Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Or are they all much of a muchness? Will only be for usual stuff such word processing, some excel, web browsing and watching the odd movie. Also a decent size hard drive for storing my music.

We have a nexus 7 tablet and a 5 year old netbook which is starting to show it's age.

To be honest most of my web browsing is done on our phones these days but I really miss a pc when it comes to writing emails or spreadsheets.

Any pointers?

eagle

we picked up a hp i3 few months ago, been very reliable feels solid and well built, then had to get an upgrade sharpish for someone who relies on the internet and got an i3 asus, feels very plastic and light.
out of the 2 the hp was more expensive but is better built.

An0n0m0us

It depends what you want. If you want the best spec for your money then go to the Dell outlet site and you will get an i5 for that money or an i3 for £270.

I buy from there and whilst they are either refurbished or scratch and dent everyone that has turned up is as new, not a mark on them or anything to distinguish they aren't in fact brand new and just customer cancellations. The last 2 ordered were both scratch and dent and neither had so much as a nick on them. You also get 1 year on site warranty which you won't get from anywhere else unless you pay through the teeth for it.

Oh and stock refreshes about 3pm every day so that's the time to look for the bet deals as they get snapped up very quickly.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Here's a good'un, decent memory, Intel i5, decent separate graphics card. Won top honours last year.

And ebuyer at Howden are doing it next day delivery for £399.99

http://www.simplyasus.com/ASUS_X552C...H_1470440.html

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Only thing I dont like about Dell laptops is the lack of a CD drive. The Argos outlet also has a few good deals.

Will I really notice the lack of performance if Ingo for an i3 processor?

Not up on the latest specs!

An0n0m0us

Lack of cd drive? I've never had a Dell without one so not sure what you mean there. Form factor drives whether a laptop has a cd/dvd drive or not, not the manufacturer.

Oh and Argos outlet and Dell outlet just aren't on the same planet when it comes to what you get for your money.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Ok well noted. Regarding the CD drive, it's just that all the Dell laptops do not state if one is fitted. I take it that this is just an error in the listing and all 15 inch laptops from Dell have one fitted?

An0n0m0us

Yes of course. But again they do have them listed as whether you add to your cart from the main site or the dell outlet before you hit the buy button you get a full list of the spec so you see what you are buying.

An0n0m0us

There isn't actually anything on the Dell outlet site right now that meets your requirements although there were plenty in the last few weeks. Have a look at 3pm today as it refreshes stock just before 3pm every day.

I got my Father an i3 (latest 4th gen) with 6gb ram and 500gb hdd for £270 delivered.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Yeah just looked and the cheapest I can find is this:

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/S...&puid=6f177e0f

Miztera

I usually build my own PC's but the mrs's wanted a decent laptop and I ordered her this, I think they have other/same model in black/silver and blue left

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-G6-15-6...item540628470b

hp g6
i3 @ 2.4ghz
8gb ram
1tb hdd

Its a refurb from argos outlet, normal price is 399, refurb with 1 year warranty is 299, No dedicated graphics but not important if its just for web browsing/movies/netflix

Great spec for 299 quid, comes with 1 year warranty

Avoid acer and the lesser quality builds, they are prone to overheating and other **** like that

Aim for HP, Asus, Sony, Dell as all those have better build quality, HP and Asus have some great priced quality laptops

Here is argos outlets ebay page of laptops http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Argos-Outle...=p4634.c0.m322

An0n0m0us

I'm sorry but I disagree about Acer. They are fine and i'd certainly take an Acer over an HP budget model every time having used both. I bought my eldest an Acer and apart from a key coming off the keyboard it has been an excellent laptop and even that was fixed with superb customer care. Logged the call online, it was collected next day and returned 2 days later fixed. Couldn't have had better offsite service.

Overheating issues on laptops will occur mainly on those with dedicated gpus and heavy use, particularly gaming. I had an XPS for a while, i7 quad core with 2gb gpu and played games on it and it got very hot but never failed in the time I had it.

Any laptop with onboard graphics and used for office apps, email and web browsing should not get overly hot from any manufacturer, if it does it has a fault either hardware or software running the cpu maxed out constantly.

The HP above apart from the hideous purple colour is also last years cpu being a 3rd gen i3. It's Ok but my point is you will get much better on the Dell Outlet for the same or less money with onsite repair so no sending it away if any issues with it.

I'll be having a look at 3pm to see what appears on Dell's site.

Miztera

Acer's fall apart, overheat and are generally known for their reliability issues, anyone will tell you that

Overheating happens with any laptop on board or dedicated gpu's, mainly due to poor airflow design, lack of fans/vents

Im sure their 500+ quid laptops are built a little better, but budget I would never buy from them

And if you want to get technical the difference between 1 generation of i3 cpu is basically something you would never notice at all. That cpu is a dual core running at 2.4 ghz which is overkill for a laptop that will never see any gaming in its life

An0n0m0us

Well i've been in IT 14+ years and never seen one laptop fail from overheating issues whether it's an Acer or any other brand.

I've bought 2 Acers over the years and neither of those had any issues and certainly didn't fall apart and so from my personal experiences I can't agree with what you are saying about Acer or overheating issues.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

I had a Toshiba laptop before and was not really impressed with it to be honest. Felt very flimsy and suffered from the typical power jack issue.
On the other hand, my 10 inch Asus laptop has been spot on for 5 years apart from needing a new battery.

Will have a look this afternoon but my IT guy at work said fro £350, a i3 with 8gb will perform the same if not better than an i5 with 4gb.

How accurate is this?

grey_boy

You'll get a nice Apple Macbook pro for that, second hand of course but they are THE best

In London found this http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/ma...ded/1067177997

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Best at what?

An0n0m0us

http://uk.pcmag.com/feature/16721/cp...-core-i3-vs-i5

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

I have seen loads fail, and it is very common in laptops with decent graphics cards. The constant over heating causes a failing in the lead free solder on the graphics chips/cpu and then they fail.

I had a brand new Toshiba Qosmio with SLI graphics and that failed within a month! The cooling was just not up to the job of cooling 2 Nvidia chips.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

I have to say that my NVidia graphics chip in my Fujitsu Siemems gaming laptop fried itself. It was a good 8 years ago but my god did it run hot.

This is not a gaming machine by any means. Just the usual home use.

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

The issue started when EU legislation required the use of lead free solder which doesn't work as well as lead solder and after many heat cycles of high heat it cracks and fails.

Same reason the Xboxes go RROD, all failure in the lead free solder.

An0n0m0us

I didn't say they never fail. I just didn't agree with the statement they fail all the time and/or all Acers fall apart.

I specifically mentioned laptops with dedicated gpu's were prone to overheating more so than than ones with onboard graphics.

An0n0m0us

Loads on there now, just refreshed from 17 to 36 laptops.



Cracking spec for the money. Add £20 for delivery so £350.

Cheapest i3 was 4th gen at £272 plus £20 delivery.

Gear Head

iTrader: (2)

Indeed.

Looks good.

An0n0m0us

Yep and gone already. You have to be on the page when it refreshes to get any of the good deals and add to basket and buy immediately to be able to get them. That one went in a matter of minutes as did most of the others.

It refreshes stock the same time every day.

An0n0m0us

Oh and for any comments on it being scratch and dent, both my current laptop and the one I ordered for my Father were scratch and dent and both turned up without so much as mark anywhere on them! They are always worth getting, you have 7 days to play with it and return it if for any reason you don't like it.

Galifrey

iTrader: (3)

Didn't see your previous post, only the one that said about never seeing it.. hey ho

An0n0m0us

No probs It was the reason I got rid of my XPS when I did, cracking laptop but I knew long term it would never survive the heat it was producing and it would naturally happen after the warranty expired. For what was the best part of £800 I moved it on for hardly any loss.

In contrast I have a 15R now with dedicated gpu that I picked up off the outlet for under £350 and you can play Fifa on it all day long and it doesn't get hot but then it's also a dual core i5 and not a quad core i7. Only thing i'd change on it is the screen to a 1080p one.

Littleted

Just be carefull with a 32gb boot drive with windows 8 you'll have about 6 gig left

That laptop spec is great for the money, and if you know how to distribute your software do not reside on c:\ then I'd get one.

But if this was for my dad that points and shoots then no chance lol he'd be full in a day

Beef

The idea is that you install into the platter drive, and then use Intel Smart Response to use the SSD as a cache.