Re: O/T - Need a new laptop

On 12 Oct, 07:16, Ed <edward.a.bow...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 11 Oct, 21:11, m...@xxxxxxxxxxx (Wayne Stuart) wrote:





Ed <edward.a.bow...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 11 Oct, 16:49, m...@xxxxxxxxxxx (Wayne Stuart) wrote:
Peter Parker <stortf...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 11 Oct, 14:12, Ed <edward.a.bow...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Where is the best place to get recommendations for a new laptop?

I really dont know where to start. Presumably i want a big-ish screen
as it will double as a desktop, I need a decent amount of memory and a
dvd writer. But what else?

Get a Macbook Pro ... everything is there and no chance of viruses ...
it's the best value
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro
?mco=MTA4MTU1ODQ

All very nice if you're in the market for a 'premium' lappy - I have one
myself - but the OP hasn't specified a budget.  Says he wants a "big
screen" - presumably 17 inch plus - which for a Macbook Pro puts him
into £1800+ territory.  A very nice piece of engineering, but at that
level, I'd guess a little too 'luxury' for most.

To the OP, you need to decide on how much you're willing to pay.  And
then you need to decide what you plan on doing with it specifically..
Only then can we make any reasonable recommendations of specs, brands,
platforms and models.

OK, Well the situation is that we have a desktop and a laptop, and
both have died. The laptop HDD has failed, and the wife has decided
she wants an all singing all dancing new one. I am sure for about £40
I can get a man to put in a new disk for me, and that would probably
be fine, but it is about 7 years old and has been battered by heavy
use by me, her, and our two kids. Then there is the PC, that seems to
need a new PSU. For a while it would occasionally refuse to boot, but
turning off at the mains for a while then turning on, leaving for a
few minutes and then turning on would fix that. Now, however, the best
I get is a little flicker of the power light and nothing else. Again,
it will probably only cost me £30 to get a new PSU fitted to find out,
but that is also about 7 years old and similarly battered by the kids..

I am hesitant to get a new machine, however, as my mum has a laptop
with vista on and it constantly 'bongs' up with error or warning
messages and I can envisage some loud expletives. All we really need
is a reliable machine to surf the web, do homework, send email, store
photos and do the weekly shop. I'd rather get the PC going again so
the eldest can play his club penguin or runescape cobblers on that, so
a remote diagnosis of the fault on that would be grand.

I did look at the Macs, but a friend has a mac and it's completely
backwards compared to a windows pc and more to the point the kids
would probably break it.

That's somewhat a matter of perspective.  If you're used to the Windows
way of doing things, adapting to an unfamilar platform's way of doing
things inevitably takes some accimatisation.  Some adapt quickly and
loudly proclaim they've found their computing nirvana.  Others are too
set in their ways to ever adapt no matter how long you give them.

Is that any clearer?

Sort of.  But you still haven't stated a budget.  Everything you've said
you want to do could be achieved with any PC of recent years.  But you
could also get from A to B with a Tata Nano... but would you want to if
you could afford something better?

--
This message was brought to you by Wayne Stuart - Have a nice day!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

With respect, I refuse to look at it that way around.

It's like when I was re-doing my kitchen a few years ago, we sat down
in 'Magnet' and the woman said 'So how much do you want to spend?' I
don't want to give someone a load of money and let them waste it to
bring up my spend to their target. I want to spend as little as
possible but still get a nice kitchen. She suggested £10k as a
starting point, so we got up and left. All kitchens are essentially
just white MDF boxes with varying worktops and doors. In the end we
spent under £2k at ikea and got a great kitchen.

So in the same way I want to spend as little as possible but still get
a reasonably specced machine. It doesnt need to be brushed aluminium,
for example.

What features should i be looking for in a computer, what is the bog
standard one going to cost, and why are others dearer. Are there
brands to avoid, things to look out for? A bad keyboard can render a
laptop unuseable to a touch typer, for example.

Clearly half the price of Apple equipment is not because they are
better but more to make them look exclusive and they could sell the
machines at two thirds the price if they wanted to.- Hide quoted text -

Ed, firstly, I'll preface my contribution by stating that I am in
business providing IT support and services, and I answer these sorts
of questions every day.

There are lots of different laptops at evrery possible price-level, so
"the world is your oyster". However, for a general-purpose laptop, you
should be thinking about spending somewhere between £350 and £650.
Look for a medium to high-speed processor (Intel = 5100 or higher),
and plenty of RAM (at least 2GB); available hard-disk sizes will be
upwards of 160GB, go for the biggest you can afford (500GB sounds a
lot, but digital photos and music will eat that space).

Screen-sizes go up to 17-inch, but these are quite heavy machines. If
you are only transporting it from the dining-room to the sitting-room,
then the weight will not be a problem - if you are taking it out-and-
about regularly, then think about a 15-inch or 13-inch for lightness.

I always recommend Toshiba. Not the sexiest of machines but solid,
reliable and they produce high levels of customer satisfaction. At the
moment, if you buy a Toshiba business-level machine, it will be
supplied with Vista-Business on-board, a downgrade disk for XP-Pro,
and a voucher for a "free" upgrade to Windows-7 when it ships ("free"
plus £20 handling-charge).

Bear in mind that MS-Office is not included with any laptop. Some
machines will be pre-loaded with a "trial" version of Office - don't
be fooled, this will only work for 60 days - after that, you'll need
to buy a licence.

Re your desktop - as described, it sounds as though the CPU-fan has
failed. Possibly a PSU fault, but more likely just the fan. Likely
cost is £15 for parts plus labour.

If you'd like to discuss further, off-list, my email is valid.

--
WH
.

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