stereotypical advice thread

[Gary88]

i'm going to buy a laptop for Uni in the next few days and i'm not exactly well versed in these matters. the shady pikey ****er in the shop will try and sell me all sorts of **** no doubt and i dont want to get shafted.

its just for school work and internet use and my music this really isn't for new games that are hardware demanding but i want to know

are there any things i should avoid like a house on fire, that if i see it on the specs list i know not to buy it?

things i should really look out for and aim to get?

is a dual core a good bet, you can get them quite cheap but that just worries me that they saved money elsewhere

also what in the name of sweet jesus is the difference between Vista basic and premium?

dont worry about the price i'll do the best i can with any advice

[Dick]

If it's just for browsing the net and school work then you can get a pretty cheap one.

First off, you will probaly be forced into getting Vista. You may as well get the premium version, it has a few extra features like Windows media center that may be useful with your music. It's basically an upgrade of Vista basic, which lacks some stuff like the Aero interface and DVD making capability.

With Vista you want a minimum of 1GB of RAM. Most will recommend 2GB's, but it will run with 1GB.

With regards to dual core you may as well get one. You'll probably be able to pick up a pentium D or AMD turion for cheapish.

You won't get a graphics card on a cheap laptop, so any 3D gaming is pretty much out of the window.

[Freddie]

i'm going to buy a laptop for Uni in the next few days and i'm not exactly well versed in these matters. the shady pikey ****er in the shop will try and sell me all sorts of **** no doubt and i dont want to get shafted.

its just for school work and internet use and my music this really isn't for new games that are hardware demanding but i want to know

are there any things i should avoid like a house on fire, that if i see it on the specs list i know not to buy it?

things i should really look out for and aim to get?

is a dual core a good bet, you can get them quite cheap but that just worries me that they saved money elsewhere

also what in the name of sweet jesus is the difference between Vista basic and premium?

dont worry about the price i'll do the best i can with any advice

If your just going to use for school work and not gaming (which is how it should be) you could do a lot worse then buying from Dell. The last laptop I had was for university and cost £1200 odd these days you can around the £400 mark and get a decent machine and thats in the space 6 years. God bless cheap chinese labour.

I've checked out the Dell site and the Inspiron 6400 is £399 inc VAt & Shipping and for that you get a decent system with 15" screen which to seems amazing.

If you go with Vista, you might as well go with Premium and get the media centre functions, and make sure your laptop has at least 2Gb of Ram (even if it runs XP) for smooth preformance. How much do you want to spend?

[Gary88]

£500 is the limit, obviously i can stretch to like 525 or whatever but not much more

[Freddie]

£500 is the limit, obviously i can stretch to like 525 or whatever but not much more

Have you considered your back up solutions? Most laptops these days come with a DVD-RW but if you like me DVD’s get lost or scratched, an external hard drive is great way of backing up all of your documents and they don’t have spend a lot of money on one either.

[Lord Condormanius]

Just my opinion, but I would stay away from Dell. Nearly everyone I know has had problems with them. Besides that, a lot of their components are not universal, RAM in particular. Their customer service stinks, but then who's doesn't?

But of course, I am a nerd and prefer to build my own computers.

[Gary88]

Have you considered your back up solutions? Most laptops these days come with a DVD-RW but if you like me DVD’s get lost or scratched, an external hard drive is great way of backing up all of your documents and they don’t have spend a lot of money on one either.

not really its not something i've thought about

[LoZz]

avoid pc world like the plague.

ok if your not gaming, just music and college work then i recomend.


1gb ram
you wont need dual core if your not going to go beyond ms office or Itunes.
you can get a **** gfx card too if its just for the net etc. i would recomend it supports films though just so you can watch films on it.
network card is a must
get a dvd and cd drive and rewriter
usb ports
dont get vista, you wont need it, stick with XP and save your money


http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=661355 < that one is ideal for you, just over 400 pounds. it has all the things i said like a DVD Rewriter, gb of ram, etc. and you get vista, also has bluetooth + 120gb hard drive!!! and a integrated camera so you can cyber 14 year old girls away from home.

[Freddie]

This would suit your needs, it doesn't come with a operating system so you will either have to supply your own or buy the optional pre installed package.

[Gary88]

ok so i went to look at laptops with the intention of getting one in a few days once a cheque had cleared. however i saw one i liked and my mum lent me the money so i'm on the new one as i speak, i'm pretty happy about it. I got vista, none that i liked came with xp and i got premium because there was basically no price difference. i ended up with

vista premium
core 2 duo
2gb RAM
160 hard drive
17" screen (sweet)
cost me £499 which was right on the limit but i had the money and its a worthwhile purchase also the ones that were cheaper (£300-400) had various issues, like not being wireless ready etc, a couple came with ATI Radeon X200 cards but its not for gaming and if i went for it i lost out on the 17" screen the 2GB RAM and it had less hard drive, i think i did ok.

cheers to everyone who gave advice.

[spartan_phalanx]

Glad you found what your looking for. My wife has a 17" as well and I'll note that 17" screen is nice to look at but will use more juice (battery) and adds a fair bit to the weight. Three hours is about max while watching a movie.

[Gary88]

i always use it plugged in so its not really an issue

however, its already started to **** up. i was using it wirelessly online, then i instaled flash player 8 and restarted the computer...when it came back on it wouldn't connect...its telling me it has no wireless adapter. WTF!!! argh ****ing things