want wireless networking (maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day...) Don't get any less memory than 256MB – consider even 512MB.

Then go for the one you like the look of.

If you find something that you do like and want our opinions, post a URL.

[Icey]

Originally Posted by DavidJames

Can I just say, if you're not using your Dad, can I have him please

He says that he's doing this for me now so that I can earn a better salary so that I'll keep it in mind when he needs putting into a "nice" home later on

I work for a company that builds and runs retirement communities and he keeps angling for a cheap, discounted, "my daughters is staff" rate

[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

[Dreadful Scathe]

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

Seems not too bad BUT you can get better than that.

I would pop out to WH Smith and buy MircoMart for £1.90. You'll get loads of sellers you can check with for better deals. Well worth it.

[Donna]

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

Hey Icey,
You might find this address handy. Hope this helps

www.studentcomputers.co.uk

[Franck]

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?

The price seems ok, but if I were you I would look to upgrade the Hard drive to a larger capacity. It is easy to upgrade a desktop, but tougher with laptops and you will probably run out of space quickly (especially if you store music on it ).
As Ducasi mentioned, you will soon want WiFi (wireless networking) it allows you to connect without wires to any wireless network (at uni or in Starbucks) and access the internet with no fuss.

I would recommend you look at the Apple store (education pages: http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/uk_Ind.woa/ ). They offer the ibook for £656.83 (incl. VAT with free shipping) and it has the following:

Free Shipping
1.33GHz PowerPC G4 Despite lower Hz, this will be faster than the Celeron and offer better battery life.
512K L2 cache (at 1.33GHz)
512MB memory (DDR333 SDRAM)
12.1-inch TFT Display
1024x768 resolution
ATI Mobility Radeon 9550
32MB DDR video memory
40GB Ultra ATA hard drive (this can be upgraded to 60GB for £28, or 80GB for £65 - and well worth doing)
Combo Drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Built-in AirPort Extreme (This is your Wi-Fi wireless card)
Built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (allows you to connect your mobile phone wirelessly and synchronize all your contacts and diaries. It also allows you to receive / send SMS messages from your keyboard.
Scrolling Trackpad
Sudden Motion Sensor (protects the hard-drive if dropped)

Each ibook also comes with a complete suite of software that will allow you to use it immediately and without buying any other software.

Originally Posted by Apple

Do More with iLife ’05
The iBook G4 comes bundled with Apple’s award-winning iLife ’05 suite, featuring the latest versions of iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD and GarageBand. Create custom mix CDs, design a coffee-table book, make a home movie, or compose your own songs. iLife ’05 does all that and more.

Lasts Up to 6 Hours
Thanks to your iBook’s built-in energy-saving features, you’ll get up to 6 hours of battery life — perfect for long nights at the library or plane trips home.

I hope this helps!

[killingtime]

Originally Posted by Franck

The price seems ok, but if I were you I would look to upgrade the Hard drive to a larger capacity. It is easy to upgrade a desktop, but tougher with laptops and you will probably run out of space quickly (especially if you store music on it ).

Each ibook also comes with a complete suite of software that will allow you to use it immediately and without buying any other software.

Ah the Mac fans speak. Of course being a Mac fan myself I'm not going to disagree . I've got a slightly older model 12" iBook which I love. The screen can be quite small (no surprise) but it's light to carry around and if you do have a bigger monitor or a TV (though TVs tend to have poor resolutions) then you can hook it up to that while you are at home or wherever.