OT- Laptop guru's required

[Wimmy]

the challenge is on
OK - i'm asking you to do my dirty work. 
Basically the kids are after laptops for xmas.  Looking for a good a spec aspossibleforunder £300.  The lower the price the better. Bigger screen preferred rather than a PDA,I mean netbook.
Link me please
One I came up with earlier ..... http://direct.asda.com/Asus-X58L-AP020A-15.4-inch-Notebook/000591036,default,pd.html
 

 

[bulldog5046]

how old are they?

personally if i had kids i (of the age of wanting laptops!) i would give them a low spec netbook, lets face it, they wont use it for anything more than internet!

Ry

 

[Wimmy]

14 and 10

however, both of them regularly use full office suite, Photoshop, video editing etc etc and connect to various wireless netwrks to access music and documents

wouldn't want them using a tiny netbook screen for doing their PowerPoint presentations

 

[Ian]

DuoCore (not Celeron CPU) with 4GB Ram, Vista Home Premium and 15'4" Screen - Available only until 21st September for £359ea inclusive of VAT/Delivery on Dell's website.

I'm ordering one today

I know it's £59 more than intended, but if you find a better deal elsewhere, let me know

 

[Tommy K]

Hey... it's only September!!!

Why are you looking to buy a laptop now, you know how quickly technology moves..... in 2 months there will be another new, much faster processor out meaning prices will fall.



PLUS.... in November all the shops will be trying to get as much money as possible thus fantastic deals!



My advise will be to wait untill the christmas offers start.... plus why waste 3 months warrenty by leaving it sat in a box!

....

....

 

[Matt]

But prices for laptops have been static for years, if what you say is true then there should be laptops at £100, but there isn't. In general laptops start at £300+.

The only thing worth holding out for at the moment is Windows 7 instead of Vista.

 

[Ian]

Matt is absolutely spot on.

Put the actual price of Laptops aside, and tell me when they actually brought out a new processor recently? (Unless you want to pay £1000+ for a Xeon?)

The speed of processors nowadays are the "limiting factor" - 3.2/3.4Ghz is about peak processing power before an exponential curve of heat/issues start to proclaim over the gains of further clocking, hence the need to go Dual/Tri/Quad core.

Admittedly, the issue about warranty is certainly a for-argument, but I don't forsee holding out will actually get you a much better deal.

 

[Wimmy]

I get extended warranty anyway foranother 12 months with my bank so I went out n bought a couple

Mum decided she liked em so ordered one too.

Had a quick ganders and cant argueonebit for the price

 

[Anonymous]

Got a link to these laptops?

 

[Wimmy]

Mine - top post

Ian's- Dell

 

[Shaun Cook]

wimmy, iv just bought a laptop for uni. my budget was only £300 but i couldnt find anything worth while for it.

i got this one

http://www.staples.co.uk/pcs-and-laptops/laptops-compaq/presario-cq60-313sa-notebook-amd-athlon-x2-dual-core-processor-3gb-ram-160gb-hard-drive-15-6-display-vista-home-basic

it is absalutly brilliant stylish and fast it is actually quicker than my PC which is custom build and is damn quick.

it has a built in webcam, 5 in 1 card reader...everything they will need if they **** about with video and all that. even has that lightscribe built in so u can print on CD's and a dvd re-writer...woth every penny

 

[Ian]

The beauty about Dell laptops are they are so so easy to reinstall when the kids bugger them up Take any Dell PC/Laptop manufactured in the last 10 years, and take any Dell Installation CD. Pop it in to the drive and viola! No CD-Key, no activation and a true Operating System that isn't customised.

Wimmy, if you require Vista Home Premium, as opposed to Basic for when you reinstall your Dell's, just give me a shout and I'll pop a legit disk in the post to you.

Ian.

 

[Ian]

Someone edit my post again for me

That's assuming someone/Wimmy has purchased a Dell Laptop

Ps. You could always Search Dell's Outlet for PC's/Laptops that have been ordered but cancelled at the last minute.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/dfo/df.aspx?refid=df&s=dfo

 

[Wimmy]

I got the ASUS ones for £250. Dont forget we have 10 billion children to buy for ay xmas

Every penny saved helps

Cheers for the offer anyway Ian.

Re-install should be fine when they bugger em. Laptops came with installation discs and a partition of drive to boot from for a clean install. Additionally, I am sorting it with all service packs and everything tidied up and will be taking an image and storing on my PC. I KNOW I will be using it