New Laptop £600 budget.

xamliw · 14 Nov 2010 at 19:55

Hi guys,

So my Dell XPS m1530 has packed in on me after 2.5 years. The gfx card has gone and the motherboard needs replacing. Thats gonna cost me about £300-350.

Anyway, I've decided just to get another laptop. My budget is around £600. This will be my only computer, I'm thinking of getting a 17" screen. The Samsung R780 seems pretty good. I mainly use my pc for general browsing and skype, nothing too demanding, maybe occasional gaming such as TF2 and CS:S.

Ive seen a Samsung R780 for £649 with the following specs:
17.3" screen, i3 -370m, 4GB DDR3 ram and a 1GB ATI HD545V.

Just wondering if thats a decent deal and if you guys could suggest anything else.

olivier renault · 15 Nov 2010 at 00:17

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-540v.36461.0.html

It's low spec graphics card. Maybe a bit stretched for TF2 (CS:S will be OK).

I'd look at the GT330M version, or a Toshiba Pro L650-165.

Dunks · 15 Nov 2010 at 08:06

I've just ordered a Sony Vaio E Series with an i3-70M, 3GB DDR3, ATi 5650 (decent mid range card, play most games no problem at decent settings) and a 320GB HD for £658 delivered, might be worth a look since you can stretch to £649. They're also doing a free upgrade to 1080p.

Edit: Just realised it's a 17" you're after, worth a thought anyway.

olivier renault · 15 Nov 2010 at 09:22

That SOny looks nice. At £650, you can get a HD 5650, a bluray reader and a 1080p screens (Sony makes great laptop screens as well).

xamliw · 15 Nov 2010 at 15:58

Thanks for the suggestions.

What are your thoughts on the Samsung I suggested?

The R780 with GT330M are more around the £750 range, which seems a bit high to say I'm not going to be doing anything that demanding. Tbh I'm not really going to be gaming much if at all.

I just thought an i3 processor and 4gb ram is decent enough in the R780, not too fussed about the gfx, unless the HD545v is that bad. All I want is it to run nice while doing general tasks, such as web browsing, skype, watching movies, etc.

Am I right in thinking the display will be pretty good in this Samsung? I definitely would like a 17" screen as this is basically a desktop replacement and I'm not too bothered about moving it around, except around the house.

olivier renault · 15 Nov 2010 at 18:23

For the specs, £750 is too high. You can get a Sony with higher specs (bluray and all), or the Toshiba for a lot less. The GT330M is decent, but older generation (it's not DX11).

the HD 545v is in the same category as GT 310M, which is about 50% the power of the GT330M / HD 5650. So yeah, it's not in the same league.

xamliw · 15 Nov 2010 at 18:51

olivier renault said:
For the specs, £750 is too high. You can get a Sony with higher specs (bluray and all), or the Toshiba for a lot less. The GT330M is decent, but older generation (it's not DX11).

the HD 545v is in the same category as GT 310M, which is about 50% the power of the GT330M / HD 5650. So yeah, it's not in the same league.

Can you give me specific models or links to the Sony or Toshiba, so I can compare them? Also I dont think they're 17" are they?

Ive found another R780 with i3 2.14ghz, 4gb ram and with the GT330M for £680.