[CONSUMER ADVICE] Laptop Buying

I'm getting my new work to get me one too but I don't really want to have thousands of MP3s on a new job's PC.

Since you seem to be quite iAware, I've been meaning to find out: is it normal to have a 6-7 second delay every between every 5th or 6th track when on 'shuffle'? It sort of growls and sounds like it's doing what it should, and the pause is only vaguely irritating, but I've never heard anybody else mention it. Again, I'm using the old 20G beast...

I need a new laptop.

my current one is OK but for, mostly, its build (probs w/ screen/power supply/CD/DVD). it has 512MB RAM, some shitty shared graphics, 30GB HDD, 1.2GHz processor. I've had it for 2 years and had it around europe and america for almost a quarter of that time--it hasn't lasted too badly.

I will be using the new one for drawing and modelling, mainly, so memory and extra, dedicated graphics memory is most key. the bigger the screen, the better. the better the processor, the better. of course. CD/DVD. not too fussed about HDD, since I have an external 200GB drive, so 30GB or so would prob be fine. the more robust, the better, too.

tell me things I don't know. PLEASE GUYS

COME ON PLEASE

oh, would like to pay less than £1200/$2200 but if there was something great, for a little more, who knows?

COME ON PLEASE PLEASE

I have a 15" screen, just now, and that is OK. ideally, I would have a 12" or 14" and another 19"+ screen to plug it into, on my desk!!!!!!!!

it's the graphics memory that makes it difficulter. HP look good and toshiba look good, too. sony is expensive, yes.

: S

yes, I only just looked at the micro anvika, now--never heard of it, before, but it seems to be priced the same, everywhere else. dabs.com, simplycomputers/whatever.

thanks, for the advice!!!

BUT--it is still over £400 under the retail price and he says it has 1024MB RAM instead of 512MB. I am scared!!! what do I do?

I have even looked at getting a train to WREXHAM, tomorrow or so, and BACK! to pick it up, if I win it. it would cost £70 and ten hours of travelling but I would be a bit safer, that way.

anyone got any ebay horror stories, to put me off? or are you good at spotting potential SCAMS?

but, haha.

I went to john lewis, today, and looked at the HP 17" laptop, that I wanted. it seemed a little less robust, than I had hoped for. I looked around and found this. it is the same spec, as the HP, but with double the RAM and the memory card reader is hotswappable, with a second battery and stuff. also, the lid is steel. robuster. it is also slightly smaller and lighter. it is priced at slightly higher, than the HP. I have found some, on ebay. it seems that gateway have kinda stopped trading, in the UK. does anyone know any more?

Oh, and beware of random refurb outlets, I bought a laptop from Refurb Depot and they sent me a piece of shit that wasn't working properly and then gave me massive attitude and headaches when I tried to return it - had to send my credit card people after them, who luckily saved me from getting ripped off to the tune of $1100.

I've bought parts and things from Buy.com and they've been great so far. What about checking customer reviews on Amazon to see what others say? Also epinions, even searching on Slashdot. Best to do your research.

mine is over a year old and i havent had it freeze up on me to the point of rebooting a single time. it is fabulous. pretty quiet as well.

Well, my sister and a friend, both with good positive feeback, were phished and before they realised it high end electrical goods suddenly appeared on their seller lists. Look at their payment options, avoid anything which asks for a money order or wire transfer only.

- Can't be a Mac. Boo hiss etc.
- Reasonable price (around 1200 UKP tops - cheaper the better)
- It'll be used for basic Home Office stuff - no need for
super-duper graphics accelerator etc. Reasonable sized HD
(20Gb would be fine). Processor needs to be good enough to
handle Dreamweaver, Word, Excel, Acrobat. Not blazing super
duper but not clunky old shite
- key issue - needs built in 56K Modem, Ethernet card and
wireless ready - 11g standard if poss. But wireless is not necessary if has PCMIA card slot for
wireless card - how much do they go for? Is it better to go
for a built in standard, or use card slots?
- Pretty robust as it'll be moved a bit, and not too heavy
either (ie, given the price, a nice Vaio is out, but nor do
we want an anvil typewriter stylee thing).

A general tip is to buy a laptop which uses the Pentium M CPU (Centrino) since the CPU uses less power than the Pentium 4. Oh, and I'd choose a built-in wireless solution instead of using the PCMCIA route.

The Dell Inspiron line looks like it has a few good deals depending on what he's looking for.

Samsung X20 might be what you are looking for.

I also think the screens on the Vaio are superb; are samsung screens OK?

do you own a laptop?

MAXDATA ECO 4000 IW
Basic System

Processor: Intel® Celeron® M processor 370
(1.50 GHz, 400 MHz, 1 MB cache)
Operating System: Original Microsoft® Windows® XP
Home
Display/Resolution: 15.4 inch TFT -WXGA (1280 x 800)
Capacity: 256 MB DDR2 SDRAM
Chipset: Intel® 910 GML / ICH6-M
Disk: 40.0 GB hard drive, 5.400 (U/min)
Graphics: Intel® Media Accelerator 900
Sound: HD Audio System
Drives: DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Modem: Internal 56k modem/V.92
WLAN: WLAN 802.11 b/g
Network: LAN 10/100 MBit/s onboard
Interfaces: 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x PCMCIA Type II,
1 x LAN, 1 x Modem, 1 x IEEE1394
(FireWire), 1 x VGA external,
1 x S-Video-Out, 1 x Line-Out,
1 x Line-In, 1 x Mic-In,
1 x Kensington Lock
Dimensions: 353.8 x 25–33.5 x 250 mm
Weight: approx. 2.9 kg (depending on
configuration)
Software: Norton AntiVirus, Nero Express,
Power DVD Player
Warranty: 2 year warranty, 1 year pick-up &
return service (have to check this...)

or hang on longer for a low-end refurb mac costing twice as much, and with the possibly still latent possibility of making me FURIOUS every other day?

price: £300 vs £210
proc: celeron 1.5 vs pentium m 1.7
xp: home vs professional
ram: 512 vs 512
hd: 80 vs 80

cant remember the rest of the stuff, i only bought it to fuck around with linux on, though the fact that it runs better than my powerbook means i might shift reaktor over there.

i guess they're pretty comparable, but the fact you can pay £90 less not to have celeron must be worth investigating

a 2.16ghz macbookpro is £1349. and apparently you need some sort of seatbelt too

other than some graphicy stuff, explain to me what is so good about the MBP. you can shout if you like, i don't mind!

I wonder if I can hold of till WWDC.... Ed, any word on what's next for the desktop Macs?