Best Place To Buy a Laptop?

[stephec]

This, Steve is a great LT..


http://direct.asda.com/Acer-Laptop-...M-and-Vista-Premium/000582895,default,pd.html

Gem of a deal - if you can find it in an Asda !!!!!

Get at least 3gb RAM (vistas graphic madness) and as much Memory as possible/can get ! + something over 2GHZ for the H.DRIVE speed.

I've seen that one, but I'm not familiar with AMD processors. how do they compare to the Intel Core2 Duo that I'm used to on my works laptop?

 

[yenrod]

I've seen that one, but I'm not familiar with AMD processors. how do they compare to the Intel Core2 Duo that I'm used to on my works laptop?

I would have jumped at the chance of this had it been avail. when I got mine..so I wouldn't have been bothered re: Intel...as the features ie card reader webcam wireless... pretty good...with good memory & RAM !

http://www.amd.com/gb-uk/0,,,00.html

 

[Mr Pig]

I don't fancy an Acer laptop, I don't think they're the best made things in the world. For a cheap/mid-level laptop I'd stick to Dell or HP.

As I said, RAM is really cheap right now so I wouldn't worry about that. A Gig of RAM is typically under ten pounds including delivery, seems not that long ago it was five-times that.

It's really hard to compare Intel and AMD. We've only got one AMD computer in the house, a Dell laptop, against four Intel ones. It's worked perfectly from the day we got it, the only thing that puts me off buying AMD is that my sister works for Intel and goes in the huff! ;0)

 

[LondonCommuter]

Very happy with my Dell (that I'm using now) that I bought about 7-8 months ago for £400, bought the basic inspiron with some extra RAM and WORKS suite so I could have a more recent version of Word. Just don't go for any of the after care upgrades which is how they make their money. One regret is that I didn't get a bigger hard disk. Some people who work for me bought Acer's from amazon a few months before me and they all had problems

 

[stephec]

And to confuse things even further I've now been in to Tescos and seen this -

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.205-3429.aspx



Going in to Comet is putting me off this unfortunately -

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/510335/ACER-AS5735/tab/specification#spec

 

[marinyork]

It's really hard to compare Intel and AMD. We've only got one AMD computer in the house, a Dell laptop, against four Intel ones. It's worked perfectly from the day we got it, the only thing that puts me off buying AMD is that my sister works for Intel and goes in the huff! ;0)

Don't be daft. After netburst saga, AMD were the dominant budget manufacter for budget home users for years despite being the little David against the 100 pound gorilla. If you've only ever used Intel you're basically very weird in a nice way. This all changed with core2 where users have swung violently back towards intel. The new Phenoms are good, other than that it's a waste of time imho buying AMD. Then again if you compare them to a lot of the dated c2d chips being quoted on this page then the difference isn't so big.

 

[Mr Pig]

What I mean is that the two chips are different in design and in the way that their makers would have you asses them. One type of chip might be faster in one way, but slower in another. I can't really get my head around the different chip specs and what they will mean in the real world. It's bad enough trying to figure out just the Intel chips! To me it seems that buying a laptop at £400 it won't make much real world difference whether you get one with an Intel processor or an AMD.

Although I found this quite interesting. A couple of years ago AMD seemed to be taking great chunks out of Intel's hide. Dell were promoting AMD chips as the next happy thing. Things seem to have swung right back again though and I can't find any AMD laptops on Dell's website. Maybe they're there and I'm just thick! ;0) I just get the feeling that Intel are still the safer bet.

 

[marinyork]

Indeed not at £400. A lot of the laptops on this thread are updated c2ds (which are still out of date that's how far things haved moved on since I got my c2d in Jan '07).

Dell have given up on AMD like you suspect as have other manufacturers. The K10 was a big let down for AMD and like many companies, I don't think their merger with ATI did them any good, these things often lead to being a big distraction and time wasting exercise.

 

[Mr Pig]

Dell have given up on AMD like you suspect as have other manufacturers.

Do you know why that is? Just curious. As I say, the Dell/AMD laptop we have hasn't missed a beat.

 

[Llama]

+1 for dell in my experience they are excellent.
If you can wait Lidl and Aldi sell laptops good spec and very keen prices - Aldi meridian and Lidl Targa - aldi are the biggest retailer of pc's in Germany I read somewhere.

if you don't need the speed Morgan are good
As others have mentioned - dont go to the high street (especially pc world!)
good luck

 

[stephec]

So AMD Turion dual core or Core2 Duo?

I'm stuck between these two -

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.205-3429.aspx

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/510335/ACER-AS5735/tab/specification#spec

I'd prefer the Intel, but the thougt of being at the mercy of Comet's customer service is putting me off. At least when you buy electricals from Tescos there's no hassle with the warranty.

 

[Mr Pig]

Incidentally. I can get a three-month old one of these:
http://www.ciao.co.uk/HP_Pavilion_M...nt_Core_2_Duo_T7500_2_2_GHz_20_1_TFT__6951148

For £575. Two hard drives totalling 320Gb, 4Mb of RAM and a 20 inch display! Retail is around £1600 but you can get them for about £1000, so £575 is a good price.

 

[marinyork]

Do you know why that is? Just curious. As I say, the Dell/AMD laptop we have hasn't missed a beat.

It's not something I think needs explaining particularly. Dell were very, very late adopters of AMD. When they did adopt it was when Uncle Hector was in charge and during the waiting time for K10 Michael Dell and Hector Ruiz seemed practically bosom buddies. There was nothing particularly strange about this as from around that time some of Dell's business model seem to be selling the £350 Granny and Kiddie laptops and before C2D came out a lot of the AMD processors got a lot of bang per buck and you could go round putting Intel graphics cards in them. Since then we've had ATI bought out so the graphics pairing has gone and K10 was vastly overhyped and an unmigitated disaster for the company. Dell are bothered about image and when people who oversee granny laptops say they'll probably never buy AMD again a product line is dropped.

 

[Piemaster]

'Desktop replacement' springs to mind. Powerful, but not something I'd want to be lugging around. Must be pushing size / weight limits for airplane carry-on baggage.
I'm looking more at the other end of the scale - Samsung NC10. Screen is 1/2 the size!

 

[stephec]

It's not something I think needs explaining particularly. Dell were very, very late adopters of AMD. When they did adopt it was when Uncle Hector was in charge and during the waiting time for K10 Michael Dell and Hector Ruiz seemed practically bosom buddies. There was nothing particularly strange about this as from around that time some of Dell's business model seem to be selling the £350 Granny and Kiddie laptops and before C2D came out a lot of the AMD processors got a lot of bang per buck and you could go round putting Intel graphics cards in them. Since then we've had ATI bought out so the graphics pairing has gone and K10 was vastly overhyped and an unmigitated disaster for the company. Dell are bothered about image and when people who oversee granny laptops say they'll probably never buy AMD again a product line is dropped.

Is that a thumbs up or down for AMD, compared to Intel then?