Any techie people here tonight? Laptop advice needed please!

[JanH]

(Long preamble, sorry)

We bought DD2 a Dell laptop early on in her first year at uni - it seems to be a requirement now, pity they don't seem to feel that in that case the uni should either provide them or supply suitable subsidised ones for purchase - anyway the Dell one was OK, it cost about £350 and had wireless internet capability so she's been able to use it in her student house this second year.

However - it's been nicked . She hadn't got around to organising student insurance yet (those are my genes ) and it's not worth claiming on ours.

The Dell one wasn't that good however - she has been using an ancient HP one DH had from work, he warned her that it was terribly slow and she said it was no slower than the Dell! But it doesn't have wireless.

Please can someone suggest a good wireless-capable laptop for around £300-350? DH has an aversion to IBM but I'd like to know if he's right or not.

TIA

Hi JanH

My hubby is a geek so I'm sitting opposite him asking his opinion while we work on our work laptops - mine is a Dell, his is an IBM but we also have a MAC

For that kind of money he reckons a Fujitsu or a Dell (although i know you said her Dell wasn't that great). For that kind of money it's hard to beat the Dell's to be honest. Most laptops come with inbuilt wireless these days. You'll struggle to find one that doesn't have it built in.

Sorry I can't be more help than that...good luck

Oh thank you, ct

Well her Dell was the cheapest bog-standard one. I've done a bit of googling and did find some Fujitsus which seemed OK, we just didn't know anything about them.

The Dell worked fine, it was just very slow. Could he recommend a spec? And/or a supplier of Fujitsus?

And are IBM ones OK? (I assume they are since he has one!) I found a few websites offering cheapish ones, some of them reconditioned, which would be fine for us if they are good machines.

This is available for £360-370, is this a good one?

Acer have just started outselling Dell on laptops. Give them a go. Dell's cheap laptops tend to be kinda lightweight.
Buy Centrino not celeron, and go for XP not Vista.

IMHO IBM thinkpads are phenomenal but way too pricey. A second hand decent one will cost as much as a new Dell.

Being Brutally honest, a deal from PC World, or Dixons/Curry's is as good as any for a student.

That link you gave aint too bad. Should be more than adequate...

He doesn't reckon you can go wrong with an IBM. They are more pricey but rock solid. He reckons a reconditioned IBM would be fine. An old IT saying (according to my lovely DH) is 'No-one got fired for buying an IBM'

The IBM T40 series are good - no idea if they fit into your price range though.

The link you sent through looks pretty good to him. He reckons you'll get a cheaper price if you buy your laptop online rather than going through a shop.

Steer clear of any real home brand ones but if you are looking at IBM, Dell, Fujitsu then you should be fine.

Acer for £350 , any good, mistymoo?

I agree, I have a very old IBM thinkpad that I got secondhand and it is rock solid, not the newest but have had no problems with it.

Plus, they are generally consider not to be "cool" so there may be less chance of getting nicked.

Maybe.

Refurbished T40 for £325?

Thanks for help and advice, all

That acer is pants.
Low memory, Celeron processor.
The first link you provided was far better.
IBM aint that great either P4M.
Buy the first one in the link out of those 3.

As a rule XP needs 512Mb to run decently (it will run with less, but then you need firewall, anti virus etc etc). 40Gb Hard drive is a reasonable size. Network card possibly overkill if your getting wirless and dial up modem obsolete. £400 or so will get exactly what you're after but it will have no software on it (like MS OFfice)

Oh, she needs Word, does the Fujitsu come with that or would we have to add it?

(I am so ignorant about computers, my eyes glaze over )

Another refurbished T40, £350

Someone tell me what to get, pleeeeeese!

Thats not a bad machine...
Word will have to be added.
BUT you MIGHT get MS Works cheap on ebay.
It has a cut down version of word. An average spreadsheet and database (thats not properly compatible with Access or Excel)

If you had your old word cd you could use it again. Assuminng it wasnt OEM software of course. And assuming MS will let you re-activate it - they can be a funny bunch...

Between the new Fujitsu and the second refurbished T40, which would perform best, mistymoo?

(I think we have a Word disc somewhere so that's not a problem)(what does OEM mean?)

I'd not go for the IBM on this occasion. Less memory However the other one has a weird max resolution and it doesnt mention Hard drive size....

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer.
Eg you buy a computer with software on it and the software is tied to the machine. Your laptop dies - so does the software - you cant reinstall on another machine. Even if your own laptop is stolen. And it gets even worse with vista....

Ah, OK, thanks, we have a sort of copied version from someone DH works with so I think that'll be OK.

I have just discovered that the Fujitsu spec showing Centrino was misleading, when I go into any of the specific deals they are all Celeron. So at the price, does that swing it for the T40?

(How much does memory matter? She's mostly only going to be using it for research and email and writing essays.)

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Memory is second most important thing.
BUT one of the easiest to add too £20 or £30 second hand on ebay for another 512Mb. Processor is most important but hardest to replace...
Based on that I'd say it's very difficult to choose. IBM = quality but minimal warranty (not that they go wrong generally). Fujitsu = less so but good memory and better warranty.

Sometimes it just comes down to which one you like the look of better too. On this occasion, if it were me I'd go the fujitsu route. Bigger screen, more memory. But it's very close. Both machines have important spec info missing

DO NOT BUY ONE WITH VISTA

Vista? Vista? What? I told you I am ignorant! XP is fine for DD2 (and for us) so does that matter? She is desperate for internet access in student house so we have to get something soooon!

Vista is the new XP.
You can upgrade to it, but I wouldn't.
It offers nothing that would benefit.
It's already got holes in it.
And you need a supercomputer to get all the nice bits to work. Definately not one for the laptops yet.

There are "vista ready" laptops. But they really aren't up to much. Give it a year or so and Vista will run better on a standard laptop as the spec of machine will have improved so much. Almost any moden laptop can run XP, the same cant be said for Vista.

mistymoo, we can add 12 months warranty to the first, cheaper, IBM for £30 - I think we will go for that one, with the Fujitsu being Celeron after all.

(There's a carry-case thrown in too - mind you she still has her original case, it was just the laptop that was nicked, from her room while she was sleeping aaaargh - being thankful for small mercies here!)

That's worth it. A new screen would cost £300 to get fixed.

Still think the Fujitsu is a better machine. May appreciate bigger screen if watching DVDs etc.