New laptop? (1 Viewer)

zaskar

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Ooooops, mine has baled out at last, after quite a few weeks of messing about with fuzzy screens, blue screens and sudden shutdowns!
So, I need a new Laptop cos ours is fairly old (by computor standards!) and probably not worth repairing.
We had a Toshiba Satellite L30-101 and would like something similar.
Don't need anything big enough to run the country, just MOBILE internet/e-mail access via dongle (Vodafone) or WiFi, play DVD's and download my camera onto discs. Not into games or anything.
Was just gonna take the Toshiba back to PCWorld where we bought it and ask them to recomend a current alternative?

Any advise/recomendations from you guys would be much appreciated by a self confessed Luddite!:winky:
 

jhorsf

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Ooooops, mine has baled out at last, after quite a few weeks of messing about with fuzzy screens, blue screens and sudden shutdowns!
So, I need a new Laptop cos ours is fairly old (by computor standards!) and probably not worth repairing.
We had a Toshiba Satellite L30-101 and would like something similar.
Don't need anything big enough to run the country, just MOBILE internet/e-mail access via dongle (Vodafone) or WiFi, play DVD's and download my camera onto discs. Not into games or anything.
Was just gonna take the Toshiba back to PCWorld where we bought it and ask them to recomend a current alternative?

Any advise/recomendations from you guys would be much appreciated by a self confessed Luddite!:winky:






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try here for good bargains on laptops cheaper than pc world on some things:thumb:

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current bargains
 
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Henryhymer

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Wanted a small netbook recently for travelling and keeping in touch. Got an Acer Aspire - it's great. Went to PC world and the boys there tried to flog me all sorts of rubbish and gave inaccurate info. When I decided on which machine I wanted they tried to get me to pay for it in full and then they would order it in for me! No Way! Best advice I got was from visit to John Lewis store. They carry a limited no of makes but tend to be good models and staff knowledgeable. They were also cheaper than PCworld and offered 2 year warranty for free.
Found websites such as Stuff Tv to be useful.

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zaskar

zaskar

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Got an Acer Aspire - it's great. .

Funny you should say that! One of the lads in the office has just recomended that. Got his from LaptopsDirect. Recons it's a great piece of kit and the people were good to deal with.
 

DESCO

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Have also found John Lewis to be good and the staff seem to know their stuff.

But as said they don't have a very large range.


Dave:thumb::thumb:
 
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sinbad1

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read this before you decide, help you get a better hot deal. Although I would suggest one that has the upgrade to windows 7, loads to choose from ( i wouldn't personally by a dell) pc world are ok but overpriced IMO.

Regards

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johnsandywhite

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:Cool: Hi zaskar. When my Dell screen stopped working while in Spain (fed up of connection 15 inch LCD) I bought a HP Compaq 6715s from Denmark via ebay at a great price. However. Sandy was wanting to get into Laptops for her squillions of photos and our daughter in law had just got an Aspire One and Sandy liked it. So I got her a ZG5 with 160GB hard drive and 1GB of memory. Apart from having no CD/DVD drive it is the dogs doodahs. She is hooked. Looks like all the knitting parafanalia will be out the window. The Acer will take up MUCH less room. :ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
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zaskar

zaskar

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Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated.:thumb:
I must admit that I dont really like buying computer/techy stuff cos I know begger all about it so I tend to get confused and ratty!:Blush:

Thankfully, one of the lads at work has an Acer Aspire 5536 which comes out at £350 from laptops direct. Recons its brilliant. When I showed the spec' to our computer geek department at work, they recon the spec' is just about as good as it gets for the money so I think a phone call is in order.::bigsmile:

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scotjimland

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Hi

there are so many to choose from these days, but for me it's more importantly where you buy it from.

I agree about J. Lewis, very knowledgeable staff with good prices and if something does go wrong you can take it back and know you will be talking to someone who actually cares and will get it fixed without a drama, that to me is more important than what make or if I've saved a few bucks buying from the net..

I personally wouldn't be interested in Windoze 7, far to early, it will be at least a year before it has all the bugs ironed out.. Vista is pretty good now.

Look for a large hard drive to store all your pictures, at least 2gb memory and as fast a processor as you can afford.. and if you haven't already got one, a decent external drive for back ups..

Besides my 17" Power Book Mac we have a Dell Inspiron and a Sony .. guess which one broke down ?

Not the Dell.. the Sony had to go back for a new hard drive at 6 months old .. and the Mac.. never misses a beat.. but then again, it cost almost 2k four years ago..

Good luck..

Jim
 

Jim

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In my opinion buy a Dell, I have had a few, they are great build quality and just go on and on. You can choose the EXACT spec you want and it will be delivered in a few days.

As for Windows 7 it should be OK. Microsoft have had millions of people pay them to beta test it. I think the beta was called "Vista" not sure, I'm not one of those testers:roflmto:
 

GJH

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Ooooops, mine has baled out at last, after quite a few weeks of messing about with fuzzy screens, blue screens and sudden shutdowns!
So, I need a new Laptop cos ours is fairly old (by computor standards!) and probably not worth repairing.
We had a Toshiba Satellite L30-101 and would like something similar.
Don't need anything big enough to run the country, just MOBILE internet/e-mail access via dongle (Vodafone) or WiFi, play DVD's and download my camera onto discs. Not into games or anything.
Was just gonna take the Toshiba back to PCWorld where we bought it and ask them to recomend a current alternative?

Any advise/recomendations from you guys would be much appreciated by a self confessed Luddite!:winky:

The last few times we've been looking for a new machine (laptop & desktop) we've looked at PC World, Currys (same chain but sometimes different deals), Comet and Staples. Luckily we have them all in close proximity to each other at Teesside Park.

Like you we don't need the latest spec so jot down the main bits like screen, memory and disk size before we go. For laptops battery life is also important to us so we don't have to charge so often.

We've always managed to find something suitable, often enough in the end of line type deals. Last few laptops have been Acer and had no problems.

Graham

P.S. Tesco seem to have a few deals on the go for laptops as well at the moment.

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GJH

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(snip)
As for Windows 7 it should be OK. Microsoft have had millions of people pay them to beta test it. I think the beta was called "Vista" not sure, I'm not one of those testers:roflmto:

I hate that term "beta test". It ain't a test it's a field trial. In order to test anything properly the inputs have to be known and that's impossible in that sort of trial.

Rant over, feel better now :roflmto:

Graham
 

Munchie

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We just got a Samsung net book. Brilliant runs XP, 1gb ram and 160gb hard drive and the clincher for me 9 hours battrey life. (I've tried it and got 9 1/2 amd still running) :thumb:
 
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I went to PC world, Comet and Dixons found what I liked and got it cheaper on the net . It was a Hewlett Packard direct from the manufacturer. Its very gud anb spolls will tou !
Its now 2 years old and still excellent.
I would go for a min of 2gb ,preferably 3 to 4gb ram, and a good size hard drive around 160gb, if you contact home or others when travelling a web cam is handy for Skype.

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david price

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Granddaughter just broke ours so on my daughters laptop at the minute.Looking to get an hp but away to portugal next week so it will have to wait.
Dave
 

GJH

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We just got a Samsung net book. Brilliant runs XP, 1gb ram and 160gb hard drive and the clincher for me 9 hours battrey life. (I've tried it and got 9 1/2 amd still running) :thumb:

"£$%%&^%(-ger. I've got a similar spec Acer one and the battery life is nowhere near as good. Wish I'd seen that one Ken :Smile:

Graham

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Munchie

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"£$%%&^%(-ger. I've got a similar spec Acer one and the battery life is nowhere near as good. Wish I'd seen that one Ken :Smile:

Graham


Recommended in Computer Active Graham. There are three versions only difference being the battery life. You pay more for the longer battery life but I felt it was worth it and the 160gb hard drive is great (partitioned into two 80's) Must admit I would rather 2gb RAM but the 1gb is ok running XP. :Smile:

It will take 2gb RAM though. :thumb:
 

GJH

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Recommended in Computer Active Graham. There are three versions only difference being the battery life. You pay more for the longer battery life but I felt it was worth it and the 160gb hard drive is great (partitioned into two 80's) Must admit I would rather 2gb RAM but the 1gb is ok running XP. :Smile:

It will take 2gb RAM though. :thumb:

Thanks Ken. Long time since I read Computer Active :Smile: I'll have to have a look see if I can find a longer life battery for the Acer.

Graham
 

acdcdave

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Guys,

I think it's all been said but one good trick, if you are going to the USA anyway, is to buy one across the water. The dollar is a reasonable price again so bargains are to be had. We have three family laptops bought over there and tend to go with Toshiba or Dell both of which have good build quality which is important for fragile laptops. Not only are machines cheaper over there, but for a given model you get a much better spec than the same model over in Europe. Same principle applies for most electronics such as MP3 players etc. Also the newest models tend to appear first over in the States.

Back home Ebuyer and Amazon are good online as are John Lewis online or instore. Just updated one of their old 'own brand' Vulcans for the sister in law which is a superb piece of kit and perfect for a novice user - XP of course!

Good luck, ACDCDAVE.

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Andy 01424

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Hi all first post of many so apologies for a lot of ear bending for info,anyway laptops first would like to say is if you are buying any new or recon ones,watch the memory,vista need 786mb just to run it so if you are looking for a laptop bear this in mind also make sure and ask how upgradeable the memory is,this is important as all laptops share there graphical memory with the board memory ,also look at what type of memory DDRII is pretty cheap nowadays the old der DDR is hard to come by in decent mb sizes and are not cheap,also i see a lot of people using dongles most mobiles now have built in modems you can use that instead,the best way to decide on any laptop is find the model number and look on the net ,first 2 pages of search,the rest dont bother ,when i was looking for a new laptop i was lucky i found this in the local Friday-ad Notebookcheck: Review Acer Aspire 6920G Notebook got it for £240,also a lot of PC W recon cheapy are pretty basic nasty comps:Eeek:
 

GJH

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Thanks Ken. Long time since I read Computer Active :Smile: I'll have to have a look see if I can find a longer life battery for the Acer.

Graham

I had a look round the web and settled on a 6600mAh Extended Battery from a company called Link Removed. Never dealt with them before but very happy. The battery was delivered 2 days after I placed the order (would have been next day if I'd ordered before 3:30pm). Fully charged it gives about 6 hours usage.

Used it for the first time on our trip last week. Charged before we went then charged to full again last Wednesday evening (last day with EHU). It lasted us long enough to deal with all our e-mails plus a little bit of forum use until Monday evening (we came back yesterday) and still had about 45 minutes left in it.

Graham
 

jomel

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We need a new laptop too.
I watched the gadget show with interest the other night as I want the benefits of a laptop only as small as a notebook but want more storage and faster downloads. They featured an Acer Rivo Net top. This looks really promising.
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I am waiting for it to come onto the market by the look of it :Smile:

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