Core i3 or i5 Laptop, with good build quality - Minecraft, light video editing, imagine editing... e

Have you considered a Dell Inspiron 15R? You can get one with i3-2310, 4gb ram, 500gb hdd, and nvidia gt 525m for £499 from their website. Quidco even has an offer right now for £30 off all Inspiron 15R Orders with Intel® Core + 5% cashback. You might want to give that a try :)
 
Medion? What speakers does it have? Is it well built and reliable, and how is their support?

Ahh, yes, about the Inspiron, I've had many people claim that it's a cheap ass laptop, with a lot of flex, an I have seen it before, on many occasions and I have customised a few, but my main concern is Dell Home Support.

I'm just about to bay my computer, so it'll still be a bit of time before I actually purchase said laptop. I still have this temporary PC to use, to keep an eye on laptops, the forums here, and to check my e-mails. I really would use Dell, or HP, an get a Core i3, assuming they had good support, but they don't. I actually wanted the HP DV6 a lot. DV6-1155SA. No Numeric keypad. But, if they're going to be dodgy with me, if it failed, an take 2 months to replace a part, then it isn't worth buying, or the extended warranty if I had bought it.

Tough choices...

Demon's Souls arrived today, so I'll have something to do until BF3 and Skyrim come out.

:) I'll keep looking. Thanks again folks.
 
Well. I've spent a bit of cash today, so I need to wait for my Ebay sale. Need to feed myself obviously. However, since Ebay are criminals, and they own Paypal, they must charge me 2x for my PC, Monitor, Router and other various accessories which I'm selling as part of a bundle on there. Unfair? Sure it is! This also means that even though it was Local Pick Up Only, Paypal must still be used... wow, how sad, right? Yeah, but sadly since I've moved, my bank card address is not the same as my new one, and just as I was about to list it, the item location was indicating my last place of residence. Great.

LLoyds TSB, as useless as every other company on the face of the earth, also make things nice and unnecessarily long by not allowing me to change my card address through my online banking service, but instead tell me to print off some pages and take the form to the local bank or post it. Which means I now have to wait longer than a week probably, until all of this goes through where I can finally list my PC on Ebay, recover the funds and then get a laptop.

I said to a friend, if the worst comes to worst, I'll have to get something within the 350-400 mark, just to speed up the process, but in all honesty, I'd like to spend £450-500.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Fortunately, Demon's Souls is here, an I have the BF3 beta on my PS3. BF3 and Skyrim pre-ordered, if this all goes **** up, I know I've got something to keep me occupied.

Why must companies always make us take the long route eh?

Thanks for helping folks. I'll check back.

Peace :rolleyes:
 
I think with AMD being out of the question, due to a severely limited selection from Toshiba, Lenovo and ASUS, I might end up having to go for either the Core i3 or Core i5. So long as I have enough power for Minecraft at 1366x768 (maximised), an it's an overall good all rounder, then I don't mind.

I guess I should stop being too picky. Another concern however is 4GB of RAM with the Intel HD 3000 graphics, if it takes 1.67gb of that RAM, that's pretty crappy.

I know it'd be better to get a dedicated graphics card, but this does push the price up a tad. Tough choices. What a shame that Lenovo Z570 has a 0.3mp webcam - limits the communication experience for sure. Isn't that less than VGA?

Still got over a week yet anyway.

I'll check back... again!
 
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OK AMD isn't out of the question, since buyer of electronics has more stock and a new website style they were babbling to me about in an e-mail in an attempt to get me to spend money. Glad though since there is still yet a few AMD systems. I checked that website a few days ago, had hardly anything, now there are quite a far Llanos APUs, an some decently priced Core i3's.

Too much choice. Very difficult. Based on SOME reviews, the e525 I might just end up getting, because it's got insane specs, although admittedly it does look ugly as hell and the screen is dim, but surely it isn't as dim as my old PC monitor? Bah, I'll never know.

Choices, choices, choices... all for the best of the money I have. Mad times.

Peace
 
Decided on a laptop anyway. Will purchase in the next 1-2 weeks.

A8-3500m.
8GB or 6GB of DDR3. (Will I even need 8GB? 2GB will probably be used up by the integrated graphics though leaving 4 or 6GB for use).
720p Webcam.
Glossy Screen instead of Anti-Glare (for colour purposes).

If speakers suck, I'll get a headset or some speakers and wall mount them and/or use a headset while elsewhere in the home, or if by any chance I should travel with it (which I might do). If keyboard flexes... not the end of the world I guess.

Will get warranty with it, 2 months after purchase for 2 years.

5,400 RPM drive vs 7,200 RPM folks? A lot of people seem to claim that 5,400 RPM drives are barely any different, something to do with seek rate, an that games don't use the HDD (or rarely do), an that though 7,200 are quite efficient now, 5,400 RPM drives do save on battery, an churn out less heat, which, in my opinion is good.

So, what should I pick? 5,400 RPM, or 7,200?

Peace
 
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5,400rpm vs 7,200rpm for Notebook HDD? Power Consumption + Heat + Speed differences, etc.

Read above please.

Oh, is it worth getting a fingerprint reader if it's like an extra 5-6 quid (buy from supplier, not from reseller).
 
At this price point you will have to compromise on something, whether it's the screen, or the audio or something else, you will be hard-pressed to find something that ticks all the boxes. I personally don't like 5400 rpm hdds as I feel they make my laptop generally sluggish but some people may be fine with it. I find finger print readers to be a nice addition to a laptop so you might as well go ahead and buy one if you can get it for cheap. Other than that I don't really know what to say, I know it's hard deciding where to spend your money when you are on a budget and want best bang for buck, I've been there, so I guess it's good that you are not rushing into it, but at the same time I personally found that it consumed me so you might want to buy it soon before you drive yourself crazy. :)
 
Oh I've picked already. :) Just making sure. Probably order next week.

A8-3500m
AMD Radeon 6620G Integrated Graphcis (400 pipelines - 444mhz)
8GB 1333Mhz Memory
1366x768 Glossy Vibrant View Sreen (instead of Anti-Glare)
720p Webcam
Fingerprint Reader
Multi-Recorder Optical drive, for DVDs and CDs - no blu-ray.
Multi-touch trackpad
500GB 7,200rpm HDD (decided on 7,200, yep)
Wireless b/g/n
Bluetooth 3.0

2 Year Warranty. Not sure if I should get 2 years with accidental damage or 3 years without. Hmmm. They do certainly have a lot of warranty options.

Can I just ask? When I buy warranty, do these so called extensions overwrite the first included year? Because I've people complaining about tons of companies who do this, so when something goes wrong and they ring up about a hardware fault, they say you're 1 year out of date sunshine, bugger off lol. Don't want to be caught out you see. If this is the case, I'll buy a 2 or 3 year extension to the warranty, somewhere further down the line.

I understand I have to compromise, so I decided to ignore the bad luminosity reviews from some people about this laptop (strange some others didn't mention it), and decided to help it, I'll pick the Vibrant View. Most of the time I'll be in doors, so if I do take it out I won't be to fussed about reflection. As for the speakers, if they suck, I'll get some USB speakers to plug into a USB hub. Job done, right?

Thanks for helping.

Whenever I get it, assuming nothing goes wrong (touch wood :D), I'll let you all know how it is.

Peace :D
 
That Lenovo one from before. The one that got terrible screen luminosity, an bad everything else lol. I figured, the review must have had the anti-glare screen, since Vibrant View speakers for itself right? Surely Lenovo wouldn't sell it as Vibrant View if you needed a torch nearby just to see it? Glossy Vibrant View screen it is. Problem solved.

Least I get the A8-3500m, 8GB of 1333Mhz RAM and good webcam. Might even get a 9 cell battery, not decided yet. But I am going to get the 7,200rpm drive, although some people say something about 5,400rpm drives being pretty much the same. I suppose it depends on the brand of drive.

Warranty, I don't know. I still want a warranty extension of some sort, because if, for any reason after the first year, it just flat out dies or developes a serious fault, I will be fuming... as you can imagine. Paying a bit extra seems worth it to me. At least I know that, after 3 years for example, it still works fine and the warranty runs out, then it's probably good for another year or 2, or more.

Will be able to play Minecraft on max settings at 30-60fps lol, so that's not bad.

:)
 
Are you buying direct from lenovo as I can't find this spec through any resellers I would trust?

Looks to be just under £571.52 specced up so not bad value with 2 years onsite. Not worth having the additional warranty over 2 years. Have you specced 2 years onsite or collect and return?

Resellers seem to have this for closer to £700
 
I was hoping to get the Laptop for about £520-530 at the most, an yes it is direct from Lenovo. I don't need onsite. I don't mind sending it away if it takes a week or two. Whatever option is cheapest but still provides good support and fixes for hardware problems, is fine by me.

I spent of money recently, like a moron... an eating is going to be tough this month hahaha, but it's well worth it. :D
 
*hugs Lenovo IdeaPad Y460*

Killer hardware in a 14" form factor, looks great, absolutely FLIES and was a bargain (sub £500). I had the chance to buy it while in Asia though. (i5 540M, 500GB, 4GB RAM, ATI 5650M Dedicated GPU/Switchable, a good 4-5+ Hours on Intel Integrated graphics) LED screen which could do with better viewing angles but a minor gripe.

Shame it's EOL now but the Ideapad range is great in my opinion.

Never heard of that 6620 AMD Integrated graphics, is it switch-able?
 
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Seems you are determined to pay more for less from reading this thread. Do yourself a favour and get something off the dell outlet. You can get a m11x for £510, xps15 with gt525 and i5, 4gb ram, 500gb hd etc for £401. A little more will bag you an i7 quad core with the gt540m graphics. Look for the xps L502x.

Those prices included delivery and vat.

I've not even bothered to look at the inspirons etc, but spend a few minutes looking properly at that site and you'll see something that stands out as being the deal for you.
 
No offense people, but some of you make zero sense. I finally pick a laptop and now I have the Dell Squad wanting me to buy a scratched up, dented thing with good performance! I do appreciate the help, I really do, but what the hell?

If I get a 500GB 5400rpm drive instead of the 7,200rpm drive, an get 2 year warranty (not an extension), then the purchase of that Lenovo will be under £500.

Okay Inspirons are supposed to be super cheap (according to reviews), flimsy, break, an Dell support is apparently awful unless you get some business support crap, which I'd rather not have. The m11x, as far as I was aware was a netbook style powerhouse, the last time I looked anyway. What about my CDs? My games? How do I put those on then? Oh I can't, that's why Dell pre-load Steam with it. I forgot. I can't stand Digital downloads, unless you spend a bomb on your Internet connection so you download more than a quarter of an 8gig game before getting your bandwidth throttled, then it's no good. Plus I'd actually have to use Steam, a service which I absolutely hate.

A deal? So you saying to me that all of that stuff from the Lenovo site for under £500 isn't worth it? It's well made and the support is good and the hardware isn't bad, plus the warranty prices are good. Please if you can find me a great condition laptop with good parts, plenty of memory, good processor, good graphics (6620g is actually pretty decent), doesn't flex on the keyboard or case, or when I ring them up to get it fixed they actually do so without transferring me to 10,000 Indian script readers, an get it repaired within the first year, then yeah sure... I'll get one.

I asked for help and people gave it and that's great, but now I'd picked something you're telling me I'm pretty much wasting my money an then suggest to me the Dell outlet? Everytime I went on there, it was difficult finding anything because it's like, who's the best vulture! There it is! Get it, get it! Everyone quickly trying to snap up very few laptops people sent back. I care about my purchases mate, I'm not loaded like you folks, who can spend 1000's every few years on Laptops and so don't care. Perhaps your suggestions are brought about by favouritism? I'm guessing you bought something from the Outlet, correct? I have about £500 to last get me a laptop, built to last, at least 4 years. Optimistic? Maybe so, but it must be done.

Scrutinize... that's why I was interested mate. Integrated graphics on par with some discrete cards. Not bad. The only negative to the system is the base clock speed of the processor.

Peace - I'll be changing my signature to Dell is Evil :mad:
 
UKFX said:
No offense people, but some of you make zero sense.
Peace - I'll be changing my signature to Dell is Evil :mad:
Click to expand...

Lol, the dell are good value, but you do indeed leave yourself at the mercy of dell support. Business support is much better than home imo.

The main benefit of the Lenovo ThinkPad over an XPS is that you will look proper-pro when you whip it out; rather than having some cosy, huffy-fluffy, curvy-wurvy home styled system, overflowing with glossy lids and screens. They also run cooler, are lighter, quieter and will probably last much longer.

The ThinkPad Edge is probably best bang for buck 'reliable' system around at the moment for the £300-£500 mark. I would always take a business system over a home system. If you did the memory upgrade yourself as well you could save even more and it won’t invalidate the warranty.

I have specced it up from the cheapest base system which starts at £310. Adding the memory yourself by buying elsewhere will cost £31 to go to 8GB (2x4GB) or £15 for 4GB which would give you 6GB. Also I only inlcluded a 320GB 7200rpm drive which, although down on capacity is well worth it.

I have a 320GB 7200rpm drive in my HP ProBook and it does make a big difference. I just use external storage for additional space and secure backup.

I also included a fingerprint reader, HD camera and 9 cell battery in the spec which adds a few more. Without the 2 year warranty and these extras it would only cost you £374 including the 320GB 7200rpm drive plus obviously the memory yourself for £15 which is a crazy bargain.

Like 99% of business laptops the screen will probably have reduced viewing angles over the home systems but this aids security and confidentiality, especially when working in public places.

ThinkPad Edge E525
Processor:AMD A-Series A8-3500M
Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
Display type:15.6 W HD (1366x768) Anti-Glare, Midnight Black
System graphics:Integrated Graphics
Total memory:2 GB DDR3 - 1333MHz (1 DIMM)
Fingerprint reader:Fingerprint Reader
Camera:720p HD Camera
Hard drive:320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Battery:9 cell 2.8Ah Li-Ion Battery
Bluetooth:Bluetooth 3.0
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters:ThinkPad b/g/n
2YR Onsite Warranty

Total Cost £467.56
 
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