Looking for a Laptop...

[Peerzy]

Hi,

Basically I'm looking for a Laptop, the main use will be for Uni, however it's still going to need to do a few extra things:

* I have quite a bit of Music, so HDD needs to be a healthy 120GB+
* Ram must be 1GB or more
* I'd like it to come with some sort of version of Vista, but no other software is needed.
* DVD+/-RW is a must
* The usual stuff like a couple of USB and Firewire slots.
* Memory Card Reader, although it only really needs to read Memory Stick Pro cards.
* Wireless inbuilt (Isn't that standard on new laptops anyway) and it must have a LAN port.
* Processor needs to be relatively good. I'd like the best type if possible (Core 2 Duo - I think is the best but I really have no idea)
* 15" Display
* Not too fussed about the graphics card to be honest, just as long as it doesn't eat into the RAM
* Weight and Size doesn't matter as I'll be driving to Uni, although a nice battery life would be a plus
* Don't mind what brand

Any advice would be great, I'm not sure on a budget yet as I've gotta wait for the finance part of my Uni application to be processed and such.

Needs to be a UK site or UK shop. I've been looking round Ebuyer because I've used them before for other things but like I've said I'm not to sure what I'm looking for.

Thanks

[samoyan]

I recommend you to look for HP Pavilion series.

[lynx]

I'm pretty sure all systems have USB 2.0 built in these days.
On the other hand Firewire is rapidly becoming obsolete, so if you really want it you will probably need to get a PCMCIA card for about a tenner.

Other than that, here's one that pretty much meets your needs.
http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...d=lx.awp0x.092

OK, it's an AMD Turion X2 as opposed to Intel, but you get a 17" monitor and save about £100 for very little performance difference.

Full specs here

[clocker]

OK, it's an AMD Turion X2 as opposed to Intel

My but times have changed, haven't they?

Have to be self-deprecating when recommending an AMD now when just a year or so ago everyone wanted a green chip instead of blue.

[Virtualbody1234]

I'm pretty sure all systems have USB 2.0 built in these days.
On the other hand Firewire is rapidly becoming obsolete, so if you really want it you will probably need to get a PCMCIA card for about a tenner.

Other than that, here's one that pretty much meets your needs.
http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...d=lx.awp0x.092

OK, it's an AMD Turion X2 as opposed to Intel, but you get a 17" monitor and save about £100 for very little performance difference.

Full specs here

Yeah but maybe 15" screen is more important to him. A more compact size is important with a laptop.

I know that I personally wouldn't buy a laptop with a 17" screen.

[Peerzy]

I'm pretty sure all systems have USB 2.0 built in these days.
On the other hand Firewire is rapidly becoming obsolete, so if you really want it you will probably need to get a PCMCIA card for about a tenner.

Other than that, here's one that pretty much meets your needs.
http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...d=lx.awp0x.092

OK, it's an AMD Turion X2 as opposed to Intel, but you get a 17" monitor and save about £100 for very little performance difference.

Full specs here

Cheers,

I wasn't aware that Firewire was going out, and just thought it would be useful to have, but to be honest all my camera's and even Ipod are all USB now anyways so yeah I wouldn't need it.

Thats a nice Laptop, it's a brand I've heard of which is good, and the price seems very good compared to what I've been looking at.

Yeah but maybe 15" screen is more important to him. A more compact size is important with a laptop.

I know that I personally wouldn't buy a laptop with a 17" screen.

I'm a bit stuck on this one. I've never really seen a 17" in the flesh. All my mates have 14" or 15" and such. The compact size and portability isn't so much of an issue as I won't really be carrying it anywhere. It will be in my car as I drive to Uni everyday and then I'll just carry it to class or wherever, so weight isn't a massive issue either. I'd rather get laptop that's got a better battery life that look at the weight and size of it.

I'm going to look over that laptop Lynx suggested, my only reservation is the graphics card, but do you even get dedicated chips in laptops

Also under the extras part theres a TV Tuner USB for like £10, am I right in thinking I plug that into the Laptop then connect my TV up to the laptop and can record and watch TV on the laptop?

Cheers for all the suggestions guys.

[lynx]

my only reservation is the graphics card, but do you even get dedicated chips in laptops

You said you weren't bothered about the graphics card, but unless you are intending to do some serious gaming the built-in Go6100 chip should be perfectly adequate. Going for a higher spec chip bumps the price up dramatically.

Also under the extras part theres a TV Tuner USB for like £10, am I right in thinking I plug that into the Laptop then connect my TV up to the laptop and can record and watch TV on the laptop?

Don't know about connecting the TV up to the laptop, I haven't see anything that says it has TV-out. The next model up (9303) has TV-out, but that's based on the Go7300 chip. You'd need to check to be certain.

You can certainly watch Freeview TV on the monitor, and can probably record it too (depending on which model you get).

[Peerzy]

You said you weren't bothered about the graphics card, but unless you are intending to do some serious gaming the built-in Go6100 chip should be perfectly adequate. Going for a higher spec chip bumps the price up dramatically.

Also under the extras part theres a TV Tuner USB for like £10, am I right in thinking I plug that into the Laptop then connect my TV up to the laptop and can record and watch TV on the laptop?

Don't know about connecting the TV up to the laptop, I haven't see anything that says it has TV-out. The next model up (9303) has TV-out, but that's based on the Go7300 chip. You'd need to check to be certain.

You can certainly watch Freeview TV on the monitor, and can probably record it too (depending on which model you get).

The only game I'll be playing is Football Manager, which is all 2D and thus doesn't require a good graphics card. The only thing I was worried about is that with the Laptop having 1GB of RAM and running Vista and all my other programs I didn't want a graphics card taking away lots of shared memory.

I basically have a Freeview box in my room and I'd like to be able to connect that to my Laptop so I can record programs, I don't need the Laptop to output anything onto a TV screen and I saw that when I clicked the link for the Laptop as an added extra it had a TV Tuner USB Stick for like £15.

Also funny you picked that Laptop out because my Uni acceptance letter came through today with all the finance information and adverts from certain companies and there was a leaflet in there advertising this range of Laptops.

The one up from the one you suggested is £589 (Model: Acer Aspire 5613AWLMi) and is an Intel Core Duo T2350 Processor, 2GB of Ram, 160GB HDD but it has a smaller screen.

The budget is going to be about £600 and is it worth spending the extra £100 on that model?

Cheers again

[Peerzy]

This is a link to the stuff I got in the post;

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/deals

I think this is the same Laptop you mentioned, and this is the next model up.

[lynx]

I thought the difference between the 9301 and 9302 was the integrated webcam, but I can't see any difference between them now.

Unless you can see a desperate need for 2GB of memory, I'd recommend you go for the cheaper model and spend a large portion of the difference on the 3yr Collect and Return with Accidental Damage Upgrade. Suddenly ending up without a laptop during a critical part of your course could be disastrous.

I don't think you've got the idea of the USB TV stick - you don't need anything else except possibly an aerial connector. If you are in a good reception area the supplied mini-aerial will probably suffice.