Please be patient with a complete computer numpty, I have looked at many laptops on internet stores etc, only to confuse myself even more.
Having been very fortunate in the past with the donation of a pre-owned laptop from my daughter. This has had everything I have needed on it, the size of memory / hard-drive it has is a mystery to me. I think 2GB memory with Windows Vista.
I am now in a position that I need to go out there and actually purchase a new laptop. My existing one is in a very sorry state, the screen is cracked, one hinge is broken, the battery only lasts about 30 minutes and most of the casing is held together with tape. (It has had a long hard life). Security has been linked to daughter's Norton arrangement.
It runs very hot, often stopping, I assume due to overheating, and to be honest I would like a new one anyway! There is no 'new' hand-me-down one on the horizon for some time.
Firstly, my main requirements for the machine would be:
Internet browsing, shopping etc
Skype calls
Basic word processing
Watching i-player
Storing and editing photos
Sending / recieving e-mails
Wireless capable
Most of these needs I assume would be in the box with a new laptop. I can always check that there is a web-cam for instance and that it has wireless gubbins.
Would a basic word processing system be in the system? I have discs for Microsoft Works SE9 and Microsoft Works 2000, would I be able to load either of these into a new laptop if necessary?
I have up to £400 to spend, which I would hope should be ample.
What I would like is advice on what size memory and hard-drive I should consider.
Thanks in advance.
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£400 ample for your needs. Mate just picked up a Dell machine which had Microsoft office start which was Word and Excel (probably cut down, not really sure) and would do all you want and more. Daughter has just bought an Asus under £300 which also is a nice machine. Mrs is using an old Medion laptop for just the same as you, they are around in Asda now for around the £300 mark.
Don't forget to price in some external media to backup your photos to!
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We bought a very decent Lenovo from PC world for £299, in April this year.
The spec. is good with loads of RAM, a decent sized hard drive, built in webcam etc.
No software, but Libre Office is free and fully compatible with MS Office output.
Free firewall- PC Tools, or the Windows 7 built-in one is pretty good.
Free anti virus: Microsoft Security Essentials, or Avast! free,or Panda Cloud Free.
Sorted!
(I'm currently running Panda Cloud Free + PC Tools Free on my ACER 64 bit laptop and they are good together with my set-up)
Last edited by: Roger on Sun 30 Sep 12 at 23:26
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We bought a Medion I3, 4GB of RAM laptop for £280 brand new from Ebuyer for my dads 60th. Seems very well made for the money. I also have a Medion netbook and again it is brilliant for what I paid for it. I am not normally a fan of "no brands" but I find Medions are so cheap they are worth the gamble.
Avoid the lower end AMD processors, they are so slow they are pathetic.
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"...Would a basic word processing system be in the system?"
There's a good chance that it will free Microsoft Office Starter - which include the basic Word & Excel programs. They have very non-intrusive MS advertising in a narrow column
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Thank you for the replies.
I will go out and see what is out there today, I am in no great rush to get the replacement. Hopefully I will be able to play with some in the stores.
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There seem to be a lot of netbooks out there dressed up as latops i.e. laptops with fairly weedy (although adequate for most tasks) prcoessors; I'd look for a Core i3 machine, plenty within budget, gives better future proofing.
In terms of software then indeed most machines will come with the stripped down version of Office 2010, personally I'd say if you're used to Office 2003 or earlier than switching to free alternatives OpenOffice or LibreOffice will be far less painful - unless you're using Word's more esoteric functions.
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Your requirements can be fulfilled by the sub-£300 laptops at Comet for example: www.comet.co.uk/c/Laptops/Laptops/1954
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Do you take your laptop out and about with you much? If so, weight and battery life are the priorities. If not, a larger, brighter screen is worth seeking out.
Lenovo (ex IBM) tend to be solidly built, durable, but not very exciting. I've had a series of Dell Latitudes through work, all of which are good workhorses, if heavy to carry through an airport at around 1.7kg each.
I also have a 2008 vintage Compaq netbook that's still going strong, and it no bulkier to carry than a page-to-a-day diary. But at under 2 hours battery, even a decent length coffee break availing of McDonald's free wifi is enough to wear it out.
HP/Compaq have newer model laptops that are like grown-up netbooks; something like these might meet your needs without breaking the budget.
Or, depending on how much Word/Excel stuff you intend doing, how about an iPad and an external keyboard? You can get refurbished ones from the Apple Store online at ~20% discount; the iPod I bought recently was in perfect condition. The Apple fans should be able to advise how suitable that combo is for your needs.
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four wheels good...
I am pretty qualified to answer your conundrum because I don't know much.
Screen size: do you want 13 or so inch or 15 or so inch wide ? I went with 15.
Pretty much any computer on sale now does what you want anyway.
Go with a recommended brand - Lenovo in our case.
To be up to date-ish get an Intel processor that's i3 or better. AMD, Celeron aren't really rated as top notch.
4GB RAM is plenty good enough.
You won't be storing thousands of photos, films and songs so any hard drive of 300GB upwards will be plenty good enough.
Buy it NOW while they are still being shipped with Windows 7 - it'll be Windows 8 or nothing in a month or so.
My hard hat is on, the sand bags are filled and I'm bracing myself for expert dissing.
Last edited by: Dulwich Estate on Mon 1 Oct 12 at 19:12
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>>
>> Buy it NOW while they are still being shipped with Windows 7 - it'll be
>> Windows 8 or nothing in a month or so.
>>
Good point!
Agree with whole post actually ;-)
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>
>> My hard hat is on, the sand bags are filled and I'm bracing myself for
>> expert dissing.
Nope - no dissin from me. The point about Windows 7 is well made.
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>Nope - no dissin from me.
Why would you diss him? Dulwich specifically said expert.
;-)
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expert in dissing or expert in IT? :-)
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Hm, Saw that on my travels and thought it looked the biz. £330 so went for it, I had already seen it on t'internet before my trip to town and had it down as a possibility.
Using it now,really good to have a screen without a big black leaf shape over it and a hinge that works.
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Did you back up the operating system to DVDs.
It took 3 DVDs for ours.
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It has something called Cloud, is that the same? Remember I am a computer numpty. It hasn't a DVD slot anyway. Perhaps a memory stick or two would work?
I am slowly working my way through the owners manual on-line as the paper manual just about covers the switching on and off bit.
Am playing with the face recognition log-in at the moment - some people are easily amused.
Last edited by: four wheels good... on Tue 2 Oct 12 at 11:22
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>> It has something called Cloud, is that the same? Remember I am a computer numpty.
>> It hasn't a DVD slot anyway. Perhaps a memory stick or two would work?
>>
Eh? the Lenovo I linked to above has a DVD burner for sure.
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"Eh? the Lenovo I linked to above has a DVD burner for sure."
If the layout is the same as ours you'll find a tiny recess with a button to push in on the right hand side of the case. It's a little nearer to the bottom than the centre. Press it in and the DVD cradle will pop out sideways. The Lenovo software "talked" us through it - it was easy.
With your 3 discs in stock, in the event of a major issue which will even prevent you accessing the area on the hard drive containing the information, you'll be able to reset the computer to the original settings.
Please do it - a mate of mine didn't, his machine went pear shaped and he needed a computer shop to get it back running.
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Venturing out for new lap-top - smokie
