I need to buy a new laptop, and am completely confused

[FairyFay]

My roughly 2 year old Dell Inspiron 1300 laptop seems to be giving up the ghost and won't charge/connect the power cable properly. I think it is the pin that's loose. From what I've been told, I think it will probably be more cost effective to buy a new one rather than getting this one fixed, but I just can't work out what spec I need.

I'll primarily be using it for internet, word processing, excel and photos. I'll need to put photoshop onto it and have at least a basic version of Office because I'd like full versions of Word and excel.

What I'm really confused about though is what speed processor do I need, how much RAM, etc? There are so many to choose from, I've spent ages looking and I am still totally confused Help, please.....

bump

mac books are amazing

my new toy!

sorry not geeky enough to help but does everything you list you'd like to do!

check the apple website

mac books are amazing

my new toy!

sorry not geeky enough to help but does everything you list you'd like to do!

check the apple website

anyone? pretty please

Thanks. I've never used an apple and I am worried that having always used a Microsoft Office pc it will be confusing?

After being a mac-hater for years I now have one and it rocks - I do, however, run Windows XP Pro on it using Parallels, but the Mac bits are still very cool. After never having one it took me around 2 hours to start hating my 'normal' laptop for being stupid! Budget though if the big thing - I don't pay for my kit so I can splash if I want to. Having said that, I do also consider the cost to me of buggering about because something doesn't work as expected.

If it did everything I wanted, I'd buy a Mac - it's what will be bought in our house when I can justify replacing the lovely kit we currently have. If you're buying new versions of your software then definitely get the Mac - you'll be ahead in features and performance over the PC people for a while and your kit will look SOOOOO much sexier (saying that pains me being a Windows/Linux boy for so much of my professional life.)

Anyhoo, that probably doesn't help.

LittleLapin - any chance you can drop me a quick note to familyt AT mac DOT com and I'll drop you a note back with a question??

Look on ebuyer at Lenovo laptops, really good rep and price. Made by IBM.

FYI - Lenovo are now their own entity and the quality of the new product is very poor compared to the IBM days... I have used IBM's for 6 years from 600 series, T30, T40 and T42..

I have since had a T60, x60s and now x61s and all I can say is the quality of the new procuct is very poor compared to the old....

Abrupt cos DD3 eeps deleting

Vista needs 2Gb+ RAM to run efficiently

You will only get XP from Dell

Dell business solutions were a much better price than home user when I brought in Jan

FairyFay.... I have Dell Inspiron 1300 too and I am on my third cable/charger! They are really not that expensive... I got mine for £30 and that is much cheaper than a new laptop!

I think it must be a fault of this make... either that or it is cos I keep tripping up over the charger....!

I am getting a mac book and going to use openworks (or similar, my DH is i/c software) so I don't need to pollute it with microsoft.

As I'm only using it for fun I am getting the entry level one. My local mac shop has training sessions for mac newbies.

Thanks hellie, i was thinking that it was the pin inside the laptop, but maybe it is the charger. Is probably worth investing £30 to find out anyway!

Fairyfay... if you google Dell Inspiron 1300 adaptor.. you will see the best deals.

If its any help I am doing a link to where I got mine.... here

Hope this helps.

Where the adaptor/charger plugs into the laptop, if you wiggle it, does your power go off and on? If it does, it is deffo the charger! Good luck!

you need to go and spend a fiver on "what laptop" magazine. honestly - laptops change and upgrade etc every 2 seconds, it is impossible for anyone to keep up with them. and they split them up and compare them by price, by functionality, by size etc - so you can work out exactly what is the right one for you.

there is no other way, IMO

good luck!

Thanks so much for all your advice, everyone. I have ordered a new charger from the site that hellie recommended, but if that doesn't work then I'll have to look at the minefield of new laptops [gulp]