RobHawk Posted 19 July 2013 Share Posted 19 July 2013 Looking for a new laptop for about £300-£400. I need it for work at home mainly, Office, internet, some music and stuff too. Nothing too challenging but i need to it to run well - i have a notebook for when i'm on the train but its too slow for home use! Not very techy myself so just wondered if any one has any recommendations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellend Sebastian Posted 19 July 2013 Share Posted 19 July 2013 That's enough to get something that will do all you need it to, I reckon. The upper end of your budget will get you one with an Intel Core I5 processor, which is pretty quick and comes with half decent onboard graphics - maybe not great for gaming but able to handle everything else. Buying a laptop is tricky at the best of times as many manufacturers have loads of subtly different versions, often in the same casings. Obviously you can buy laptops for not much at all now, but the compromise on the cheaper ones is often stuff like fewer connections and card readers and stuff like that - things that you probably don't even think about when buying but find out at a later date that it would've been nice to have. Not sure how much difference choosing one brand over another makes - one Windows laptop works much like another in practice. I've got an Acer, which is what we generally have for work, and although the cases are not the sturdiest, you get a lot for your money and they don't give us any problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobHawk Posted 19 July 2013 Author Share Posted 19 July 2013 cheers Bellend! I've been looking around and seen a fee different models, some with an I5 processor and some with i3 processors. Am i right to think that the i5 is a better processor than the i5 and thus the i7 is better again although i'd guess out of my price range? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo Posted 19 July 2013 Share Posted 19 July 2013 Bellend Sebastian - I'll second your Acer recommendation - my missus' laptop is a 5-year old Acer and has never had any problems whatsoever. I also had an Acer monitor which had a display as good as monitors that cost double the amount RobHawk - can't really offer any real assistance but even the most basic laptops should do for just general Office/internet/music usage. Just remember that they're a lot harder to upgrade than desktop PCs so it might be a better idea to spend towards the top of your budget and have something slightly more future-proof*, with better sound and display. I'd probably recommend searching MoneySavingExpert forums to see if anyone can recommend any bargains - prices vary a bit, and you might find £400 can actually get you a very high-spec laptop if you look in the right places *Not sure if "future-proof" can actually be used as a term in regards to computers as the base-specs shift higher and higher every month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobHawk Posted 19 July 2013 Author Share Posted 19 July 2013 Bellend Sebastian - I'll second your Acer recommendation - my missus' laptop is a 5-year old Acer and has never had any problems whatsoever. I also had an Acer monitor which had a display as good as monitors that cost double the amount RobHawk - can't really offer any real assistance but even the most basic laptops should do for just general Office/internet/music usage. Just remember that they're a lot harder to upgrade than desktop PCs so it might be a better idea to spend towards the top of your budget and have something slightly more future-proof*, with better sound and display. I'd probably recommend searching MoneySavingExpert forums to see if anyone can recommend any bargains - prices vary a bit, and you might find £400 can actually get you a very high-spec laptop if you look in the right places *Not sure if "future-proof" can actually be used as a term in regards to computers as the base-specs shift higher and higher every month Yeah i've been keeping an eye on hotukdeals for things coming up too! Also has anyone got windows 8 on a laptop and is it as bad as i've heard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobHawk Posted 19 July 2013 Author Share Posted 19 July 2013 Seen these 2 so far (i stuck with the Acer recommendation) http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-V5-Core-i3-2365M-1-4-GHz-64bit-Laptop-8GB-RAM-1TB-HDD-15-6-Win-8-/360684689474?clk_rvr_id=501945849614 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspire-V5-Intel-Core-i3-14-inch-6GB-500GB-/360693842617?clk_rvr_id=501990609542 Very similar models but with a slightly different spec. Is the more expensive one really worth the extra though? Thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobHawk Posted 19 July 2013 Author Share Posted 19 July 2013 or this one with the i5? http://direct.asda.com/Acer-V5-571-Laptop---15.6ins---Intel-Core-i5-Processor---500GB-Hard-Drive---6GB-RAM---Black/000507103,default,pd.html?cm_mmc=ad-ppc-_-ggle-pla-_-Computers-and-Software-_-000507103&utm_source=ggle-pla&utm_medium=ppc&utm_term=000507103&utm_content=Computers-and-Software&utm_campaign=ad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellend Sebastian Posted 19 July 2013 Share Posted 19 July 2013 Definitely go for an i5 if you can afford it, it's quicker and you should get a bit longer out of it. The Asda one looks decent - I saw a similar one on ebuyer earlier that I think maybe had about 4gb of RAM (2 less than that) but a bigger hard drive (750gb). Just doubled the RAM in my laptop from 4gb to 8 (the max it will take) and it cost £55, so that gives you an idea of why the price differs from model to model and whether the slightly more expensive ones are worth it. JJJS is right that asides from upping the memory there's not much you can do to upgrade a laptop, but given the cost of buying new motherboards and processors (the bits that really make a difference to performance) and the fact that laptops are so much cheaper than they used to be, you can also argue that you might as well just run your laptop for as long as you can and then just buy another when it's not up to the job. Windows 8.....well I hated it at first, but it's easy enough once you get your head around it. It's very much geared to touch screen users and a bit pointless if you don't have one of those, but it's the latest version of Windows (and all the latest laptops will have it) and is here to stay (for now anyway) so I'd just bite the bullet and not be too put off by it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobHawk Posted 19 July 2013 Author Share Posted 19 July 2013 Cheers for the advice! Much appreciated! I might hold off a little longer and see what else comes up but i certainly feel more comfortable in knowing what spec i want to get out of it in my price range!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellend Sebastian Posted 19 July 2013 Share Posted 19 July 2013 No worries. You could do a lot worse than buy a copy of something like http://www.whatlaptop.co.uk/ At least the stuff in there is up to date Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whoareyaaa Posted 19 July 2013 Share Posted 19 July 2013 Agree with the others Acer is the way to go either an i3 or i5. I have an i3 Acer 5750 and use it everyday for 8 hours which includes business, downloading, photoshop etc... had it for about 2/3 years now and still runs like brand new. Can't go wrong with Acer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finnaldo Posted 19 July 2013 Share Posted 19 July 2013 Does it have to be a laptop? If not, building a computer is worth a crack. It's pretty much adult Lego once you watch a couple of guides on Youtube, andyou can get a very efficient machine which has the capability to game as well. If not, go with the suggestions above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adster Posted 20 July 2013 Share Posted 20 July 2013 My experience with an Acer laptop was totally different to all yours. I had an Acer and it was absolutely shit. No end of problems with the hard drive, wifi receiver and periphal connections from external hardware. Had to be sent back more than twice before I angrily complained and managed to get a refund on the product so I could buy a different laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom17LCFC Posted 20 July 2013 Share Posted 20 July 2013 I've had an acer for about a year now, cracking piece of kit. would definitely recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobHawk Posted 22 July 2013 Author Share Posted 22 July 2013 Thanks everyone for your advise! Got a good idea what im after now! Just out of interested i keep reading about 3rd generation processors etc. How do you know what generation it is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bellend Sebastian Posted 22 July 2013 Share Posted 22 July 2013 Intel are on their fourth generation of the Core range. Their website gives a breakdown of release dates, clock speeds, cache, version of onboard graphics etc http://ark.intel.com/products/family/75024 Any decent website selling laptops should say exactly which processor version it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobHawk Posted 23 July 2013 Author Share Posted 23 July 2013 Intel are on their fourth generation of the Core range. Their website gives a breakdown of release dates, clock speeds, cache, version of onboard graphics etc http://ark.intel.com/products/family/75024 Any decent website selling laptops should say exactly which processor version it is Ahhhh that makes sense. Cheers buddy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frost Posted 28 August 2013 Share Posted 28 August 2013 Afternoon all. I'm looking for a laptop at the top end of my budget around £300 or so. Obviously you get what you pay for in terms of quality but its a fairly fixed amount of money I have to spend so any recommendations would be a help. Looking around and I've come across these two. What does anyone make of them? I looked at getting a notebook for university (going into my last year) but I just don't think they have the capability to run quickly enough with more than one program on the go. Anyway, these are two I've looked at so far. Let me know what you think. http://www.ebuyer.com/503662-hp-655-laptop-c5c56ea-abu http://www.ebuyer.com/525056-hp-650-laptop-h5k67ea-abu Oh and this - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-15-3521-15-6-laptop-21427853-pdt.html Thanks. A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSpaM Posted 31 August 2013 Share Posted 31 August 2013 Afternoon all. I'm looking for a laptop at the top end of my budget around £300 or so. Obviously you get what you pay for in terms of quality but its a fairly fixed amount of money I have to spend so any recommendations would be a help. Looking around and I've come across these two. What does anyone make of them? I looked at getting a notebook for university (going into my last year) but I just don't think they have the capability to run quickly enough with more than one program on the go. Anyway, these are two I've looked at so far. Let me know what you think. http://www.ebuyer.com/503662-hp-655-laptop-c5c56ea-abu http://www.ebuyer.com/525056-hp-650-laptop-h5k67ea-abu Oh and this - http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/dell-inspiron-15-3521-15-6-laptop-21427853-pdt.html Thanks. A. The dell is the best out of those, so I suppose its just whether you can spare the extra 50 quid or not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potter3 Posted 14 September 2013 Share Posted 14 September 2013 If I were to get a cheapish (say ~£400) laptop that I might end up playing a few games on (gaming isn't the primary concern, or I'd just build a desktop), is it better to go for a better processor or graphics card? I've seen some i5's around that price with integrated graphics, however I've also seen an i3 that has a dedicated GPU, which I assume would be better for games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrSpaM Posted 16 September 2013 Share Posted 16 September 2013 If I were to get a cheapish (say ~£400) laptop that I might end up playing a few games on (gaming isn't the primary concern, or I'd just build a desktop), is it better to go for a better processor or graphics card? I've seen some i5's around that price with integrated graphics, however I've also seen an i3 that has a dedicated GPU, which I assume would be better for games? Go for the dedicated gpu, it's always the better option Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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