cheap laptop?

[andyfromotley]

Hi ya,

my old computer is finally dying. Want to replace it with a laptop. Want to spend as little as poss,

i use it mainly for surfing the net, (cycle chat etc), i keep the family photos on their, (about 5-600 so far) Skyping my family, so built in webcam would be handy,would think about keeping/editing home video on it.

Any suggestions? i see that e buyer do acer and fujitsu PC's for about £300, any good? What sort of spec should i look for? Oh must be wireless too.

simple advice appreciated

ta Andy

 

[andyfromotley]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139121 this look any good?

 

[fossyant]

It does look fine - OK for web and stuff

We have a main PC that's pretty nippy, and a 'free laptop' via AOL - it's a single core 1.8ghz, 1 gb ram, and 80 gb HD - fine for web and word etc as that's why we got it - it will play games like Lego Starwars 2 with some of the graphics turned down (but not noticable).

As for storing photos - get an external backup drive for about 60 notes and keep copies, or at least back up to DVD !

 

[CopperBrompton]

Video editing is the big challenge for your spec. You really want a beefy processor, a decent graphics card and 2Gb+ of RAM for that.

For the rest, assuming you're not doing major photo-editing work, pretty much any laptop will do the job.

Ben

 

[yenrod]

I'm looking for a LT for a song or really cheap

 

[domtyler]

I want a top of the range, multi core processor laptop, weighing less than a kilo with widescreen monitor, super fast graphics, 4 gigs of ram, at least a terabyte disk but don't want to pay more than a hundred and fifty notes!

 

[andyfromotley]

thanks guys,
think this one'll do the job, (i may have misled about my intention to video edit, just considered storing video on pc, but its no biggie.)

will order one today.

andy

 

[fossyant]

Don't forget an external drive, otherwise get religious about backups !

 

[marinyork]

Yeah especially if it doesn't come with disks.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

Video editing is the big challenge for your spec. You really want a beefy processor, a decent graphics card and 2Gb+ of RAM for that.

For the rest, assuming you're not doing major photo-editing work, pretty much any laptop will do the job.

Ben

not necessarily true, i have a machine with less than 1gb of ram that runs final cut pro with no problems at all.

if you can find a second hand macbook or g4 powerbook with built-in wifi (or a wifi-card supplied) i'd rate that over a cheap wintel laptop which probably won't last very long. i bought a second hand g3 powerbook which lasted over 10 years from new, so apple do make durable kit, which partly explains why they are pricey in the first place. the intel macbook can run windows or linux on it, if need be.

 

[marinyork]

Nvidia don't offer acceleration on linux

 

[Night Train]

I got my cheap (free) laptop by renewing my subscription to AOL for wireless broadband. I got a free laptop, wireless modem and my phone calls on Talk Talk for less then I was paying to AOL before. I don't use my home phone for amy outgoing calls so talk Talk wasn't an issue. The laptop is a Dell inspiron 1520 running Vista Basic, 1.84Ghz, 1014mb RAM, 80Gb hard drive.

 

[numbnuts]

Novatech

 

[mr Mag00]

novatech too. £233 inc vat atm