Best Laptop with OS for under £300

[Tim M]

PS. My techo-phobe mother wanted me to get her a really basic laptop to learn on. I got her a brand new one from Dell for £199 ex vat. For the price, its pretty good - feels pretty solid and does everything you need it to. Might be worth looking at.

[Andy JC]

Originally Posted by Tim M

PS. My techo-phobe mother wanted me to get her a really basic laptop to learn on. I got her a brand new one from Dell for £199 ex vat. For the price, its pretty good - feels pretty solid and does everything you need it to. Might be worth looking at.

I would second that.

Dell have greatly improved over the last couple of years. If I'm asked to source a laptop for a client I often use Dell. Look at their business section and you'll find the Vostro range, really solid, well built and they start at £229+vat. They often have offers on and even if they don't it's easy so play the salemen off against each other as they work on commision - if you play it right you'll get one salesman trying to top a deal you've been offered by another

You will really struggle to buy one from anywhere with XP these days unless you buy second hand. Vista is not so bad, SP1 has improved things and as long as you have a relatively capable spec laptop it will be usable - a graphics card will help a lot due to the aero effects but at £300 you're unlikely to get one included in the price. Alternatively I'm sure there would be someone on here close to you that could install XP for you

Andy H - you'll prob regret asking the question, there are too many conflicting views to get a definitive answer - you'll hear a horror story about most manufactures out there, just try and pick out the bits of advice that make most sence to you

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by Andy JC

Dell have greatly improved over the last couple of years.

Now on my fourth Dell and

[codprawn]

Dell don't actually make anything - just badge engineering!!!

[Tim M]

Last time I was on the Dell website you could still order with XP

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Dell don't actually make anything - just badge engineering!!!

Is that a problem?

[Andy JC]

Originally Posted by Tim M

Last time I was on the Dell website you could still order with XP

Technically true but up until about 3 months a go it was free, now you have to pay an extra £40 and it's not just a standard XP install....

From their website: "Genuine Windows Vista® Business (SP1) with XP Pro installed and Vista & XP Media-English [add £40.00 or £1/month-1]"

Originally Posted by codprawn

Dell don't actually make anything - just badge engineering!!!

Also true but whoever does make their laptops for them (probably either Twinhead, IBM, or Toshiba) does a feckin good job so who gives a toss?!?

My job is to service Dell laptops for a corporate company and we are finding that, as time goes on, they're proving to be more and more reliable - good news for the comapny but maybe not so good for us in the long run

[codprawn]

Originally Posted by Andy JC

Technically true but up until about 3 months a go it was free, now you have to pay an extra £40 and it's not just a standard XP install....

From their website: "Genuine Windows Vista® Business (SP1) with XP Pro installed and Vista & XP Media-English [add £40.00 or £1/month-1]"



Also true but whoever does make their laptops for them (probably either Twinhead, IBM, or Toshiba) does a feckin good job so who gives a toss?!?

My job is to service Dell laptops for a corporate company and we are finding that, as time goes on, they're proving to be more and more reliable - good news for the comapny but maybe not so good for us in the long run

Not with a large mobile phone company by any chance?

I am not so sure about modern laptops and reliability - they chuck out a hell of a lot of heat which can't be good for electronic parts. And Dell had to recall over 4 million because of exploding batteries!!!

Are you aware of the problems with laptops that have the Nvidia 8400/8600 graphics? Great cards but most of them are dying just after the warrenty period - all the companies new about it and yet still offered them - all sorts of legal claims at the moment. Not amused as I have one in my lovely HP laptop - it's fine at the moment BUT........

[Andy JC]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Not with a large mobile phone company by any chance?

Previously Orange, now KPMG (both use Dell) so on the button there Cods

Originally Posted by codprawn

I am not so sure about modern laptops and reliability - they chuck out a hell of a lot of heat which can't be good for electronic parts. And Dell had to recall over 4 million because of exploding batteries!!!

Ours run very cool, much cooler than my 12 month old Tosh which is currently burning my legs

As for the batteries and cards, yes I am aware of the problems, just haven't had any 1st hand experiences - as I said earlier, you'll hear horror stories about most manufacturers and 3 years a go I hated Dell as much as the next man but recent experiences have been much more positive.

Anyway I didn't really want to get in to a deep discussion, this isn't gonna help Andy find a cheap laptop - mearly wanted to express my opinion

[Bigmuz7]

Originally Posted by Andy JC

Ours run very cool, much cooler than my 12 month old Tosh which is currently burning my legs

What the hells it doing down there

Originally Posted by Andy JC

this isn't gonna help Andy find a cheap laptop

Dont buy anything off this thread Andy ... you knew that would happen

[Hightower]

Sorry I've been absent guys! My desktop just kept crashing, so last night I stripped everything out and gave it a good clean, so far so good

Thanks for all the offers and advice, I'm definatly getting a laptop and have no problems using XP as it's my favored operating software. The Novatech one looks fine, however a copy of XP will be another £70 and a wireless router probably £50ish so is overbudget already

So if anyone can spec a laptop the same as the Novatech one with XP SP3 and a wireless router for about £320 then I'd like to talk with you please.

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Chris

Andy, if you can hold fire until January I guarantee you will see some ridiculous bargains in January sales as all the manufacturers dump stock they over manufactured.

My company recycles Laptops and PCs for Corporates and as such we have thousands of Hi spec Dells & IBM Laptops for around £130ex however you will need to re-install XP (there will be a licence) and whatever applications you need and only a standard trade wty of 30 days as we normally sell by the pallet.

If you want a cheap one let me know.

I'm afraid I can't wait till after Christmas, I'm not too sure when I'll next break down again

Is that £130 for a pallet load I'll be quite happy to talk with you Chris about one of these Laptops, but would obviously want to know the Spec of said Laptops and only if it's no trouble for you.

[Poly]

andy - if XP cost is putting you off - have you considered becoming a bonifide geek and going to Linux? e.g. www.pclinuxos.com which gives you very "windows xp"-like working environment with out spending a penny. You can download a bootable CD which will let you test it out before you use it (it is obviously slower running from CD - especially booting) but will give you an idea of the environment.

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Richard B

Andy, you're absolutely on target about the hardware spec stuff. I did all the RIB videos on a P4 with 512MB Ram That said, RAM is king and remember 1Gb minimum for Vista if you choose that O/S - I won't preach to you - choose whatever suits your own usage. Be aware that some laptops, particularly older designs and lots of used ones only support up to 1GB or 2GB RAM. Most new ones can support up to 4GB although this is not all addressable and the limit will always be slightly lower (usually between 3GB and 3.75GB) depending on a number of factors.

Anyway, that Novatach laptop looks OK, it's a fairly standard T2390 based system which is OK... current entry level spec and and much faster then some piece of dog-sh1t ex-lease you could buy for £130. Nobody makes any money from hardware these days - it's all done on the warranty and extras... I notice that Novatech want to sell you their two year package for a few quid and the O/S for a few quid as well.

I have a reseller account with a big name manufacturer who will beat every price, specification and warranty (always on-site, never return-to-base) offered. When you've decided, let me know and I'll do you a quote for a cash deal (I don't offer finance!).

Thanks very much! You know what I'm after Richard, if you'd care to PM me with an attactive price perhaps we can talk further.

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Polwart

andy - if XP cost is putting you off - have you considered becoming a bonifide geek and going to Linux? e.g. www.pclinuxos.com which gives you very "windows xp"-like working environment with out spending a penny. You can download a bootable CD which will let you test it out before you use it (it is obviously slower running from CD - especially booting) but will give you an idea of the environment.

The XP price isn't really putting me off, just out of my budget with the spec of Laptop advertised at Novatech.

I'm always up for trying something new so will look further into this Linux O/S.

Who's using it out there and is it take less memory to operate it?

[Hightower]

Originally Posted by Tim M

Andy, I was in the same position as you a few weeks ago. My four year old Acer finally died on me so I had to buy a new one. All I use it for is going on facebook, ribnet and ebay, using office and playing music. I didn't want to spend much - less than £400 was the target. After some quite extensive searching I bought an HP 6720 on ebay from a decent looking ebay shop. They had a special offer where you got an extra GB of RAM which was rather good. I think I paid £319 including delivery. It's brand new so has a 1 year warrentee. I'm pretty chuffed with it; its got a nice glossy widescreen, does what I want (most of the time). The only thing that lets it down is Vista; took me a week or so to get used to it, and I personally preferred XP. Vista seems to have a habit of closing IE on a very regular basis which is a pain. My advice is to spend some time looking on ebay for a decent brand new HP. I think they've got a pretty good reputation (avoid Acer - they are crap)

Tim, have you got a link to the Ebayer?

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Hightower

I'm always up for trying something new so will look further into this Linux O/S.

Who's using it out there and is it take less memory to operate it?

there are loads of people using linux worldwide. it comes in various distributions (or "distros" to use the geek speak). it certainly uses less memory than vista. probably less than XP too. there are free (open source) equivalents for most applications you find in windows. Linux is generally more stable that Windows. Also much less virus, spyware stuff to worry about (which means it needs much less overhead applications to deal with it).

The PCLinuxOS distro is specifically targeted at people who have never used Linux before and are migrating from Windows. There are other distros such as Ubuntu which are more popular with the true geeks. Generally good forum support.

I use it on one machine here and would consider it for any new machines I get.

On the downside drivers for unusual peripherals can sometimes be a headache (but so can drivers for Legacy stuff in Vista).

[MikeCC]

It's a few months old but this article might help. PC Pro group review

[Bigmuz7]

These guys (acer aspire one)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&k...l_86qy050c5j_e

were a which? Budget Laptop best buy this month .., in particular the Linux one

But I already said what I said about Acer

[codprawn]

Is it REALLY morally wrong to use a dodgy copy of XP if you have already purchased Vista and aren't using it???

I remember a spokesman for Microsoft saying that they are against piracy but if you are going to use a pirate copy they would rather it be their software than anyone elses!!!

it makes good sense - everyone is so familiar with Microsoft OS that all the big employers will stick with it because that's what their staff use at home.