Laptop for general use

bc008845

bc008845

bc008845

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9 Aug 2009
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I need a laptop for general use, Internet browsing, office work, etc..

I would be running Ubuntu 9.04 on the laptop, and hence was considering one of the customisable laptops available on OcUK due to the ability for the laptop to be supplied with no operating system.

I consider myself to be a "power user", and as such I am interested in ensuring that the laptop which I get is quick, however graphically I am unlikely to be completing any 3D work, such as modelling or game playing.

I am currently considering the following:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-010-OK&groupid=959&catid=1236&subcat=

With 4Gb of RAM, 80Gb SSD, and T9400.

It is good? What is the opinion of other users of OcUK?
 
For the price range, usage and spec I would be looking no further than an Acer 5720/30

T7300
2-4gb ram
320+gb
4 hours battery on normal usage.
web cam, bluetooth, wifi, ird etc

We have 40 plus of them and they are without doubt an extremely strong chassis, in fact I would say that they are the best ive seen yet for build quality in their price range.
 
I very much appreciate the response, however I do not need 320+Gb, a webcam, bluetooth, etc..

I am interested in the idea of an SSD simply due to my desire for the system to run well.

Also, I would like to buy from OcUK or somewhere that I do not need to purchase Windows Vista, as I shall only be wasting this money.
 
In that case your options are limited, very few manufacturers will offer a machine without an os so you will have to go the custom built route by the sounds of it.

A SSD will certainly boost the performace but I wouldn't say its the be all or end all for the machine to run well. In office environments you will fill up 80gb extreamly quickly. Essentially you have speced a 1k machine, which either way you look at it, is a lot of cash to spend.

A little advice here if your looking for longevity. We all make mistakes and machines can take a beating, check that you can price up spare parts for the chassis, palm rests screen bezels etc, this has been essential for me in the past to keep from buying a replacement machine due to chassis damage.
 
VinceB1 said:
In that case your options are limited, very few manufacturers will offer a machine without an os so you will have to go the custom built route by the sounds of it.

A SSD will certainly boost the performace but I wouldn't say its the be all or end all for the machine to run well. In office environments you will fill up 80gb extreamly quickly. Essentially you have speced a 1k machine, which either way you look at it, is a lot of cash to spend.

A little advice here if your looking for longevity. We all make mistakes and machines can take a beating, check that you can price up spare parts for the chassis, palm rests screen bezels etc, this has been essential for me in the past to keep from buying a replacement machine due to chassis damage.
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I appreciate the very useful response.

I must contest that I will use 80Gb at all;my current machine has < 2Gb of personal files on it.

The reason I wish for the machine to be powerful is that I shall be using it during university as my main computer. I could forego the SSD if I was assured that the performance would not lower as a result. After all, if I am to be using the computer as a main machine it is likely that poor performance would be irking after only a short time.

Having considered performance, it is worth noting, perhaps, that my current machine (approximately 2 years old) runs fast enough, however there is always a desire for better performance.

Can any advice be given with regards to the apparent heat of a laptop that may be purchased? I ask merely because my main experience of personal ownership of a laptop has been with the Eee PC which seems to run rather hot; it is somewhat unnerving when a computer runs seemingly so hot, hence I would be interested to see an opinion of a more knowledgeable person than I with regards to prospective heat dissipation by the laptop.

By the way, I was intending on purchasing from the OcUK Customisable range, hence the link in the original post, therefore I am somewhat limiting myself to these options. I am not completely against purchasing a machine that has installed upon it an operating system, however I would need to be very satisfied that the machine would be well suited to myself.

I apologise for being such a difficult to please customer, however if I am to be potentially using this laptop for several years, it does seem sensible to consider the purchase carefully; also I have very little experience of laptops, as mentioned previously.
 
A SSD has a few advantages over a standard drive firstly the performance is, as you quite rightly say, better in the large majority of cases, however for your usage you are not likely to notice this much if at all.

Secondly they can take a hit and are more durable/better for battery life due to no moving parts, however consider this: I dropped my MSI machine from 5 feet onto concrete and the drive is still functioning without any issues what so ever. Here you need to consider the trade off between size, cost, performance and battery hit. This is a very personal choice, Myself? – I don’t think I could warrant the cost when looking at the benefit, others however swear by them.

Heat as you quite rightly mention is an issue and will have a detrimental effect on the build of the machine (often causing weakness in hinges and the plastic around the hinges/screen). This is one reason to make sure spares are available and reasonably priced. In the large majority of cases you will know when hot is too hot and clean out dust build up etc before it becomes a problem.

My MSI which is of comparable spec, p8400 with an overclock, 4gb ram, 9600gt runs surprisingly cool, the cpu idles in the high 30's and under load reaches the mid 60's. I have however let the heat build up in this and other machines. In this one I was lazy and left huge amounts of dust in the cooling solution this caused idling at over 80 and max temps of 100 plus (it was running very hot). Eventually this caused plastic around the top right hinge where the cooling solution vents air to become weak and eventually to fracture. With regular maintenance and less laziness I could have prevented this.

Most chassis vent near one of the hinges so this is often the weakest part to any chassis. Read up on reviews and make sure that there is a fairly decent infrastructure in place if a part breaks, the last thing you want is a 1k machine with a few nasty cracks and no way to repair.

Replacement parts for my machine, after the drop and heat issues (almost the entire chassis) cost around £80.

Im not sure if any of this will be any use at all but am just sharing some experiences.
 
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An HP Elite Book or Dell Latitude or other well made chassis uses metal for the hinges and the whole chassis of the laptop is typically magnesium alloy. The only way you could damage this with heat is if you put your laptop in a furnace.

Cheaper laptops do not have this kind of construction, but then you shouldn't need it if you are careful and mostly use it on a desk and or perhaps carry it to a lecture hall or an office and use it on a desk there for a few hours or whatever.
 
Moeks said:
An HP Elite Book or Dell Latitude or other well made chassis uses metal for the hinges and the whole chassis of the laptop is typically magnesium alloy. The only way you could damage this with heat is if you put your laptop in a furnace.

Cheaper laptops do not have this kind of construction, but then you shouldn't need it if you are careful and mostly use it on a desk and or perhaps carry it to a lecture hall or an office and use it on a desk there for a few hours or whatever.
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I agree with this for the most part :) My msi however is almost all brushed alloy and still managed to snap there. I suppose the fact that I am pretty heavy handed and by no means careful has some bearing on my ability to break all laptops.

The acer above that I mentioned is a magnesium alloy chassis and at the time of purchase we were paying £420 a unit. We have yet to have a breakage on this model which is part of the reason for my recomendation.

The primo on OCUK makes no mention of materials used in the chassis so it could be worth looking into this a bit more.
 
My google foo is letting me down, can't seem to find any info on the guys that produce this chassis.
 
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