laptop

[greenandmean]

SWMBO is looking for a laptop, any suggestions for which one to buy or which to avoid.

[Jumpy07]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/186602

[Blatman]

What's the intended use? Business, home?

Does she run CPU or memory intensive applications?

Does she need networking or filesharing options?

Is battery life important?

[peterg]

Got a budget in mind Paul?

We have Dell laptops at home and they've been OK - you'll get a good spec for under £400

Acer laptops like this one are used by a few people I know of with no problems either.

also check out what Tesco Direct etc have on deals  

[greenandmean]

Intended home use, mostly she is using ancestry to trace family history, don't envisage much use away from home so battery life not number 1 priority.

Bear in mind you are conversing with a complete computer numtie here.

[peterg]

Toshiba at Tesco for £339 nice big screen for er, older eyes  

Acer for £359 similar spec to the Toshiba and scores 9.7 out of 10 in impartial reviews  

[pistonbroke]

Paul you wouldnt need anything spaecial for that , most all modern laptops would fit the bill , just make sure it has good wireless conectivity and has the software she needs , Windos home would prolly do all she asks .

I just bought a 5 year old Dell 810 in purfect nik off fleebay for £150 which i find great .

hth

hows the hernia doin mate you doing squat thrusts yet  

[Barry Ashcroft]

Small, portable & perfect for surfing & word/excel etc with a card reader for pics it's all I use.

And a bargain

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MSI-WIN....0c0e27d

[peterg]

Think a 10in screen may make looking at complicated family trees difficult for someone of a more mature type, eh Paul  

[carpetstu]

Avoid Hewlett Packard. i had to threaten to sue a national electrical retailer to get a faulty one sorted.

I have an Acer, Sony Vaio and Dell and all are good bits of kit.

I had a Toshiba a while back and that was fairly good too.

[Barry Ashcroft]

Avoid Hewlett Packard. i had to threaten to sue a national electrical retailer to get a faulty one sorted.

I've had the same problem with HP and would never buy one of there products ever again.

How did you get it sorted Stu?

[Barry Ashcroft]

Think a 10in screen may make looking at complicated family trees difficult for someone of a more mature type, eh Paul  

F11 for full screen

[carpetstu]

Avoid Hewlett Packard. i had to threaten to sue a national electrical retailer to get a faulty one sorted.

I've had the same problem with HP and would never buy one of there products ever again.

How did you get it sorted Stu?

Its a very long story mate! took six months in total to sort.

You are more than welcome to call me and i will give you the details.

It took a very good understanding of the sales of Goods act 1979 and threatening a CCJ to the retailer on a seven day notice in the end.

Final result was a full refund towards a replacement laptop.

[Blatman]

On the other hand, I use a high end HP NW8240 and it's been 100% reliable for over 5 years. This is a work tool so whilst I use a touch of sympathy, it gets *used*. I'm looking for another one as a spare, and they go for around 250 - 300 quid on the 'bay even now.

And I guess there's another choice. Do you buy a new consumer machine, which will have lots of memory and a big hard drive but an average pricessor, or buy a business machine which will have a smaller hard drive, a bit less ram but (usually) a faster processor. Either way, budget for betwen 300 to 400 quid unless you get a bit of a bargain.

For the intended use, I'd be going for a new consumer machine from Acer or Dell or Samsung or (if you must) Sony, and make sure it has Windows 7 and NOT Vista...

[scruffythefirst]

On my third dell in a row (upgradeitus) and its spot on.