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Hi.
Me and my girliefriend are making our first big purchase together and going halves on a laptop. The best we've found so far is a P4 2.6 with 512 RAM, CDR/DVD, 40G HD, from a *ahem* well known retail store, for just under £1000. I'm not getting one from SR because they're quite expensive for what they are compared to other places, and Iridium sounds like a "Komputer" from Soviet Russia. But then laptops do always vary a lot and are generally expensive anyway - it's just more convenient for us to have one - like a baby with circuits inside and stuff.
Anyway, can anyone here recommend a better purchase? It has to be from a shop we can actually walk into, although internet buying isn't out of the question. And first-hand - definitely new. And under £1200. You've seen the sort of specs I'm after and you now the price...now give, give, give!
Yours in advance
Monkey_man
Me and my girliefriend are making our first big purchase together and going halves on a laptop. The best we've found so far is a P4 2.6 with 512 RAM, CDR/DVD, 40G HD, from a *ahem* well known retail store, for just under £1000. I'm not getting one from SR because they're quite expensive for what they are compared to other places, and Iridium sounds like a "Komputer" from Soviet Russia. But then laptops do always vary a lot and are generally expensive anyway - it's just more convenient for us to have one - like a baby with circuits inside and stuff.
Anyway, can anyone here recommend a better purchase? It has to be from a shop we can actually walk into, although internet buying isn't out of the question. And first-hand - definitely new. And under £1200. You've seen the sort of specs I'm after and you now the price...now give, give, give!
Yours in advance
Monkey_man
My girlfriend got her Vaio from a Sony Centre, which bizarrely was the cheapest place to get that specific model at the time. We don't have any complaints with it, other than you can now (and could at the time) get more bang per buck for what she paid. But we heard that Vaio = quality, and she didn't want something that was going to break/go wrong etc.
Pc World have a £999.99 laptop which is a AMD XP2500, 40GB, 512Mb, Geforce graphics, CD Writer/DVD. Seems quite good if your after an AMD processor. Do some research on the net about the AMD to Intel as in some things Intel are slower and other the AMD is slower.
I have never had a probably with the Time PCs I have had. Most of them have survived up to 6 years of multi user hell.
It is still a mystery to me as to why they have such a bad rep...
Anyway. Fujitsu Siemens will give you this for £1000 inc VAT:
Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz
512Mb DDR RAM
40Gb HDD
64Mb ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics
Bluetooth
Normal other stuff
Software included is Windows XP, Worksuite 2003, Norman Anti Virus (thats what the ad says!), Adobe Photoshop Elements.
www.nicepc.co.uk
Seems pretty good to me.
It is still a mystery to me as to why they have such a bad rep...
Anyway. Fujitsu Siemens will give you this for £1000 inc VAT:
Intel Pentium 4 2.66GHz
512Mb DDR RAM
40Gb HDD
64Mb ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics
Bluetooth
Normal other stuff
Software included is Windows XP, Worksuite 2003, Norman Anti Virus (thats what the ad says!), Adobe Photoshop Elements.
www.nicepc.co.uk
Seems pretty good to me.
Look for Dell.
Maybe slightly pricey but officially the best reliability.
Whoooooooooo....
Maybe slightly pricey but officially the best reliability.
Whoooooooooo....
Heh, I know what you mean about Time. I used to work in an Office World that housed a mini Time store...believe me, the only thing that place was good for was the staff's impressions of He-Man characters...
That Toshiba one you're on about is a very similar spec to what I've seen elsewhere, but a bit more expensive. Cheers for your advice though - I'll look out for the Centrino mark! The beef I have with Internet buying is that I want to go into a shop with cash/credit card and come out with something. Suppose if I want it for the right price I'll have to consider buying online. Cheers (not sarcastic).
That Toshiba one you're on about is a very similar spec to what I've seen elsewhere, but a bit more expensive. Cheers for your advice though - I'll look out for the Centrino mark! The beef I have with Internet buying is that I want to go into a shop with cash/credit card and come out with something. Suppose if I want it for the right price I'll have to consider buying online. Cheers (not sarcastic).
Yes, what's wrong with internet buying? Much cheaper and better.
If the store you're referring to is Time, forget it. The company has a reputation of failures, and with laptops that could only mean pricer replacements.
Anyway, try looking for a Centrino based laptop such as the Toshiba Tecra S1, or better still, the Asus M2N, which offers 512MB, 40GB HD, DVD/CD-RW and loads of other slots, and XP Pro. It has a battery life of 5 hours, and looks incredibly sleek. The Centrino processors (Pentium M) may be clocked lower than the latest ones, but they have been know to match the performance of a P4-M 2.6Ghz processor. The only downside is that the cost is slightly too high for your rpice range, although the almost similarly specced Tecra is perfect at under £1200.
If the store you're referring to is Time, forget it. The company has a reputation of failures, and with laptops that could only mean pricer replacements.
Anyway, try looking for a Centrino based laptop such as the Toshiba Tecra S1, or better still, the Asus M2N, which offers 512MB, 40GB HD, DVD/CD-RW and loads of other slots, and XP Pro. It has a battery life of 5 hours, and looks incredibly sleek. The Centrino processors (Pentium M) may be clocked lower than the latest ones, but they have been know to match the performance of a P4-M 2.6Ghz processor. The only downside is that the cost is slightly too high for your rpice range, although the almost similarly specced Tecra is perfect at under £1200.
Hi.
Me and my girliefriend are making our first big purchase together and going halves on a laptop. The best we've found so far is a P4 2.6 with 512 RAM, CDR/DVD, 40G HD, from a *ahem* well known retail store, for just under £1000. I'm not getting one from SR because they're quite expensive for what they are compared to other places, and Iridium sounds like a "Komputer" from Soviet Russia. But then laptops do always vary a lot and are generally expensive anyway - it's just more convenient for us to have one - like a baby with circuits inside and stuff.
Anyway, can anyone here recommend a better purchase? It has to be from a shop we can actually walk into, although internet buying isn't out of the question. And first-hand - definitely new. And under £1200. You've seen the sort of specs I'm after and you now the price...now give, give, give!
Yours in advance
Monkey_man
Me and my girliefriend are making our first big purchase together and going halves on a laptop. The best we've found so far is a P4 2.6 with 512 RAM, CDR/DVD, 40G HD, from a *ahem* well known retail store, for just under £1000. I'm not getting one from SR because they're quite expensive for what they are compared to other places, and Iridium sounds like a "Komputer" from Soviet Russia. But then laptops do always vary a lot and are generally expensive anyway - it's just more convenient for us to have one - like a baby with circuits inside and stuff.
Anyway, can anyone here recommend a better purchase? It has to be from a shop we can actually walk into, although internet buying isn't out of the question. And first-hand - definitely new. And under £1200. You've seen the sort of specs I'm after and you now the price...now give, give, give!
Yours in advance
Monkey_man