What Laptop to Buy?

[WR450_geezer]

Hi All,

Im looking for a laptop for around £400-500

Found These 3,


ACER - £450
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66Ghz 667 FSB 2MB L2 Cache
RAM: 1024MB DDR2-533MHz
Hard Drive: 160GB
Screen: 15.4" TFT CrystalBrite (1200x800)
Optical Drive: DVD±RW Super Multi
Graphics: Integrated Graphics supporting 128MB
Wireless LAN: 802.11a/b/g
Weight: 2.9Kg
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
Fast Ethernet 10/100

TOSHIBA £450
Intel Pentium Processor T2080
1.73GHz, 533MHz, 1MB Cache
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
2GB Memory
120GB Hard Drive
DVD Rewriter MultiDrive
15.4" Widescreen Display
Intel GMA 900 Graphic Card
Wireless Enabled
2.65Kg Weight

SONY £500
Sony Vaio VGN-N38E/W / Dual Core T2130 1.86GHz / 1GB / 120GB / 15.4" / DVD-SM / Vista Home Premium / Laptop

How important is it to have 2gb of ram, I will be sing Vista. What are your views of various makes? Im going to be using it for uni.

Any help will be much appreciated

WR[/b]
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Siggi, ''Fack, having Daz around is like living next door to PC-World, with a hole in the wall.''

[Seb]

1gb of ram is fine for light day to day use, my Sony SZ never leaves me wanting more, granted, it gets used for net, torrents, msn and email with a litte video on the side, thats it. If you want to push it harder, go for 2gb. Don't even consider a vista machine with 512mb of ram, even basic is an exercise in frustration with less than a gig to play with.

One thing I'd add, pay attention to the physical quality of the laptop chassis, whilst my carbon fibre SZ might seem horrifically expensive on paper if you only consider specs, even after a years heavy use it still only takes a wipe with a cloth to have it shining like new. Pop down to your local PCWorld and have a good browse round, if you can do so without setting off alarms, lift any laptop your interested in to judge how solid the casing is.

As for brands...

Acer = Unbeatable value, Nicely designed but hit and miss reliability, soso build quality and horrible flakey finish, the bigger widescreen models can be a little creaky to boot.

Toshiba = Good safe bet, good value, well designed and made. Well thought out and trim software bundle, Keyboards can be brittle though, as long as you don't let anyone pick at the keys, you really can't go wrong with a Toshi imho.

Sony = Soso value, good design and construction, excellent finish but packed with annoying and unnecessary software that you'll likely never use, the N series machines are rather chunky, not so great if you want to use it on the go but absolutely fine for around the house.

I'd also strongly recommend looking at offerings from HP, Dell and Lenovo depending on your requirements, on the flipside avoid Packard Bell (Improved immensely over the last few years, but Acer still tend to be the better bet if you want cheap) or Advent/E-I System (Extreme hit and miss as they simply rebadge other laptops, they've sold a few real gems but they've also sold a mountain of absolute garbage).

Out of the 3 you've suggested, I'd go for the Toshiba, although if its likely to be fiddled with by kids, I'd lean towards to the Sony. But if you simply want the fastest cheap laptop you can get your hands on, its Acer everytime. Just be sure to look after it!
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[WR450_geezer]

Hi,

Its going to be used every day for a 1-2 years. 30GB is going to be used on day one with the iPod, other than that its going to be a lot of internet use and MS Word.

WR
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Siggi, ''Fack, having Daz around is like living next door to PC-World, with a hole in the wall.''

[Seb]

Going to lug it around a lot? If so, the Toshiba wins out there.

If your going to rip video for your ipod, the Acer's core 2 duo cpu will give it a definate edge here.

Otherwise, if its going to live on the front room coffee table, nothing beats a Sony.

Have you considered a MacBook? If your fairly sure you'll be sticking to Word/Internet/Ipod then it'd be a good choice. Being able to surf porn/warez sites with near impunity is invaluable for some.
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST

[WR450_geezer]

Hi Im leaning towards the Acer, at £450 its reduce from £600.

Macs are too expensive really for what I need. Going to be lugged around maybe 3 times a week to the library and took hoe on the train once every 2months.

Shall I get the Acer?

wr
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Siggi, ''Fack, having Daz around is like living next door to PC-World, with a hole in the wall.''

[Seb]

If your more worried about how fast it is, get the Acer but I would recommend picking one up and feeling how sturdy (Or flexible) the casing is first.

For more mobile use I'd be leaning towards the Toshi though, the performance gap between them is minimal in most situations (Although the Acer would pull ahead when ripping video) but the Toshi is far less likely to look like shit in a years time. The weight difference is worth keeping in mind too. Just remember not to pick at the keys and it shouldn't let you down
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2010 Triumph 1050 Sprint ST