Doc

Thinking about leasing a computer through company benefit scheme. The monthly deduction is tax and NI free. The monthly cost will be £19.62 over 3 years. Which of these two would you go for and why? I want a laptop for occasional work use but mainly to use at home or when away in hotels. It will only need to be carried from the car and is likely to be run on mains power most of the time. I would mainly use it for internet, office applications and watching DVDs.

Laptop 1

Dell Inspiron 6000
* Windows XP Home Edition
* DVD & CD-RW Combo drive
* Touchpad Mouse
* 16 bit stereo with built-in speakers
* 15.4in TFT WXGA, 1280x800
* 3kg
* 10/100BT wired network & 802.11b/g wireless network
* 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 400Mhz
* Inspiron 6000
* Dell 56k Data/Fax modem
* Up to 3 hrs (MobileMark 2002)
* Intel® Pentium® M 730, 1.6GHz, 2MB L2, 533MHz FSB
* 80GB IDE (5400rpm)
* Integrated Graphics Card
* SD Card Reader

Laptop 2

Toshiba Satellite M30X-154
# Windows XP Home Edition
# Touchpad Mouse
# 16 bit stereo with built-in speakers
# 60GB Hard Drive
# 15.4in TFT WXGA, 1280x800
# V.90 56k Modem
# DVD SuperMulti (±R/±RW/-RAM)
# Intel Pentium M 725 1.6GHz, 2MB L2, 400MHz FSB
# 512MB DDR RAM
# ATI ® Mobility Radeon® 9700 with 64MB dedicated video memory
# 4 hours (MobileMark)
# 3kg
# 10/100BT wired network & 802.11b/g wireless network
# Satellite M30X-154
# 86 keys with 11 hot keys
# 6 in 1 card reader

Thanks

Buckrogers

£600 for a laptop for three years is pretty good.

Both pretty close is spec. I'd just go for Tosh only because I always have.

ChrisB

I'd take the Toshiba. Slightly slower CPU but the Mobility Radeon 9700 will cream the 'integrated graphics card' on the Dell for perfomance.

BlkKnight

Tosh - better gfx & a DVDRW

(and I like toshiba's)

jowl

Agreed - Toshiba. better Graphics card. You won't notice the difference in CPU speed.

Only negative thing in comparison is the smaller hard drive. But i wouldn't let that put me off....it's got DVD/RW anyway!

messiah

I've got a Dell Inspiron 8200, the only gripe I have with it is that the DVD playback is utter pants.

Doc

Looks like the Tosh then especially as I misread the price and its £16.92 a month.

ChrisB

Bargain

Doc

I thought I had decided but now I think I might stretch to £20.03 a month. For this I can have this

Toshiba M30x-163

# Windows XP Home Edition
# Touchpad Mouse
# 16 bit stereo with built-in speakers
# 60GB Hard Drive
# V.90 56k Modem
# DVD SuperMulti (±R/±RW/-RAM)
# 512MB DDR RAM
# ATI ® Mobility Radeon® 9700 with 64MB dedicated video memory
# 4 hours (MobileMark)
# 3kg
# 10/100BT wired network & 802.11b/g wireless network
# 86 keys with 11 hot keys
# Toshiba Satellite M30X-163
# Intel® Pentium® M 745, 1.8GHz, 2MB L2, 400MHz FSB
# 15.4 TFT WXGA CSV, 1280x800
# 6 in 1 card reader


or this

Dell Inspiron 6000

# Windows XP Home Edition
# Touchpad Mouse
# 16 bit stereo with built-in speakers
# 3kg
# 10/100BT wired network & 802.11b/g wireless network
# 512MB Dual Channel DDR2 400Mhz
# Inspiron 6000
# Intel® Pentium® M 750 1.86GHz, 2MB L2, 533MHz FSB
# Dell 56k Data/Fax modem
# Up to 3 hrs (MobileMark 2002)
# 80GB IDE (5400rpm)
# ATI Mobility Radeon X300 with 64MB dedicated memory
# 15.4'' TFT WSXGA, 1680x1050
# SD Card Reader
# DVD writer ±R/±RW DL 8x max

Help, which one do I go for?

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

You don't work for Capita do you?

One thing to point out with those deals - the p.c. / laptop remains the companies property until you finish paying for it. If you leave, you pay the full amount or give the kit back. You HAVE to keep all the kit that is in there until the end of the term, so that the p.c. is as it was when you bought it.

Doc

I don't work for Capita currently but they are bidding for some of the same contracts.
I appreciate it is a lease but it is tax efficient, I havent got the cash to buy outright without serious nagging and the only upgrade would be memory which is pretty easy to remove again if necessary.

GC8

Always Toshiba

GC8

I wouldnt be too keen on an ATI video chipset even though Ive already said Toshiba. The Tosh Im using now has an nVidea G-Force chipset and its quite good but the ATIs certainly used to be an integrated video/southbridge chipset, and they were terrible, crippling memory performance too.

Simon