[northfifeduckling]

I was hoping to buy a new laptop before the Vat goes up, but my pc is so old that I have no idea what specs are an absolute must today! No way I can get to the shops with all the snow, so I will have to resort to on-line window shopping for a few days...

[jameslindsay]

Kerstin this Pc is a Hewlet Packard and is 8 months old and already has had to be takem back to factory settings 3 times. I would not recomment HP.

[HappyHippy]

Me being a cheapy  got a second hand one from ebay for £80 and it works great (most of the time ) it's a dell, as is my pc - and I've found them to be great. Dell have got an outlet store on-line where you can buy unused returned or reconditioned items for a fraction of the price.
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/dfh/df.aspx?refid=df&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&~ck=betafrbsd
According to my friend (he's a bit of a computer nerd !) all the laptops/pc's available now have much more storage capacity than the 'average' person will ever need.
Hope that helps, Karen x

[doganjo]

The problem with some laptops is they can't be upgraded.  You should decide on a budget then go for the highest spec you can get for that amount of money.  Various websites have a comparison facility but to be honest the best bargains I have had have been from PC World Business (Not the shop one)  I have an HP computer, and two HP printers none of which have given me any trouble whatsoever.  So it isn't the make that is the problem - you can get good and bad of every make.

[marigold]

I asked my OH as he is a computer repair man and he suggested that the deals in PC world are hard to beat. He used to buy from places like Aria but reckons that PC world manages to put together the best packages.
HP, Acer or Dell are good with Acer being the best value for money. At least 2 GB of ram but preferably 3 or 4 Gigs
Go for Core 2 duo processor or a AMD multi core processor like a Turion or an Athlon X2 He says do not go for a Celeron Processor because they are cheap and not good. The Core duo will cost £20 or £30 more and will be worth it.
He says to make sure you buy a machine with windows 7 and avoid Windows vista as it has too many annoying glitches and runs slow.
He suggests not buying an extended warranty package as they are usually expensive and not often worth the paper they are written on.
Hope all of this is useful and understandable.

[jameslindsay]

I paid a fortune for extended warranty and that has proved to be the biggest waste of money ever!!!! This PC has been a "pig in the poke" and their answer to every problem is to take it back to factory settings".

[sellickbhoy]

i've got an Acer - great value for money. Usually get a good spec for your money

it'll come with the new windows 7, and i think you'll need to get a minimum of 2Gb RAM - but as always with any PC, get as much RAM crammed in as you can. I'd start at at least 4Gb

Have to agree with others too - there does seem to be some really good deals fro PC world these days

Have you thought about a Netbook instead? usually have much better battery life, lighter - what do you plan to use it for? if it is jsut for email/t'interweb then you could get something pretty decent very cheapily.

[Rosemary]

Dan says "get a Mac".

[doganjo]

Yes, he would, and Duncan, my son-in-law would too!  But it's horses for courses.  Depends what you want it for.

[marigold]

I have a mac  for work and i love it. but if i was looking for a value for money laptop that does the internet job and all the other everyday stuff, I would not buy a mac. They are lovely but they do cost more and there are packages that don't run on them easily. Also there are more free downloads for PCs. Macs are good for processing images and film and for using imac programmes.

[doganjo]

I have a mac  for work and i love it. but if i was looking for a value for money laptop that does the internet job and all the other everyday stuff, I would not buy a mac. They are lovely but they do cost more and there are packages that don't run on them easily. Also there are more free downloads for PCs. Macs are good for processing images and film and for using imac programmes.

and little else    oops sorry - no offence to mac enthusiasts JMHO

[Snoopy]

Macs were the first PC that were used by the Printing and photography professionals
and excell in these areas.

I use them, and sold them in the past as a publishing system sales specialist, the software is
excellent, professional, and expensive if you  only want to wordprocess, email and social network using
the internet.

WINDOWS PCS
I have a Toshiba laptop and it is excellent, great specs on all of them - Toshiba only make laptops therefore
there good at it.
Also had Packard Bell PC's and Laptops and they are great too.

HP and Hewlett Packard Printers are two different manufacturers.

Compaq are very unreliable in my opinion, and Dell are cheap because there not as good as the older, longer established
manufacturers and do not use the latest chips, modems and screen controls.

Its a bit like shoes, you get what you pay for - Amstrad PC's used to crash if you turned a kettle on in the next room
because they did not contain power fluctuation protection etc.

Sony are also excellent laptops too, but, dont go spending a lot on technology at the moment - theres a big new item coming soon.

TOUCH CONTROL SCREENS

Windows 7 technology can use Touch Screen technology now available on Blackberrys and the latest touch screen mobile phones and this will be standard on new pcs and laptops hopefully soon - Xerox invented this technology years ago, and I worked with them on this for printing machines and large volume photocopiers - hopefully it will be available to all of us.

My advice is to get something basic, but good quality that will runt Windows 7, and be compatible with the future technology

Everyone will have different experiences with manufacturers, its the 80/20 rule, 80 percent of your customers will usually be happy but there will always be 20% that have different expectations or experiences - thats life!

This is my experience and my opinion only, its your choice in the end - but hope this helps you

Happy Shopping 

Snoopy

[ellisr]

TOUCH CONTROL SCREENS

Windows 7 technology can use Touch Screen technology now available on Blackberrys and the latest touch screen mobile phones and this will be standard on new pcs and laptops hopefully soon - Xerox invented this technology years ago, and I worked with them on this for printing machines and large volume photocopiers - hopefully it will be available to all of us.

I work for Microsoft and have worked for Apple in the past.

You can get touch screen technology through HP it was launched with windows 7, but as always you pay a premium.

I run an old PC that has had big upgrades on Ram and HDD, laptop is supplied by work so never really looked at whats in it but we always use Dell's at work. I would recommend highly Windows 7 but makes sure that your router is compatible, and when available office 2010 is fantastic just a couple of little bugs but they will work them out before release.
As far as Mac's go I have 3 all used for different things mostly high end design or music composing and editing, my dream is to have a macbook pro but well out of my budget and my little smallholding doesn't bring in that type of income.

[egglady]

my last 2 laptops were both dell's and they both proved to be rubbish - too much like coincidence for me!

this one is an acer and i am delighted with it.  only bought it cos it was cheap and yet it has proved to be far better than either of the dell's which cost more than double!

no help i'm sure

[doganjo]

Mine is an Acer - and good too, although it gets clogged up sometimes - but I just save anything I need on the PC and do a clean install.