Choosing a good laptop

[themoose]

I know a lot of people on this forum will have laptops, so I'm asking for some help choosing one :)

My budget is around £500 (inc router - £25). Thats about $850-$900 today.

I'm looking for these specs; are they good for laptops?


1.5GHz+ Processor (pref. Intel)
512MB RAM
1.5"+ Screen
60GB HD
DVD+/-RW Drive
XP Home/Pro (or Apple OSX if in budget)
What brand(s) do you have? Is it any good?

Thanks for any help.

[T^2]

That's a good estimate of what you'll get for that price, looks like you did your homework :). And as to brands, I would recomment: Acer, Dell, Compaq and maybe..custom built?

[Galaxy-Hosts.com]

I have a Gateway laptop with a AMD Turion 1.8 GHZ processor and 512 MB RAM that is a great machine. I got it at Best Buy with a router for about $900 USD. I chose gateway over Dell because it had a 1 year warranty as standard and Dell had a 90 day warranty. I also wanted a Turion as I prefer AMD, but thats a personal preferance. But I can say I have no regrets, its been great.

[Galaxy-Hosts.com]

I got my laptop from a Best Buy retail store but I just found it on their website. Here is the link http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7727597&type=product&productCategoryId=pcmcat65600050005&id=1140393588851 It looks like the price has come down a little in the last two and a half months.

[themoose]

Hmm, thanks.

I've had a look at a few UK stores;
http://www.dabs.com/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11105&NavigationKey=4294959538&NavigationKey=42310000&NavigationKey=41570000&NavigationKey=44360000&NavigationKey=42210000&NavigationKey=41700000&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1
is quite expensive but its usually cheap. I may have to go eBay.

I think I'll get Acer brand, I've heard good things about them.

Any more help?

[Galaxy-Hosts.com]

I have also heard good things about acer, that was my second choice. If bestbuy.com does not ship to UK you might want to check www.circuitcity.com they are usually priced about the same as Best Buy here in the US. Also Walmart.com should have Acer as their stores carry Acer,and they may be willing to ship to the UK.

[themoose]

When buying from the USA theres a lot of things, like custom duty or VAT - it'll end up cheaper buying from UK.

[Galaxy-Hosts.com]

You may still want to look into Walmart, according to this article they have UK based stores. http://www.pjonline.com/Editorial/20000729/business/walmartopens.html

[themoose]

Asda, yeah. I'll look into it thanks, but i think their more foody than electronic.

edit// yeah, check their site; nothing about PCs :(
http://www.asda.co.uk/asda_corp/scripts/homePage.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0628971097.1144007331@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccdaddhfdgighhcfkfcfkjdgoodgjg.0&---------

[Yellowmc]

Click Here (http://www.savastore.com/productinfo/product.aspx?catalog_name=Savastore&product_id=10284286&pid=5&rstrat=8881)

A mate referred me to that a while back but I decided not to go for a laptop and just purchase a desktop computer.

[aggiedude]

You will find your best deal with Dell or Acer has a model at a $500ish price. However I highly recommend Toshiba Laptops. I still use one that my father got back about two jobs ago its a Portege 3110CT and its not as fast as my desktop but its perfect for what I do. So I would check toshiba for deals first then Dell and then Acer.

regards,
aggiedude

[themoose]

You will find your best deal with Dell or Acer has a model at a $500ish price. However I highly recommend Toshiba Laptops. I still use one that my father got back about two jobs ago its a Portege 3110CT and its not as fast as my desktop but its perfect for what I do. So I would check toshiba for deals first then Dell and then Acer.

regards,
aggiedude

Toshiba? Thats cool; I just found this:

http://www.europc.co.uk/pages/ProductDetail.aspx?PID=57910

[TJR Networks]

Apple's MacBook Pro is outside your budget, but new iBooks (probably going to be renamed MacBooks) should be out within a month or so which you may want to consider, especially considering you can now run both Mac OS X and Windows on a single system. :)

[daxriggz2004]

A couple members of my family got Dell's lowest priced laptop and they're really good. They both got out with everything you've stated in your post for right around $700. I bought their XPS2 (M170) and am VERY pleased with it, it seems that Dell knows what they're doing when it comes to laptops.

Check out Notebook Forums (http://www.notebookforums.com) for any and all information you'd ever want to know about laptops. Best of luck in your purchase. :)

[ced]

Sony vaio ?
it's good ?