Be Excellent To Each Other

As I can't be arsed to defraggle, spybot busterise or protect my laptop from AIDs....it is dying. It is also 4 years old and cost £350 so despite the Credit Crunch (TM) I find myself with some money that I could a) use to payoff some of my overdraft b) donate to charity or c) spend on a spanky new laptop. Obviously, as I am a fully paid up (with a loan) member of the selfish 'throw away' generation, I am going to buy a laptop.

I have £500 - £600 to spend, I don't use it for gaming and I don't want a mac of any description (is that even possible with £600?) I want all the usual stuff, the best and biggest within my budget!! I'd rather have higher spec'd internal gubbins than a huge screen and it has to be able to run Vista properly.

Also, if it can be pretty that would be nice....

Have you looked ant the Dell XPS range.. They are gaming laptops

For purchases like this I like to go into stores so if anything goes wrong I can storm back in and go "FIX PLZ".

For £500ish I'd be buying one of these most likely, my entire family have HP/Compaq laptops and they're awesomesauce.

http://www.johnlewis.com/230510639/Product.aspx

Final proof (if ever it were needed) that you don't read what anyone says.

The Dell Studio 17 looks really good, from what I can see. I'm not sure you need to spend £600 to get a laptop for your requirements, though.

Did I miss the post on this thread, about XPS laptops I do appologise if I did.

Doh... I skimmed over that


Still good High powered laptops though.. but about £200 more than the studios...

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/boxing_day?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Studio 15 will a lot of trimmings..

Says the man recommending a 17" laptop to the woman that doesn't want a big screen.

Only thing I'd say about the Studio 15 is it's £50 more than the HP, has less RAM and a completely useless bluray drive instead. Plus the fact you'd have to send it back rather than storm back in there.

Of course that could well be countered by their being no JLs near flis towers.

She didn't say that - she said she'd rather have a higher specced machine than a large screen. With her budget she can have both.

What is wrong with everyone's eyes today?

Thanks Duds.... Look Myp just because I disagreed with you on another thread, you going to drag it into every thread, as that will get a little tiresome.

Hmm, you're in a mood for something today, noted.

I'm not sure what you're on about - I disagree with a lot of people in lots of different threads. I was only giving you a gentle ribbing, anyway, but I've obviously touched a nerve. Apologies.

I'm not in a mood.

Sorry I over reacted ...

Duds you can get it with out blu-ray..

Also, sorry Duds, I didn't mean to infer that you had problems with your eyes. Any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

I had to go through a similar situation,recently. My laptop started to die on me (again about 4-5 years old)- it would overheat.... And I started thinking about it. I was getting seriously pissed off from getting laptops (usually work laptops) and them being a pile of shit within 2 years, so what was causing this ( I don't play games, don't really install much else on it apart from the included apps and some music s/w).

I was getting pissed off with the whole MS approach to fecking security upgrades every week, and the upgrades slowly killing off my PC (I'm sure the upgrades slow down the CPU by taking up more resources). The last laptop I had was a 2.1 GHz P4, so there was no real need in me needing to buy a more powerful laptop than that, so why was it always switching off!?!??!

Anway, I'd had enough of it- so I bought a MacBook (600 quid from Duty Free in Heathrow), and I've never looked back. I'd admit that Macs aren't for everyone, but if you plan on mostly surfing, emailing, word documents, photo editing, music creating type of things- then get a Mac. You can still dual boot it into Windows, but running OS X has reminded me of the days of when I had an Amiga. It just fecking works!!!

Aye OSX is a tremendous OS and does work rather well.

So I'll vouch for a macbook too, push the budget or use your cunning. They're expensive but they're built very well and lovingly designed.

I mean, they're about 45% of apples bread and butter (rest being ipod and phone) so they do have some really ace R&D put into them.

Oh and they are very pretty.

How to decide what laptop to buy:

1) Are your friends called:

a) Dave, Pete, Michelle and Susan
b)N00B_Crush3r, Cha1nsawL0b070my, K1LLFr3nZy
c)Tarquin, Savannah, Galahad and Mistwalker

2) You feel like a cup of coffee, do you sup:

a) A nice cup of Nescafe
b)Hot Java Lava with 6 Pro Plus crumbled in
c) A venti double latte vanilla frappucino

3) When you think of a computer, do you think of it as:

a)Something to surf the net and play Peggle on
b)A tool with which to rain destruction on the useless N00bs
c) A lifestyle choice

4) You meet a hippy in the street, do you:

a) be polite, and respect his hippy culture
b) fantasize about headbutting him to death, while screaming 'Kill All Hippies!', though knowing that your pathetic nerdish body will be easily overcome by even this frail, hairy, granola munching specimen.
c) pull out your hackysack, and kick it around with your kindred, nonconformist spirit.

5) Your hair is:

a) perfectly normal
b) a mohawk, well it would be if you had the balls to get it done, instead you sport a nerdish bowlcut
c) something floppy.

Mostly A's
There are many laptop computers that will suit you, choose the one that is most cost effective for your planned usage. Recommended brands: HP, Sony, Acer.

mostly B's
You require something that draws more power than the average nuclear submarine, and is entirely unsuited for lugging around. Remember, the faster it runs, and the more overpriced it is, the bigger your penis is! Recommended brand: Alienware

mostly C's
You need something to validate your life. The other computers aren't trendy enough! You are a non-conformist! Its an Apple Mac for you, you floppy haired tosser.

I love sexy geeks.

/tipsy

This is very true, anything I get will have to come via le internet as I live on a small rock in the sea.

I'd never even considered HP. I've looked at the Dell stuff and I quite like the sound of the Studio 15s, do you have a link for a cheaper yet better HP one Duds?

John Lewis appears to be cheaper than Play here which is weird but this is the laptop I was looking at.

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/7789905/H ... oduct.html

John Lewis do deliver free

http://www.johnlewis.com/230510639/Product.aspx

Lots of memory is your friend and will be noticed more than any CPU differences (although the Turion X2 is a capable little bugger it's not quite the match of an Intel Core 2 Duo at the same speed).

That said on sheer spec, the Dell with a DVD drive (and thus cheaper) might be a better apparent spec for price if you don't get the smug "able to walk into shop if it goes wrong" feeling. I can't vouch for the build quality of Dells, I'm sure others can but all 4 HPs in my immediate family (2 Compaq Presarios, a 2005 HP and a very new one very much like the one I linked you) are all superbly put together.

My house has one Compaq (HP) and one Dell laptop. Both are fine and dandy, well built machines. I wouldn't have a problem saying that either of the brands are quite good, from what I've seen.

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I've had a Toshiba for two years and it's been excellent.

Nothing wrong with Toshiba no, just can never find a model I like.

Here's a chance to save some cash

£400 HP in Ebuyer, everything you could sensibly need.

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152233

http://www.quidco.com/computers-software/systems-parts/

This site gives you cash back, and dell and HP are on the list.

I was going to post that ebuyer deal. It looks tasty to me.

I've just got this one

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152236

I had set myself a budget of £300, wanted halfway decent gfx and needed a largish screen. Downsides, single core cpu and only 1gb ram. Ram's easily dealt with, i reckon £20 for 2gb set. Typing on it now, I'm very impressed. May stick XP on it though and dump all the HP crap that comes preloaded.

Nice laptop for the price certainly, firmly in the good workhorse territory but with Flis' budget that £100 extra is more than well worth it.

"Flis's", ffs. The " s' " form is only for plurals or words where you wouldn't naturally pronunce the " s's "

For example:

"Chris's car" - correct
"Chris' car" - incorrect by a million miles.

"For goodness's sake" - incorrect
"For goodness' sake" - correct

Who says I pronounce the s in flis?

If you pronounced that as "flis' budget" rather than "flis's budget" you've got a bigger problem than your command of English grammar, as I can only assume you're French or something.

And you called me a humourless twat.

Uh-oh, double sarcasm fail.