General Betting
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Grateful for any advice please:
My pc is creaking a bit (5 years old) and I'm looking to replace it with a laptop so I can be mobile (mainly at home). I need something to surf online (use Betfair) and crunch numbers in excel (but I don't need flashy games/entertainment graphics). I'd also like to be able to go room to room without the need for a cable attched.
I thought I'd spend about £500 and have my eye on an Acer Aspire 5740 with a Core i3 processor, 3gb RAM running Windows 7.
Any thoughts on that laptop (or rivals) and/or the sort of spec I should be looking for?
Thanks in advance.
My pc is creaking a bit (5 years old) and I'm looking to replace it with a laptop so I can be mobile (mainly at home). I need something to surf online (use Betfair) and crunch numbers in excel (but I don't need flashy games/entertainment graphics). I'd also like to be able to go room to room without the need for a cable attched.
I thought I'd spend about £500 and have my eye on an Acer Aspire 5740 with a Core i3 processor, 3gb RAM running Windows 7.
Any thoughts on that laptop (or rivals) and/or the sort of spec I should be looking for?
Thanks in advance.
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Replies: 39
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Don't buy an Acer, build quality not good.
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i've only ever had Dells (1 desktop 6 years old, 1 (Inspiron) Laptop 5 years old and 1 (Inspiron Mini) netbook 1 year old) and I've never had a single problem with any of 'em.
The poor old desktop is currently languishing in a cupboard because I use the laptop as my main computer now, but I dug it out last week to give it a bit of exercise and I was astonished at how fast it ran ... got to admit it's fan is a bit noisy, but other than that, perfect. |
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Go to Dell website & choose your basic requirement.
Then go to personalise section and upgrade / downgrade as appropriate. You will easily put something together for under £500 which will more than cope with what you have mentioned above. Good level of build / product quality. |
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Doin't buy a sony. I've had 3 vaio's (2 bought initially and a 3rd before the others broke down), all have had problems and their customer service is diabolical. Overpriced junk.
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Thanks for the replies
Looks like Dell is well regarded. I've used them in the past and had no trouble. |
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will sign in for hp.
great work horses for me both pc and laptops. Your not paying for sony or apples design etc. get good support / info |
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Agree with the dell. My inspiron ran multiples at the same time - excel / api / site / audio feed - all on two screens.
recently succumbed. ADVICE: important - it comes down to the chip: I had (I believe) a dual core. Made a difference when I used someones with a celeron (their cheap chip). |
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I've just bought for £400
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5082432/Trail/searchtextSAMSUNG%20LAPTOP.htm?storeId=10001&referredURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.argos.co.uk%2Fstatic%2FProduct%2FpartNumber%2F5082432%2FTrail%2FsearchtextSAMSUNG+LAPTOP.htm%3FstoreId%3D10001&jspStoreDir=argos&referrer=COJUN&_%24ja=tsid%3A11674|prd%3A1546795&cmpid=COJUN very good for surfing and excel, plus includes a three year warranty. My previous laptop was an Acer which started smoking after 1 /12 years, just outside of warranty. |
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Have a look on ebuyer, decent specs at fair prices
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Consider if battery life is important to you as most are poor. HP are normally q good.
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Yes, Dell batteries....ten months then death...
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dell all the way , and the battery in my dell is still working fine after 2 years
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I change my kit regularly and pass the old stuff to friends and family. I always have a look on the market and have tried a couple of other makes (HP and Sony) but have generally bought Dell's and I'm on my 2nd XPS lap top. The battery on this one has a better life than the last one but it's not fantastic. Apart from that they are great. Good quality build, superb value for money and look fantastic. As far as I know all my old stuff from at least the last 5 years is happily working away.
Sony Vaio's are a decent bit of kit but aren't as good value for money than the Dell imo. |
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Feck N. Eejit 27 Apr 10:58
Doin't buy a sony. I've had 3 vaio's (2 bought initially and a 3rd before the others broke down), all have had problems and their customer service is diabolical. Overpriced junk. Couldn't agree more on all counts, mine was in a landfill within 3 months of purchase. |
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dlarssonf 27 Apr 13:40 dell all the way , and the battery in my dell is still working fine after 2 years which battery? |
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I have a dell inspirion 1545, whatever battery goes in that
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Thanks for the replies. I'll probably be using mains power most of the time, as I'll mainly be reposition in different rooms rather than going on travels.
Any views on ASUS or Toshiba? |
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Had a couple tohsiba laptops and never any problems, been dropped once or twice too. Someone mentioned the processor and i'll agree that its probably the single most important aspect to look out for. The fastest internet connection is useless if your computer cant load pages as fast as your broadband can!
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rem, tbh they are all much of a muchness, in that they all use the same components. As with most things, you get what you pay for but you really can't go wrong with Dell, HP, Toshiba then Acer. Acer are good but deffo use lower cost casing materials etc hence the build quality comments.
Then it's down to individual preference for things like keyboard/trackpad/layout really. Pricing is a nightmare, manufacturers/retailers change it daily and are forever introducing new variants so you're never really sure if you've got latest/greatest. In order of spec preferences, it's CPU, RAM, HD size, then stuff such as optical/graphics. start with the screen size you want and then go from there! gl and hth a bit. |
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dlarssonf, do you run several programs on it?
Just about to purchase. Prefer intel, dual core. |
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my Dell Inspiron's battery is still going strong (well, 3 hours+ before running out) and, as stated it's 5 years old. Don't atually use the battery much, but it's there if i need it.
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shapeshifter, I only use this laptop for music , betfair , excel and generally surfing. I let the battery run out completely once a month and have never had any problem. I bugh tthis laptop on advise from this forum at the time and I have to say its excellent
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*bought
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Thanks.
I'm going to visit my local pc world and play around with a few to see which I like the feel of, then find the best deal. |
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whatever you do, don't buy it from there afterwards!
go to ebuyer/dabs/amazon anywhere but PCW |
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Talking about computers, does anyone know this shop in London?
Electronics 2000 7 Guildford Grove London / SE108PP http://www.electronicsonlinelimited.com They sell the latest Vaio netbooks at half their price. I am very sceptical, even that the shop does exist... |
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Dell..........happy days. Battery did give a problem after 10 months but managed to get another one out of them.
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The asus Eee pc is a good laptop for travelling. The battery life is excellent.
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HP 7635S from ebuyer, 389.00 12 months ago, 4gb ram 350gb HDD... not a hint of trouble with it (so far!)
This is my 2nd HP, 1st lasted 4 years till I broke the power-in socket. |
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A bit of advice if you buy a Dell..when closing down dont just press the off button go through the normal turning off procedure as on a PC. My Dell has a few niggles which are avoided by doing this..apart from the battery not being too good its fine.
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If you want a laptop (desktops are still better!) then I would seriously suggest an ASUS one. Unlike a lot of names better known on the High Street and in PC World (which is where those who know nothing about computers buy their computers and their Norton software ;) ) you will be getting one from a company who make their own motherboards, graphics cards and the rest. You will also have a half decent support website, for updates to drivers, BIOS and the like. Good quality stuff.
Also, buy off internet, not the High Street. As suggested, ebuyer.com is a very good place to start. |
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ttt for paradox and equil.
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Thanks for the comments.
Had a good play with most brands in my local stores - prob fed up with me molesting their machinery and setting off alarms without getting a sale. Acually liked the more solid feel of HP & Sony, while the Acer & Dell machines seemed inferior - esp keyboards (couldn't find any Samsungs or ASUS). Acer still seem to pack most in for the £s, so it's a question of how much abuse they can withstand - not that I'm going travelling, but I do crunch numbers big time. A custom build Dell appeals too, as I can keep costs down that way. There's just too much choice for a cautious chap like me, but I'm getting close now. |
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You may well not find ASUS on the High Street. Have a look at this page on ebuyer. A few around your £500 mark, with free delivery (and very fast delivery!)
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Whoops, forgot something. :)
http://www.ebuyer.com/search?page=1&store=5&cat=10&mfr=148 |
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REM if you crunch numbers, try to get one with a separate number pad, I think HP models have this feature, as do most 17"
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This looks quite a good deal
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/667427/hp-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i3-330m-2 |
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Yep, that's quite good. Depends on which HP case it comes in (the DV6 impressed me most). It's around £430 for something similar by Acer or Dell, although with 3gb RAM.
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same price pc world & dixons (funny that, all part of the dixons group)
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