New laptop
 

OK I have got some money through means fair or foul and I have £400 max to buy a laptop. My home PC is fine but I really want a laptop for the portability and I do need to upgrade certain areas of my PC anyhow. So what i want to know is: which one? I know plenty about spec etc but i'm looking for build, reliability etc.

The couple I am looking at are:

Currys - Shop for Laptops - Acer 5735 Powerful performance with a massive 3 GB memory

Sony VGN-NS10LS Laptops - Cheap Sony Laptops.. Buy the Sony VGN-NS10LS laptop at PC World.

but Acer are not exactly a front runner and the Sony has great specs but kind of looks meh. Any help? I have a portable 250gb HD anyhow so I don't mind losing a little HD space for better spec etc

Do you guys use windows over there? If so just make sure you get something without Vista and with a big HD and it'll be fine for you.

We do use Windows we are not backward u know ;) Unfortunately virtually every PC comes with Vista. I use XP at home and have heard that Vista is a pain :(

I am a tech support person and ACERS are dreadful. The best way to explain them is playing russian roulette. If you get lucky and get one that doesnt break then its money well worth it. But like most I've seen they break and the call center help and parts are both expensive and frustrating to get.

As much as Windows Vista Vs Xp. I've used both 2+ years and I've warmed up to the idea of vista. You need atleast 3 gigs of ram with windows vista to have to run smoothly. Roughly 1 -1.5 gigs to run vista +vista add-ons and another 1.5 gigs for other applications you may open. I've tryied to use all my ram on windows vista and only gotten it to 2.91 gigs used. The windows vista add-ons makes me like vista over xp. I'm able to regulate how much cpu and ram is being used by each application. This is extremely helpful in knowing what I need for a computer and also knowing if my computer is infected with a virus.

^^^

Cheers for that. Appreciated.

I Should have asked this prior, but what do you plan on using the computer for ?

Everyday use. I'm not a gamer or anything like that.

Vista's great, don't get me wrong... but I have 3 gigs. With his price range he's likely looking at a 2 gig system, so with that, I'd recommend XP. Also I'm pretty sure Dell is offering XP with their systems now.

Before I had my macbook I had an Acer similar to that one and it was great. Never had any problems with it.

Acers are really good laptops if they stay in 1 piece. But I've seen more issues with Acer then any other laptop. And calling up their support line is a nightmare. Out of 4 years doing this I've only seen 1 HP that I had to fix, and it was a corrupted file that could happen to any computer. This is just from my perspective and hope that is helpful.

Most of my friends got HPs for college and seriously like 9/10 of them have had problems. My Dell has had no problems that I myself didn't cause (I smashed my screen lol).

Haha how the hell did you manage that? I have dropped my macbook several times on hard surfaces and it still works perfectly. Probably because there is nothing important inside it.

I was watching a movie and I have those small in ear headphones and i got up and left them on top of the keyboard and I left in a hurry so I shut laptop with the headphones smashed into the screen and in cracked it completely. It cost 500 to replace, but Dell was really helpful at least and got the whole thing back to me in about a week.

get a macbook air
they look super tight

Reading OP FAIL

excuse me?

MacBooks are incredible. The battery life alone makes it worth the buy. I can't wait til I need a new computer so I can buy one.

Is this sarcastic? 'Cause I actually love my Macbook. It's awesome.

Lol, what's sarcastic about that??

He's saying he's a fan of them.

On my current HP laptop I have a battery life a little under 5 hours.

lol I just assumed it was sarcastic because it seems that 90% of the population hate macs and are anti-mac. But they are great.

I have a faulty battery on one of my laptops, but I always forget which one until I am out with it and it does a tech fart and dies.

I should sort this tomorrow actually.

Yeah, some of my roomates have them and I feel dumb carrying around my ginormous 17'' Dell.

Seriously, that would mean 90% of the population would be unintelligent masochists who enjoy giving themselves mild contusions from banging their head against their monitors. I HEART Macs bigtime. They're sexy as hell!

Hmmm I'm after a laptop myself in the next month or two. I've entertained the idea of getting one for doing programming work at uni next year and for taking with me when I go home for the weekend etc. But now that I have to commute for 3 days a week without a computer, that gives me a real excuse to get one. :D

I'm not up to date with laptop hardware at the moment, but I'll most likely go for a Dell Studio with a 17" screen, at least 3 GB ram and some graphics capability. I wish Dell offered 3 year warranties and an Ubuntu option (which would save money).

a macbook air is useless, there's hardly any space on them, they just look cool and are easy to tote around. I've got a macbook and I love it. I'd never be able to switch back to a pc now. but thats mainly because the software for mac that i use just kicks so much ass compared to the stuff for pc.