budget laptop £450

lucid.mumbler · 30 Jun 2006 at 14:33

Hi there! I was hoping you could help me choose an appropriate laptop. Basically, it'll be in my living room and used to play music, watch DVDs and MPEGs and surf the internet.

it must have
S-Video out
built in wireless
decent soundcard (i'll plug it in to surround speakers)

it must not be
Dell

I have a measly budget of £450 and would rather not buy second hand, unless there was at least a year's warranty involved.

I'm not fussy about the size of the screen.

Can you help...?

Chicken #16 · 30 Jun 2006 at 16:20

why not dell?

Toshiba Equiems do what you ask and are quite stylish and some are under £400

squiffy · 30 Jun 2006 at 16:25

Chicken #16 said:
why not dell?

Terrible after sales service. Although Acer are quite bad as well.

What about a Acer Aspire 3004WLMi - LX.A5505.B86 edit scrap that no S-Video.

Energize · 30 Jun 2006 at 16:30

At least dell have good build quality though. They are probably one of the best performance for money wise. For those uses it doesnt matter what laptop you buy anyway they can all easily do that.

Chicken #16 · 30 Jun 2006 at 16:52

TOSHIBA EQUIUM L10-300

do a google of that

1.6 celeron
s-video
wireless g
512 ram
very light

If you don't mind a dead pixel try a refurbished latop

should get it for close to £400

I've got one and it is perfect for films on trains, music, hooking up to telly...prob not brill for gaming

Energize · 30 Jun 2006 at 17:03

Its possible to get a better picture than s-video by using a vga to scart adaptor. Probably worth it if you intend it to be a htpc of sorts.

Decent soundcard and laptops are 2 words that do not go together and plugging a laptop into surround speakers isnt going to be impressive. Within that budget though you should be able to get a laptop that will do the job and a decent usb sound device.

lucid.mumbler · 30 Jun 2006 at 17:51

thank you

thank you for the replies. i've checked out the samsung - it looks ideal. as for dell, I'm sure I read somwhere there was a problem with them overheating, even catching fire. that's only back of the mind stuff - enough to put me off though!

I wasn't aware you could output via a vga to scart connector. interesting. currently I've got a PC in a side room adjacent to living room and have a cable traversing the skirting boards and door frames, about 20m in total - picture quality is pretty good. via s-video. but now missus wants to commandeer the room for utility purposes ie somewhere to stash the mountains of unironed clothes etc!

the tv takes the svideo through a scart adaptor. it has a dedicated svideo slot but the quality is appalling.

anyway, thanks all for the advice.

Energize · 30 Jun 2006 at 18:44

The fire incident was caused by a battery not made by dell.