Computer Related > Need a new laptop, specs: Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Hard Cheese Replies: 26

 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

Quite compact, ideally around 13-14" screen, 15.5-15.6" max.

Win 7 Pro 64 bit.

e-Sata port.

Bluetooth.

Intel - Core2Duo would be fine though probably i3 or i5.


Any recommendations?



 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
And your price range is?..

Wouldn't consider core2duo, i3 or i5 is too good to ignore.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

£600 ish, prefer less:

Seen this:

www.ebuyer.com/product/254086

And this:

www.ebuyer.com/product/253085

Any thoughts?
 Need a new laptop, specs: - sherlock47
Cheaper here www.laptopsdirect.co.uk
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

>> Cheaper here www.laptopsdirect.co.uk
>>

Thanks, yes used them before though eBuyer are good for their comprehensive specs listings.

 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
>>
>> £600 ish, prefer less:
>>
>> Seen this:
>>
>> www.ebuyer.com/product/254086

Yup, thats good, would budget for another 2gb of memory tho.

>> And this:
>>
>> www.ebuyer.com/product/253085
>>

No, avoid Sony like the plague, they have far to many problems for my liking, strange drivers and driver issues, far to much bloatware installed, and suprisingly poor support.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

>> >>
>> >> www.ebuyer.com/product/254086
>>
>> Yup, thats good, would budget for another 2gb of memory tho.
>>

This is the same but for a 500GB hard drive and 4GB memory ...

www.ebuyer.com/product/254091

... and is £130 + more, I dont need the hard drive size so might be better to buy additional memory.

 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
Yeah i figure, its not going to be used as a data server is it, but its going to have a lot of stuff loaded in memory and just hibernated.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

>> Yeah i figure, its not going to be used as a data server is it,
>> but its going to have a lot of stuff loaded in memory and just hibernated.
>>

I tend to shut down unless it is for only a few mins though that sums it up.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - AshT
Bit more money, but worth it for a Thinkpad - i5 too: -

tinyurl.com/6xb6hjv
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Victorbox
The latest generation Intel processors (choose from i3 to 17) in the new 14" Sony Vaio C Series seem to be getting good reviews: www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/365419/sony-vaio-ca1
Last edited by: Victorbox on Sun 8 May 11 at 08:45
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Iffy
Buy a MacBook Pro and pollute it by installing Windows 7. :)

You wouldn't be the first person to do that, so I'm told.

 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

Ordered a new Dell Vostro, great specs including USB3.0 and a great deal offer today.

 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
A new Dell? best of luck.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

Sorry I meant to say "a great offer ending today".

No real concern over Dell, have had them before, in fact I err towards Dell workstations.

Last edited by: Cheddar on Sun 8 May 11 at 23:41
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
From extensive personal professional experience, I wouldn't go near a dell laptop.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

>> I wouldn't go near >>

Don't worry, I am not inviting you over ...

 Need a new laptop, specs: - smokie
I used to get Dell laptop with work which was fine, but I understand since their production has moved to Eastern Europe the quality is lower.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
I used to manage a contract where we had thousands of dell laptops. In the end we only had to quote a serial number to get a new one under an extended* warranty, probably swopped out a third of them in three years.,


*a "you fix this crap for three years or your name is mud in the commercial world" warranty.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 9 May 11 at 08:53
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Iffy
I think our IT lot were disappointed with the number of Dell desktops which had to be changed after they bought a batch a couple of years ago.

On t'other hand, we will never know how many failures there would have been had we bought another brand.

 Need a new laptop, specs: - sooty123
We've got all dell desktops, I can't remember one having to be taken away to be repaired let alone replaced. Nearly all are a few years old now, none new reliability of them is pretty impressive.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Hard Cheese

The Which laptop reliability index:

Apple 86%
Toshiba 86%
Acer 85%
Compaq 85%
Samsung 85%
Sony 85%
Dell 83%
HP 83%

Miniimal difference between them all, the results could turn around completely on another sample.


 Need a new laptop, specs: - spamcan61
The Dell laptop I'm typing this on (Inspiron 6000) is coming up for 6 years old, the surface finish is getting a bit worn, but the only HW failure was the display backlight PSU going pop (literally) a few weeks back, fixed for a tenner in 15 minutes. It's had a fairly hard life for a domestic PC as well, including several months lugging it around in a backpack on Stockholm's public transport system last year. My daughters both have 1545s which seem OK after a couple of years, apart from crap battery life.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
So no-one had a Lenovo/IBM?

Great survey, seriously that's a stupid survey they don't have access to the big numbers and hard users. Which is a very flawed publication these days, it only has access to which subscribers and there are fewer of them every year.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - spamcan61
>> So no-one had a Lenovo/IBM?
>>
Presumably that's a domestic user survey, where Lenovo have little market presence. The IBM/Lenovo T42/T43 stinkpads we had at work where hopeless junk, virtually every machine need CPU fan replacement within a year, and these were getting light usage by business standards. After 3 years of light business usage the only original part of my T43 was the HDD.

I agree that desktops are easy and laptop design sorts out the men from the boys, but at the domestic end of the market all manufacturers seem to have good designs and bad designs.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
>> >> So no-one had a Lenovo/IBM?
>> >>
>> Presumably that's a domestic user survey, where Lenovo have little market presence. The IBM/Lenovo T42/T43
>> stinkpads we had at work where hopeless junk,

Yes sadly a huge backwards leap from the t40, which was an awesomely well built piece of kit.
 Need a new laptop, specs: - Zero
No-one is questioning the reliability of Dell desktops. Different beast completely. Given that a desktop is made from common components shared with all makers, using common designs and standards, universal reliability is almost a given.

A laptop is a different beast, nearly all of them unique* in design, and a laptop suffers much harder use than a desktop. The lid constantly being opened and closed causing the case, and hence components to flex**, being manhandled into bags, thrown into car boots. And its hot. Boy does it get hot inside a laptop.

Yes heat***, a nasty thing. All makers have different ways to try and dissipate the considerable amount of heat inside there. (think 60-100 watt lightbulb in a box less than an inch thick) It plays havoc with components. Some do it well (IBM/Lenovo & Apple) some badly (HP & Dell) although all can slip up.

*AT the lower end ALL laptops are made in the same far east factory(s), often just badge engineered, but higher up the scale and the production lines are very different, some separated with high security from others.

** Flex, single biggest killer of laptops. Dell are REALLY bad at not engineering that out.

*** Heat. The newer i3/i5 chipsets are very thermally efficient. Low heat output should make for much better reliability.


The rambling point here is that a laptop is not a desktop. Cant compare them.
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