Uni laptop spec thread...thing

thephantom114 · 23 Mar 2008 at 14:15

Hello one and all,

I'm off to uni in a few months so I want to get a new laptop. I currently have a HP510 which is ok but recently has gone haywire and won't let me use the internet when it is charging and only has like a 40 minute battery life.

Thus I'm in the market. I have around £600 to spend. It needs to do all the basics word proccesing etc playing movies etc but I'd also like to play half-life 2 and games of about the same quality on it. I've been looking around and realised I'm pretty much lost in the laptop world.

However my girlfriend did recently pick up a really good acer for £600 which is a 2ghz core 2 duo which 2gb RAM, 250gb hard drive, hd-dvd drive, bluetooth and just about every extra ever.

Or should I give up and settle for lugging a desktop round?

Cheers

TheVoice · 23 Mar 2008 at 14:24

Dell Vostro 1500 would be worth a look - £600 is more than enough for one of those with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, 3GB of RAM, GeForce 8600m GT etc.

Alternatively, £657 gets you a Dell XPS M1530 - nicer machine, but lesser specs. That said, the 8600m GT in the XPS machines is faster than the one in the Vostros.

thephantom114 · 23 Mar 2008 at 14:39

The Vostro comes to £569 with what you said but 2.5ghz Core 2 Duo which seems very appealing I must admit. Money for extras lol.The M1530 just doesn't seem as good from what I'm reading on the specs. Although it does have a fingerprint reader.Then I could be really cool. Does the acer I mentioned seem like a good deal?

TheVoice · 23 Mar 2008 at 14:40

Haha, my 1330 has the fingerprint reader, never used it. Don't even have the software installed, to be honest!

thephantom114 · 23 Mar 2008 at 14:44

I highly doubt I would ever bother using it other than in the first week until my fingers were dirty and it no longer worked.

xb8browney · 23 Mar 2008 at 20:02

Dell Vostro 1500 £600
* 2.4ghz CPU (Core Duo 2)
* 3 GIG DDR
* 250 GB Hard Drive
* Vista Business
* DVDRW
* 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT graphics card, PCI-Express x16
* Integrated CAMERA

thephantom114 · 23 Mar 2008 at 20:56

I'm in a chuck up between the Vostro and the ACER 5920 which is only 2ghz dual core and with a NVIDIA GF8600 256 MB which I'm guessing is the same as the one in the Vostro, correct me if I am wrong.

The acer also has some other cool stuff like bluetooth and some seem to have a hd-dvd drive.

Is the Vostro (or any other) the best in terms of power for £600 and for gaming etc?

thephantom114 · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:21

Also what's the difference betwen the Vostro and XPS exceot cosmetics and price? Any significant performance benefits or just a cool fingerprint reader?

TheVoice · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:43

The XPS's 8600m GT is faster, has Bluetooth, slot-loading DVD writer, media remote, touch-sensitive media controls, comes with a slipcase, leather CD wallet and a set of Creative in-ear headphones.

Mostly just little extras, but they're nice nonetheless.

benjo plz. · 23 Mar 2008 at 22:46

^only little things tbh, what's the price difference?

thephantom114 said:
a hd-dvd drive.

not much point in buying redundant hardware :\.

thephantom114 · 24 Mar 2008 at 17:19

So the XPS just has little extras over the Vostro? And both are better than the acer? The XPS is £600 base model, the Vostro is about £569 with some bits and pieces added and the Acer is £600.

And true about the hd-dvd but it's better than nothing(ish).

xb8browney · 24 Mar 2008 at 18:06

Just to add to my previous post.

My Acer has terrible build quality.

thephantom114 · 24 Mar 2008 at 18:27

Lol what one do you have?

thephantom114 · 24 Mar 2008 at 19:59

Oh and I forgot about VAT in the case of the Dells.

xb8browney · 25 Mar 2008 at 10:34

thephantom114 said:
Lol what one do you have?

If this was aimed at me I have a Aspire 5633WLMi bought Dec 2006

fish99 · 25 Mar 2008 at 11:51

£551 including vat and delivery will get you-

Vostro 1500
2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo
3 GB ram
250 GB HDD 5400 rpm
15.4" 1440*900 screen
8600M GT 256mb DDR2
6 cell battery
2MP webcam
Vista/XP

Or knock off £20 for the 1280*800 screen. The 8600M in the XPS has DDR3 vram but to get an XPS with anywhere near the above specs costs a lot more than £551.

thephantom114 · 25 Mar 2008 at 16:15

Yeah I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of 9 cell battery. Hopefully they'll be back and I'll be able to wrangle one or somat. Also it's only that cheap as Dell have a sale on until midnight tomorrow or you'd have to add £50 I think. Is it worth getting the 15.4" 1440*900 screen over the 1280*800 screen?

fish99 · 25 Mar 2008 at 16:17

XPS is a premium laptop, so you get better design (styling), better materials, more accessories (case, headphones etc), I believe they are lighter too, etc... but you pay for it and so get less spec for your money. The Vostro looks a bit dull in comparison.

Personally I ddn't have the extra for the XPS, plus I wanted XP and things like 8600M GT and 1440*900 screen but wasn't prepared to pay over £600, so it was an easy choice for me to go with the Vostro.

thephantom114 · 25 Mar 2008 at 16:26

Yeah I'm not bothered about the looks of the laptop, I'd rather have it do what I want it to do and get more for my money. What's the difference between the two screen sizes though?