Finally decided I'm buying a dell computer

[KatyMac]

It's this one
Components
Intel® Core? 2 Duo Processor T5270 (1.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache)
Genuine Windows® XP Professional - English
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day Included - No Upgrade Selected
17.0" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display
Matte Jet Black without Camera
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)
Services & Software
Declined CompleteCare
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English
Accessories
Microsoft® Office 2007 Basic - English
No Carry Case
No Bluetooth Upgrade
Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card - Europe
Also Includes
N0317004
Vostro Laptop Order - UK
English Documentation with English/Irish Power Cord
Resource CD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers
90W AC Adapter
56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter - UK
Internal Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day
Dell Internet Order.
Free Memory upgrade from 1024GB to 2048GB 667MHZ

Fingers crossed it's the right one

Not fair NighbyNight, for the money KatyMac wants to spend her first choice was fine with the smaller battery and increased memory - no KatyMac using external storage will not alleviate the need for the increased memory. Also you have a reasonable chance of being able to upgrade to Vista in the future and it actually running with the additional memory
I'd never buy an Acer and the kit you talk about NbN is likely to be out of KatyMacs price range. She needs to focus on what she can afford now and recognise at this price she will need a new laptop in 3 years. Dell are fine unless you are developing software and work for Microsoft ;-)

K20, I've not actually recommended any product, because the last time I did a comparison of the products/prices was more than 12 months ago when I bought my Samsung.
The people who are reporting problems to me arent software developers - they are dedicated testers and ordinary users who just happen to have dells.
Last week I had to tell a manager to upgrade his 12 month old BIOS to make one of his standard onboard hardware components work properly. Have heard nothing back, so assume he was not too impressed. And I sent him the link to the dell website and all.

I realise it's slightly unfair to slate dells without suggesting an alternative, but cannot let another poor innocent walk into buying one without pre-knowledge...

Problem with Acer is that they now insist on doing their own servicing rather than allowing the supplier to do it - I have an Acer at the school I work at that is currently on it's fifth trip to their place at Plymouth since the end of January.

Just before Christmas it failed to boot, so I rang Acer & they told me to do a restore from the disks, which I did. After the Christmas holiday, it happened again, but this time I couldn't even get into it to boot from CD, so it went back - Trip 1

Four days after its return, same thing happened - Trip 2

Came back pretty quickly - but with XP Home on instead of Professional, which is no good because we can't put it on the domain - Trip 3

Came back again, right OS, but froze with warning - 'some system files are missing' -
This time they wanted to charge us £38 because the problem was 'software related' until I pointed out that as they'd just completely reinstalled everything from scratch, it must have been them that caused the software problem - Trip 4

Came back again - with XP Home on again - Trip 5

To be fair to Acer, they do make it very easy to send back, they just give you a number and you ring DHL, but it doesn't really need DHL anymore, it should be able to find its own way there by now...

I'm running a much upgraded Dell P3 as my main PC that is 5+ years old. Nowt wrong with Dells

I'm dreaming of an XPS

Power cable (currently - but it might be fixable)

Overheated & died

Fujitsu and HP tend to be business purchases or people with bigger budgets that KatyMacs.

Dells are aimed at the home market and are far better than Avent or Packard Bell IMHO

my DH works within electrical components, and he said Dells are the worst brand to buy as they source all their parts independantly, so the only way you can fix a problem is through them, you cant add bits properly without dell's help etc.....most other brands are better as you can use almost any matching parts, doesn't have to be a certain brand or anything. he gets lost of customers with broken dells or ones they want to add to, but it costs them 10x more to send back to dell than to have it done with my DH!!

We've had 23 Acers at school over the last four years or so - they were the ones provided by the laptops for Teachers scheme by our LA. IME they are either totally reliable with nothing ever going wrong or totally cr*p with continual problems. Both the places we get most of our laptops from are now beginning to recommend Toshibas instead - from what I've seen so far they semm pretty good.

I guess you get what you pay for, really. Fuj S do a cheaper range, which is what I will be looking at next time I buy a home laptop. Not so many features, but a reliable platform that does what it says it will.

Agree that Toshibas are good, but dont know what they offer at the lower end of the range.

Interesting thread. My Dell has been very easily upgraded by myself over the years. Components are components, although memory has to be compatible to existing memory and the motherboard, any additional Ethernet port, usb port, sound card, mouse, keyboard USB device or driver will be compatible, this Dell I use has been almost rebuild in the last 5 years and is my workhorse.

NbN I was going to suggest you get that message removed.

Hey LL - feeling better? Lots of wine imbibed?

oh dear LL - too much wine? I, luckily, am immune to the after effects of alcohol..

Not sure I understand Blogs tbh