Milamber

iTrader: (2)

I don't really have much idea about laptops but am considering buying one and need advice....

I need it to be able to play games, watch films and do photo editing on top of all the usual office based stuff.

I have been tempted by the Acer Aspire 5602WLMi which is up for £699-95 inc vat

The hard drive looks bigger than most, memory is larger than you'd normally expect and it has a seperate GFX card.

Anyone notice any downsides? What are ACER like? Upgrade to a 3 year warranty or not?

hail-hail

Depends what you need it for, there was a decent machine (same as mine) in the far sale section recently for about 500 iirc, i'll try and dig it out.

What you been reading recently then?

hail-hail

here

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

"Carter the Great" by Glen David Gold, a fictional biography of a real life magician/illusionist from the 1800's. A superb first book - give it a go.

hail-hail

Cool, I'll give it a go, but I'll take this conversation back to the books thread so as not to hijack this one

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

A bit nervous about buying a 2nd hand laptop and in any event once the vat is taken out of the equation the saving is not so great.....

Dracoro

Why a laptop? You'll get a far higher spec desktop for your money.

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

I agree but my work is taking me away from home more and more often and you won't believe how boring sitting in a hotel room can be. My expenses are better then most but getting off my face on jack daniels just means I wake with a headache the next morning!

Also the desktop is upstairs in the office and my wife thinks it's anti-social to keep popping up to look on the pc. As we know nothing on pc takes less than 30 minutes! Most of the stuff I can do on a laptop downstairs with her over a wireless network.

But the single most important reason is that I can sit and catch up on 24 during my lunch break

SwissTony

iTrader: (19)

if you want to do all of the above, I suggest seriously looking at a mac laptop. yes they may look pricier at first, but once you factor in all the free software they come with, the notion that you can run most PC stuff with either parallels or boot camp. plus they are the king for photo editing, look good and hold their value.

just a thought

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

I went to a concert the other day and the support "group" was Terence Fixmer. For a hell of a long time it was just his laptop on stage with spotlights shining on it and just the apple logo lit up......looked cool as ****

I've never used a mac so am speaking from a point of ignorance but I would be concerned with a) being able to use it B) being able to use it and C) software/hardware compatibility. Just scared of something new I suppose.

boxst

Hello

Second hand laptops are okay. The biggest problem is the battery as if it hasn't been treated correctly (let to drain/recharge) then you'll have to get a new one and they are £100+.

Steve

Andy-C

I bought an ex-demo from PC world, which I used on the mains until after the warranty ran out, when I tried to use it properly (as in away from a mains cable) I found the battery would only last for 6 minutes!

A new battery for mine is £160

hail-hail

I watched all 5 seasons = 120 episodes in 5 weeks staying mon->thursday in a hotel, I'd get in from the office at 7ish, before I knew it it was 3am and I am battling with myself not to' just put another quick one on'