New laptop purchase approved. Budget: £820

Sebastian

Sebastian

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Sebastian
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Hi all,

I'm searching for new laptop that will replace my old Asus F3 - 4 years old and I'm starting to feel it.

Budget: £800-£820
Requirements:
- 14''-15.6'' screen
- i5 or i7 processor
- RAM: 4-8GB (preferably 6-8GB)
- graphics card: nVidia GT 4xx or 5xx series
- hard drive: irrelevant as it will be replaced by SSD
- operating system: got it already

I was looking through Amazon and laptopsdirect.co.uk
Do you know any other website worth recommending?

Please notice: I want a laptop, not a fruit ;)

Please let me know if you can help! Thanks!
 
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Take a look at Novatech's range; they come without an OS so you can add your own.

I've used them for years and they have proven to be excellent.
 
Thanks, I will have a look. How would you rate their screens and quality of components??
 
Anyone else? Which brand would you recommend? Asus, MSI, DELL?
 
Sebastian said:
Hi all,

I'm searching for new laptop that will replace my old Asus F3 - 4 years old and I'm starting to feel it.
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The way I'd approach this is an iterative one. Assuming you want performance for image editing with LR/PS (they both are multi-threaded), I'd be looking at the second gen i7 mobile processors and looking at the quad core ones with 8 threads (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Bridge#Mobile_processors). I'd then drop those into google shopping and see what comes up for laptops (the prices vary a lot between the different cores). If you are going for image editing, I'd definitely recommend 8G memory though.

If you are after just speed of execution of single threaded apps (e.g. mp3 encoding), the dual core i7s would probably be cheaper and better, but for anything image/video related, the quad cores, although clocked slower, will be better.
 
Some people will say no but have a look at the Sony Vio range too.

If you have a problem and it's warrantied, they pick it up from anywhere you state, take it away and have it back to you at the latest 48hrs.

Only Sony do their laptops but the service is superb. Yes you pay a little for the name but if it's for business then a fast repair is something to factor in.
 
Thanks Chris, I do think that Vaio laptops look great. A bit expensive, but as you said, the customer service is really good. What do you think about Dell?
 
Dell have always produced great laptops, the Inspiron range have been reliable.

I think what you need more is to sit and work out exactly what you want to use it for. You've mention 1080p editing so you need plenty of memory and good video.
Whether you'd need an I7 over an I5, which cold do the job and save you a little cash.
Also don't forget to factor in an External drive or two and make sure you do your backups. Preferably in a quet 20 minutes backup what you've done.

The main thing is what you use it for, I have a BenQ which unfortunately you don't seem to be able to buy any more. Purchased in March 2004 it's just a mobile centrino with 1gb of ram. Now running windows 7 it does everything I need it to do, including editing 5d2 raw files. Thing is I don't need to do anything processor intensive so it does the job.

Make sure if you can you check out the warranty and their repair policy, making especially sure of a quick turnround if it breaks. It's no use buying any laptop that takes 6 weeks to get fixed when it breaks.

One I'd tend to steer clear of are HP laptops, I've had a number of friends that had them and they have all had problems.
 
never been a big fan of sony laptops, everyone i know who've had one have had issues. they seem to use cheap parts (at least the ones ive looked at).

always been a big fan of the dell lattitude range, we use them at work and 99.9% of times we've needed the engineers out is for insurance jobs. the new lat's although ive not seen any in the flesh do look extremely well spec'd.
 
Neil whats the repair / replace policy from Dell, what kind of repair turnround.

Where a laptop is business critical as in Sebs case, with no recourse to a spare machine it's that kind of thing that matters.
 
Dell I was impressed with regarding the service of a desktop and a laptop I've previously owned. Sony are an abomination.
 
I can see some different views here. I will definitively check Dell, their current offer is really good.
i7 is priority, followed by strong graphics card. Initial amount of RAM can't be less than 4GB. Screen size, due to my frequent travels, needs to be 15.6'' max.

SO many models to pick from!

Thanks fro your help guys. It's always better to get opinions from real users than from salesman.
 
neil_g said:
depends on what option you go for..

the next business day on site is worth the extra money in my opinion. otherwise its a return to base standard.
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Depends what laptop you buy as to which option is standard. For £800 plus, it's usually next day/2 day call out.

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Go for an i7 2nd Gen, focus on the parts you need rather than the make.
 
apparently it's so well priced that I will have to wait 1-3 weeks to get one because it's sold out everywhere. I think I'll wait, pre-order it and be happy :D
 
Sebastian said:
apparently it's so well priced that I will have to wait 1-3 weeks to get one because it's sold out everywhere.
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That's a pretty good recommendation then ;)
 
It ticks all the boxes for me and it's more than I was expecting to get. I will pre-order it today. YouTube reviews and tests are also showing that it is a powerful machine. Thanks for your helps guys. If nothing goes wrong, my search is officially over.
 
If you have a voucher for Dell, look at Xps laptops or Dell's Alienware M15X.

If not, Try overclockers.co.uk and take a look at an Msi 660R. I5 processor, 6gb ram,1tb hard drive and an ati 5870. £900 odd . really good laptop for the price :)
 
ChrisH said:
Dell have always produced great laptops, the Inspiron range have been reliable.
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I'd have to agree with this. Despite some Dell's at work failing and also the father-in-law's failing on three counts (some studio desktop one) I've got a Dell XPS desktop and a Dell Laptop and never had a single problem with either.

I think problems are more down to the user to be honest and besides, Dell are just an assembly line as I'm sure many other laptops makes are full of third party components.
 
neil_g said:
not if you want decent batter life.
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6-8 hours if you configure it in the Alien command centre for power saving mode. which turns down the processing speed,turns off the graphics card and most of the power consuming hardware and software. But im going to be realistic here, If you want performance, your not going to get a big battery life. Its the whole Tripod purchase triangle all over again. However, the M15X is a bit Marmite.
 
John Mc said:
6-8 hours if you configure it in the Alien command centre for power saving mode. which turns down the processing speed,turns off the graphics card and most of the power consuming hardware and software. But im going to be realistic here, If you want performance, your not going to get a big battery life. Its the whole Tripod purchase triangle all over again. However, the M15X is a bit Marmite.
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if youre tuning it down to get longer battery life you may as well buy a cheaper lower spec with better standard power consumption :)
 
Don't by anything made by Alienware. Just don't.
 
Most people would if they wanted a laptop with a bigger battery life. I on the other hand, Require performance in my Computing equipment :)(My Hobby is Pc gaming) and its generally plugged into the mains when using it. Like the majority of folks using laptops :)
 
Alienware use low quality parts, and charge an extra £200 per part just for the benefit of some flashing lights and an alien sticker on it.

They are hugely over priced, and are definitely not worth it.

I own the M15x, it's a badly made over priced laptop. If you want to do high performance gaming, build your own PC. You will get higher quality parts at a lower price that way.

Laptops are not good for gaming, sticking "Built for gaming" in the description doesn't change that.
 
Each for there own, I Own an M11x-R1, And i used that this weekend just gone at a LAN party.(Gaming Scotland,If anyones interested) and the increase in Laptops used for gaming are increasing. Out of the 53 people there, I'd say 20 of those were laptops. I'm not disagreeing where it comes to desktops, there more powerful, but if someone said here's X amount of cash to purchase a new gaming computer, but it could only be a laptop, i know I'd still be happy with what i got in the end.

Knowing a few people working in/for dell i know the parts aren't as cheap as you make out. Sure they use Non branded parts,and the companys sell them in bulk reducing the cost, but they come from companys that make motherboards for Asus and Msi. Being a Computer technician and repairing laptops( a few recently being alienware's.) I have seen them last longer then you'd expect.

I'm the Same with Alienware,i dislike the amount you pay for lights and a shiney screen. but buying my M11x has shown me how sturdy the product is. It has to be the best £500 i've spent. I couldn't Find a better or same laptop with the same specs for that price.

Edit: Im also sorry if it seems I/Were hijacking the thread
 
Seb -try this Company out I bought a desktop from them 10 months ago and am really pleased.......also, join their Forum by going to 'Contact Us' and ask questions before purchase their 'Techies' are really good at giving valuable advice and then you can create your own spec for them to build.
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/
Dave
 
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Thanks for all your advice guys. I took it all under consideration and I'm going with ASUS N53SN. Amazing spec for very attractive price. I have compared the same/near spec from Dell, Sony Vaio, MSI and (was I stupid or what?) Apple.

I's on backorder so finger crossed it will be available soon!

If anything will change, I will let you know :)
 
Sebastian said:
(was I stupid or what?) Apple.
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Not really, Apple have good hardware, I(personal opinion here) feel it's the os that lets them down. But they do have some Apple only software for photo editing that are really good.
 
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