PLEASE will someone who knows about laptops help me find a new one??

[CountessDracula]

OR I AM GOING TO END UP WITH NO INTERNET ACCESS SOON!

Want to spend around 5 - 600 quid

Would like

512Mb Ram
60 Gb HDD
Minimum 1.5 gb processor pref Pentium
Wireless
CD writer & pref dvd writer but reader would do for dvd
MS office (how do I find one with OEM version that is cheaper?) Really need Word, Excel Powerpoint and Access if poss. Could get student licence I guess?
Plus would like reasonable support (for which I would be prepared to pay extra.

Have seen some on ebay eg this one but not sure if I should buy from this sort of place

I need to get something this week ideally!

TIA

[hunkermunker]

Dell are good. Not sure if they do one for that price. DH has one.

[CountessDracula]

thanks have looked on their website but tbh it has too many options I just want a package!

[CountessDracula]

obv I mean 1.5 ghz processor

[MoggyMummy]

As much as I loathe them - have you tried PC World - maybe they have cheap laptops?? Other than that I think you will have to go for a second hand/refurbed one.

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

CD, dh recommends this company .

[CountessDracula]

puff that looks fab

Any particular one he would recommend?

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

CD, Dh has always bought toshibas for himself. He's a writer and therefore uses his computers heavily.

He bought the toshiba he's using currently from Morgan and also my Hewlett Packard laptop.

HTH

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Sorry, meant to say his current toshiba was bought new, but an end of line model - therefore £1000 instead of £1700. My HP was bought reconditioned for £350.

[OldieMum]

Which? magazine did a report on PCs and laptops recently. They did a survey of members and found that Dell, Mac and Evesham were rated most highly for quality of product and after-sales care. They recommended going straight to the manufacturer, rather than to a chain like PC world. We recently bought a Dell laptop for my mother (cheaper and less fancy than the specs you mention). It took only quite a short time to figure out what package to put together (via their website) and the laptop arrived quite quickly. It's a nice machine. Both DH's and my employers (major universities) supply their staff with Dell, if that's also a recommendation. I am happy with mine, and he with his.

[Taxi]

Hi Countess.
Have a look at Watford Electronics (now based in Luton actually) and my favourite computer gear suppliers, RL Supplies (these really are in Watford).
I have given up on trying to get links to work. Google for RL Supplies and Watford Electronics.

I deal with RL on a very regular basis as I fix PCs as a hobby. I have found them to be about the cheapest for everything I have ever needed. Watford Electronics are reliable people too.

Can I ask why you think you need such a large hard drive? Unless you are storing huge amounts of music and video stuff 60GB seems to be an extravagance. Even if you are storing huge amounts, bear in mind hard drives do occcasionally fail. It is better to save things to CD or DVD.
Half a gig of memory is nice to have and will certainly be quicker that 256mb but I bet you would be hard pushed to measure the difference.

If you don't already have broadband I would advise you to save on memory and HD and put the savings towards a broadband connection as that is what really matters if all you do is surf the web, a bit of email and various MS Office things.

I don't know where the best offers are on MS Office at the moment but if you CAT me I will do the homework and find out for you.

Whatever you end up with, make sure you install antivirus and antispyware software.
I recommend Avast antivirus and Microsoft Antispyware software. Both are free, easy to download and configure and very good at what they do. Microsoft may start to charge for their antispyware software soon. I think it would be worth paying for - it is brilliantly effective - but I have reservations about paying Microsoft to fix security deficiencies in their own software.

Support is always a touchy subject. I am happy to give free advice so long as you don't expect 24x7 support and a response within an hour. I have a full time job and a family that keep me busy, but I will always reply as fast as possible.

I hope that little lot helps you.
Regards
Taxi

[CountessDracula]

Thanks Taxi!

I need that spec as I need to run it as a web server as am Proj Mgr/analyst for software house - therefore I need my company's apps at home occasionally (though I do have citrix connection to my pc at work so maybe I could bin those - it is always nice to have in case I can't get on to the work network for any reason)

Also have lots of photos, large docs for work etc and want to start downloading music. I think 40 Gb will prob be ok but in past I have had sudden urgent need to restore clients' massive databases onto my machine so it would still be nice to have the option.

Re support, acutally I bet the dbas at work would help me out so maybe is not such an issue. I do have broadband already. I am changing jobs and they are taking back my laptop as I was based from home, so I now have to get my own.

[oliveoil]

Am I the only one reading this thread and going "??".

Gb HDD? WTF?

[hub2dee]

oliveoil:

We measure storage capacity of a hard drive, or of a memory chip in units of data called 'bytes' A thousand of them (give or take) is called a kilobyte, and a thousand of those (give or take) is a megabyte. A thousand of those gets you 1 Gigabyte (1 GB)

HDD is Hard Disk Drive where Countess could store pictures of her victims or lots of copies of the music in her CD collection.

CD: Don't suppose I could tempt you with a forbidden fruit ?

(Hope that link works... it looks like it might have an unhelpful cookie ref)... Apple shop, iBook.

[CountessDracula]

olive oil do you drive your car and not know what a steering wheel is too?

[hub2dee]

Popeye always drives.

[bubblerock]

I bought my Dell from the Outlet - great prices on there - here's a laptop that looks quite good (only in the shopping basket for 15minutes though)

DELL OUTLET

specs
SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
Inspiron 1150 (System Identifier. DD9LCDAT)
Inspiron 1150 2.8GHz, Pentium 4, 15.0, XGA
English - Win XP SP2 Home

----------------

System Price £469.67
Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional


Operating System: English - Win XP SP2 Home (Backup Media)
English - Win XP SP2 Home
Memory: 512MB 266Mhz DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)
Hard Disk Drive: 60GB(4200rpm)IDE Hard Drive
NoteBook Screen: Inspiron 1150 - 15.0 XGA LCD
Modem: Internal 56K Modem
Network Interface Card: Internal 10/100 Ethernet LAN on Motherboard
DVD Drive: DVD-ROM DRIVE
Software: AOL, Dellnet + Tiscali UK ISP Combo
English - Adobe Reader 6.0
Microsoft® Works® 7.0
MISC: INSPIRON 1100 UK KEYBOARD
D-Series 90W AC adapter
Abacus 65WHr, 8 CELL Battery

Would need more software added for you