[Fiend]

Need to get a laptop, for general stuff not particularly gaming.

I'm after something cheap (£400 or less), reliable / rugged, decent processor and RAM. Not bothered about any fancy trendy kid extras. Small size would be preferable, as would be <highly unlikely fussiness mode> non-widescreen (cos I don't like widescreen) </fuss>.

A friend of mine got one through Dabs, Toshiba something for £320, seemed pretty decent. Any other suggestions??

[slackline]

Always ask yourself what you want a new computer to be able to do as that will define your spec.  You've said not particularly for gaming so no need for a fancy grahpics card then, but what OS will you plump for?  If its Vista you'll likely want a bare minimum of 2Gb RAM (XP would be happy with 1Gb I'd guess).  If its then to sit and browse t'internet and send emails and do the occasional letter/CV/job app then you're not going to need any fancy tech.  If its to store pictures/video and subsequent editing then you'll a) want a large HD; b) want a bit more oomph in the processor to handle doing all of that.

You might also consider getting a reconditioned laptop, a few "shops" on ebay have plenty, and chatting with a friend last night who went down this line he was telling me he uses a service from PC-somewhere (can't remember had had a few beers, plus we won a bottle of wine in the pub-quiz) he pays about £10 a month for a service warranty which seemed quite reasonable (particularly as he's moving to NZ in a few weeks and it covers repairs up to £400, which is essentially an insurance policy on the laptop).

[tomtom]

Its horses for courses,...
You'll get something fine for £300-£400...

If you want something for watching DVD's on that will sit on a table and only occasionally make it out of the house and be used on the train/plane etc.. then I'd get something with a 15 inch screen, DVD, dual core and as much memory as you can screw out of it.

If you want something for using whilst travelling, I have a SamsungNC10 - Its tiny, but large keyboard, only 10 inch display but I use it all the time - home/work and it doesnt break my back going into work. Small enough to use comfortably on a plane/train. Only got an atom processor, but does things fine for me (email, net, and I write small c# apps..)..

2nd hand is a good option, you should be able to get something about a year old (dual core gig+ of ram) for a couple of hundred sheets.

Not sure the insurance/warranty thing that slackers mentioned is worth it on a £300 quid machine... if it breaks or you knacker it, the price they are nowadays may well be worth just buying a new one... or your home insurance may cover it (mine did when my cup of tea decided to go and visit the keboard and HDD...!).

Some great deals out there... Reputable brands are probably better (dell, sony, samsung (who apparently make dell), tosh, etc...) head to PC world etc.. have a look/play then get online and find a better deal....

Hope that helps a bit, post up some potentials for the communal verdict if that helps?
Tom

[hairich]

a friend of mine signed up with 3 and got a free one.think orange do it too

[dontfollowme]

Hotukdeals have this:

Technical Specifications from Toshiba UK Website
Satellite L300-149
Part Number : PSLB0E-03300SEN
TPP £ 371.00 (inc VAT)
Key Features
- Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2370- Genuine Windows® Vista® Premium Edition- DVD Super Multi drive (Double Layer)- 2,048 (1,024 + 1,024) MB | maximum expandability : 2,048 MB | technology : DDR2 RAM (667 MHz)- 15.4 " Widescreen TruBrite® XGA TFT (1280 x 800) High Brightness display

For £250
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/364256/toshiba-l300-120gb-hdd-2gb-15-4-inc/

It has widescreen but this is difficult to avoid these days. I imagine the above wouldn't be very portable.

[tomtom]

Hotukdeals have this:

Technical Specifications from Toshiba UK Website
Satellite L300-149
Part Number : PSLB0E-03300SEN
TPP £ 371.00 (inc VAT)
Key Features
- Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2370- Genuine Windows® Vista® Premium Edition- DVD Super Multi drive (Double Layer)- 2,048 (1,024 + 1,024) MB | maximum expandability : 2,048 MB | technology : DDR2 RAM (667 MHz)- 15.4 " Widescreen TruBrite® XGA TFT (1280 x 800) High Brightness display

For £250
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/364256/toshiba-l300-120gb-hdd-2gb-15-4-inc/

It has widescreen but this is difficult to avoid these days. I imagine the above wouldn't be very portable.

Looks like a good deal, though its probably a bit more clunky in the looks/size dept - but the spec looks fine, and its a good price... TrueBrite display is the shiny one I think (which I prefer..)..

[Fiend]

Thanks for advice so far.

I'd be wanting it for general non-gaming usage, including photo/video editing and other stuff. So yes I'd be looking at at least 2 Gig of Ram (preferably expandable / replacable to more than 2 Gig). And a decent HDD.

Would prefer something slightly more compact than that Toshiba sounds...

Reliability a big factor too...

[slackline]

Reliability a big factor too...

This will in part be determined by how often you "maintain" your system, updating/cleaning spyware/adware/viruses etc.

[Palomides]

Reliability a big factor too...

This will in part be determined by how often you "maintain" your system, updating/cleaning spyware/adware/viruses etc.

Doesn't that only really affect how well the OS runs? (leaving aside the minor sid-effects of your system working 15x harder than it needs to as your totally pwned system attempts to send out 30G/s of spam...)

For hardware reliability, you're better off buying from a big name, making sure you've filled out the warranty info, and keeping all your important stuff backed up or on an external drive.

As a general couple of points, Fiend, don't overlook Linux - especially on a slightly older or lower-spec laptop, some of the lighter distributions will outperform Vista and even XP to a frightening degree (as long as you can get on with the applications you need that is).

Also, don't dismiss a PC as being "not for gaming" because it's a bit old. Even the most basic dedicated graphics module should be able to handle older games - on my old (now dual-boot XP/linux) laptop I've recently been (re)enjoying HalfLife 1 and all the mods for it that I never played the first time - things like Poke646, Azure Sheep, They Hunger and USS Darkstar are brilliant. I'm also enjoying Battle for Westnoth on the linux side.

[slackline]

Doesn't that only really affect how well the OS runs? (leaving aside the minor sid-effects of your system working 15x harder than it needs to as your totally pwned system attempts to send out 30G/s of spam...)

I'm not too hot on hardware, but there are three main HD manufacturers (seagate, wd and toshiba I think) and theres not much between them.  Processors are the two main players (AMD and Intel) and it goes back and forth as to which is the best.  Perhaps the most important thing with regards to building a system (which isn't the case here, but if you can find out this info on the components its useful, although the motherboard is sometimes hard to determine on laptops) is making sure the bus speeds for components match, theres no point in having a motherboard that has DDR3 RAM slots with 1800Mhz and then sticking 1333Mhz RAM in there.

For hardware reliability, you're better off buying from a big name, making sure you've filled out the warranty info, and keeping all your important stuff backed up or on an external drive.

Sage advice indeed.

As a general couple of points, Fiend, don't overlook Linux - especially on a slightly older or lower-spec laptop, some of the lighter distributions will outperform Vista and even XP to a frightening degree (as long as you can get on with the applications you need that is).

 

[rothers]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158887

I have this. Really good deal if your willing to spend this much.

[Jim]

dell outlet has £100 off all laptops fro another 4 or 5 days. Very nearly bought a inspiron 1545 with 250gig HD 2gig core 2 duo 3gig ram and 6 cell battery for £260, infact I still might even tho I don't really need a new laptop or have any money but its so god damn tempting.......

[Houdini]

^ That's the best deal I've ever heard.  Wish I'd seen that around Xmas.

Been dying to say dig deeper for a week or so w/ this thread.  There's so much more available w/ just a little more expenditure; which I think is worth doing.

[robertostallioni]

Been dying to say dig deeper for a week or so w/ this thread.  

SNAP

[Fiend]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158887

I have this. Really good deal if your willing to spend this much.

Hmmm I see. Sounds good. There are cheaper variants too: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158888 , this could seem a fair compromise. I need a mouse too.

Or something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158353 too.

I don't know. 2gig ram minimum, more wouldn't hurt. 160 gb HDD is probably enough. Maybe it is worth me getting something cheaper with lower specs and adding ram? Processor, I don't know what's better out of Intel / AMD, are they roughly comparable? Graphics, this confuses me too, in the above examples the HP has a small GFX card, whilst the Toshiba has intergrated GFX with more memory assignable. Which is better?

Imagine I am the magpie of laptop knowledge, it might be better.

[slackline]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158887

I have this. Really good deal if your willing to spend this much.

Hmmm I see. Sounds good. There are cheaper variants too: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158888 , this could seem a fair compromise. I need a mouse too.

Or something like this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/158353 too.

Both look reasonable specs, and will no doubt serve you well.

I don't know. 2gig ram minimum, more wouldn't hurt. 160 gb HDD is probably enough. Maybe it is worth me getting something cheaper with lower specs and adding ram?

RAM is cheap, just get the spec and upgrade the RAM if you want, although if you're going to run Vista, 2Gb is the minimum recommended.

Processor, I don't know what's better out of Intel / AMD, are they roughly comparable?

Yes, much of a muchness really.  I believe Intel have a slight edge as they pull less power which is worth considering if you're going to be using it on the move, but theres really not much in it.  Both of the above are very similar speed processors Toshiba's slightly faster.

Graphics, this confuses me too, in the above examples the HP has a small GFX card, whilst the Toshiba has intergrated GFX with more memory assignable. Which is better?

Onboard simply means that the graphics chip is integrated into the motherboard, as opposed to being a separate card.  Generally separate cards are better, as they have their own dedicated RAM, so when GPU usage gets intensive, its not trying to use the system memory (which is what the "assignable" is referring to, depending on how much RAM you have installed, the maximum that can be assigned to the GPU is 1340Mb when you have 3Gb of RAM).  Both of those though appear to be integrated graphics cards (usually the case on most laptops).

[Fiend]

Useful, ta.

One more thing to through into the mix: XP vs Vista. A good friend of mine bought one recently and chose to rollback to XP. I've, errr, well in my vague online bumblings, I haven't heard anything good about Vista over XP. But this rollback is a very limited option at Ebuyer...

Also, same friend said roughly: HP and Toshiba both good, but HP used to be less reliable, whilst Toshiba are more clunky design. Thoughts??

[slackline]

Useful, ta.

One more thing to through into the mix: XP vs Vista. A good friend of mine bought one recently and chose to rollback to XP. I've, errr, well in my vague online bumblings, I haven't heard anything good about Vista over XP. But this rollback is a very limited option at Ebuyer...

Shouldn't have anything to do with Ebuyer, its HP/Toshiba who manufactured and installed the OEM verison of the operating system, so its they who you have to pester.  This from HP (although not Laptop, not personal edition of OS, but I'm sure there is similar out there), may be tricky though as I remember reading somewhere that the downgrade was only going to be offered for a limited period and can't remember when that expired.

That said my brother has recently got a new laptop with Vista and is very happy with it (as far as I can tell, as he's not been pestering me about problems!).

Also, same friend said roughly: HP and Toshiba both good, but HP used to be less reliable, whilst Toshiba are more clunky design. Thoughts??

Can't comment, only ever used Dell laptops to any great extent.

[magpie]

I don't think my Toshiba is clunky, it's nearly 18 months old now and still going great.  Also, I've had no issues with Vista and really quite like it, which I wasn't expecting to.  Anyone I know who has had Vista issues have been trying to run really fancy games and stuff.  For basic things it runs really well as far as I can tell and is nice and simple too.

Take all this with a large pinch of salt obviously, cause, well, you know, it's me talking and I am not known for my extreme computer skills.  ???

[slackline]

For reference I find the following two sites useful for reviews...

El Reg Hardware
Custom PC Reviews