Advice on new Laptop

PhoenixSP

PhoenixSP

PhoenixSP

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Ive read many of the threads here but as laptop hardware is constantly changing i thought a new thread would be better.

Basically i have never had a laptop before always having a desktop with my current machine containing:

i7 920 2.8Ghz
6Gb DDR3 trichannel ram
xfx 6950 2GB
bluray drive
dvd rewriter
1Tb f3 hdd,500gb samsung F1 hdd

i am looking for a laptop for uni that i wont see much slowdown with , obviously not expecting to play many games on it as i have my desktop but im going to uni at the end of the year and was promised a laptop .

It will be used for web browsing ,light gaming if possible,decryption programs,and security software. (Im taking a course on computer security /forensics so assume the cpu will need quite a bit of processing power), preferably the more workspace the better so 15" monitor is the minimum.

Budget of £500 but can stretch to £600 if needed, and thanks in advance for helping with my choice , i have until august to buy it.
 
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I will keep that in mind but i was thinking of starting with the brands recommended these days , the last time i heard about company reputations dell were the cheap option with Sony and possibly Toshiba being the ones to pick from is this still the case ?
 
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No, I would avoid sony due to their use of cheap components and high failure rate. Stick with something like Dell or Acer.
 
things seem of shifted a lot then , ive had nothing but trouble with the dell my mum bought in 08 mostly its the software and os tho.
 
id reccomend staying away from the newer dell laptops imo, im a laptop technition and have seen a lot of the newer models with really bad hinges, often ripping themselves apart, had quite a few of them
 
Dont think you can really blame Dell for their hinges breaking, if a hinge breaks it is because the user broke it, I dont care what they say, I have had customers telling me that their screen broke when they were just looking at it, yeah right.

Also you cant really blame Dell for the software issues, it really is nothing to do with them.
 
i can perfectly understand user abuse but if its as common as its made out then its possibly an issue wit the plastic or hinge itself. I can blame dell for software s when its dell software that causes me the problems. However it was a while ago so hopefully they dont put as much rubbish on the hdd before you even start it up.Are Dell good with Warranties ?
 
PhoenixSP said:
Are Dell good with Warranties ?
Click to expand...

I had a lot of dealings with them last year with my laptop (Inspiron 15) emails were replied to pretty much next day with phone call in-between. A engineer called within a few days to do various repairs.

I had a new cooling fan and heatsink as my one was very noisey during operation, then the GPU failed which required a new board, then a few weeks later this died, basically Dell replaced the whole laptop.
 
ok i know its quite a bit later but i now have sorted things out,

The budget is £500 but cant be stretched to £600 but no further , it wont be used for gaming primarily but i would like to get the best performance and power that will last me for the next 4-5 years , not really looking to save money as in i want to pay more now to benefit later. Uses will be note taking at uni , browsing,odd game and as im doing a computer forensics course im assuming there will be a few cpu intensive programs as well as any programming i do.

Ive looked at the dell outlet and am open to refurbs assuming that they wont have huge scraches all over the screen or something like that XD.
 
I've had two refurbs from the outlet and they looked brand new, I think if you go with refurbs rather than scratch and dent you should be ok (and can always return if you're not happy)
 
Dell Vostro 3550 comes with i5, ati 6630 (good for games lies between a ati5650 and nvidia gt540m) 7200rpm drive , 4gb mem, all for about £526 with 1 year next day on site warranty or and extra £50 to take it to 3 year on site next day warranty.
 
Is this any good :

XPS L502x
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Processor : Intel Core i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz
Hard Drive : 640GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)
4 GB (2x2GB)1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory
8X DVD +/- RW DRIVE
Display : 15.6" HD WLED True-Life (1366x768) with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera
Graphics : 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M Graphics card
Battery : Primary 9-cell 90W/HR LI-ION
LCD Back Cover : Design Studio Featuring 130+ Designs
Back Up Media Not Included

£585
 
mrk1@1 said:
yep
Click to expand...

any elaboration on that :P , though i appreciate the reply, as my roots are ground in desktops i have never owned a laptop so have no experience to draw on,

is the screen resolution and gfx card any good etc and will the processor speed perform well enough or should i look at i5's ?
 
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