Laptop Purchase Help

[drezha]

Right, I'd like a little help with my laptop purchasing descision if I may.

I was looking at this one on MESH. This one was pushing my limit (which is £500) but I thought as it came with a case and USB mouse (something I was going to purcahse myself seperately) I thought it work out about right.

Now my dad is helping to fund this purcahse (basically I'm paying him back in installments when each lot has come in). Anyhow he saw an advert for this one in a magazine advert for PC World.
This is now stretching my budget some more and I'm not sure if it's worth it. Both are free postage. (the sony cos I can pick up in town, MESH cos it's free) He's also offered a spare laptop bag he has at home.

Now I was looking at the laptop as a method of doing some uni work in the libraby (the 266MHz beast I was using before, it's HD died and it'd be not worth replacing it) and also using it as a laptop I can take to some TPR LAN meets. We mainly just use the laptops for older games such as Total Annihilation and UT2004. Was also looking for it to run some DC as well.

Based on that and manufacturer's rep, what would you recommend? I'm prefering the AMD really though as Dad is helping to fund I assume he wants me to get a Vaio as he uses them himself. (his last 2 laptops have been Vaio ones....) :roll:

[NeoGen]

The Vaio one you put the link has only 512Megs of RAM.
I strongly discourage that, as my PC has that ammount of memory too and it's frustrating sometimes. Get one with at least 1Gig of RAM, if possible 2Gigs. That should hold you well enough for any software you throw at it in the next 3 years at least, including even heavy stuff like Photoshop (if you're into graphics), Visual Studio 2005 (if you're a programmer) or Autocad (if you're into design)

[drezha]

Cheers Neogen. Asked around on TPR and my another site I'm on and they all said the Mesh one.

One was the fact it's got better specs as in more RAM and the nVidia card may not be great but it'll be better than the Intel one.

Graphics..I sometimes use a bit the GIMP everynow and then and I use Autocad a bit at Uni but price wise it's far to expensive to use at home, student wise. :shock:

Now to phone home

[Empty_5oul]

the vaio probably looks/feels nicer. and would be better for watching DVD's etc.

But for use the mesh is probably better, with extra RAM and a better graphics card.

To me overall the MESH seems the better option.

[drezha]

Just phoned my dad and as expected he wanted me to get the Vaio...I said I wasn't paying more for less (even if it does look more flash)

And yes it might be easier to get, in the fact that I can walk to town and pick it up.

And yes, I am paying for the laptop bag but I'm sure someone on eBay wants a laptop bag and the laptop bag you'll send me wont be sent, I'll have to pick it up at christmas and what would I carry the laptop in until then? :roll:

[Strongbow]

Hi Drezha,

I would go for one of these...

http://consumer.fujitsu-siemens-shop...dRange=1397658

It's an awesome notebook, you won't be wanting for much more - it has a Intel Core Duo processor and would run rings round the other two you mentioned. It is very sturdy and has a great keyboard, but above all, I work for that company so your support would be second to none.

We do do cheaper but believe me this is the one to go for.

If you need more info then PM me at anytime.

[Strongbow]

I've just found it cheaper at DABS going for £589.97 inc VAT...

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=44MY

[drezha]

Cheers Blackheath...

I would really have to squeeze over the budget to get that one... :?
Thats £90 + postage over my budget.

That MESH one was only really originally considered because it had the back and USB mouse. :?

Must admit the reviews look good for that one. We'll see. :roll:

Doesn't need to be hugely great. I mean mostly it'll be used for work...but I would like to say I have a dual core notebook

[drezha]

Just checked my emails...

I have an email from dabs.com...

reciept for a http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=44MY

turns out the one I bought the other day, they didn't give me a proper refund, they gave a credit note so my dad just used that again.
£578 on a business account. He said he'd put some money towards it so looks like I'm lucky there.

We'll see what it's like when I get it. Appears to be a desktop replacement machine really :twisted:

[Strongbow]

Good choice matey, now with all that dual core power when are you coming to crunch for us lot??? :twisted: