Lap top questions.

[Battlestar]

Hi all. Hope this is the right forum (mods please move if not )

I am thinking of getting a lap top soon but dont really know anything about them.
I am going to have a budget of around £600.00 and was woundering what you guys can recomend.
I was also wondering what software actually comes with a laptop?. Do you have to install things like paint and quicktime? or does it already come with the PC.

All help would be appreiated

Thanks and look forward to the replys.

Dave.

[The Dude]

With that sort of budget you should be able to get something quite decent..
I always say Dell are a good place to start looking, their laptops are hard to beat price-wise and come with really good quality screens generally.

SW.. Paint etc all come with Windows (which will come with the laptop), you normally get a SW bundle comprising WinDVD etc too...

Things like Quicktime are needed seperately, but is a free download and not too hefty in size..

Something like the Dell Inspiron 6000 may come in just over your budget, but is a great piece of kit.

DONT go for RAM upgrades unless they come free though, you can get 512mb for £45 if you source it yourself... it'll cost at nearer 3 times that otherwise

[nwgarratt]

Acer Travelmate 4151 from Staples for £549.

Centrino 1.6ghz
60GB HDD
NVidia Geforce Go 6200 PCI Express
Double Layer DVD-/+
Wireless
4 USB 2.0
1 Firewire
Modem
15.4' TFT
512MB DDR2 RAM
Built in 5 in 1 Memory Card Reader

Loads of software such as XP Home. Norton Antivirus and NTI CD/DVD Maker.

[Battlestar]

sounds good guys

What sort of memory should I be going for. ITs mainly going to be used for a lot of word procecesing and internet acsess. I will be down loading movie clips ect. Probably wont be needing it for gaming though. All help appretiacted, and Idiots guide to what all the above means would be good as well
( I might be able to use a computer, but have know idear what half the things do on it )


Cheers guys.
Dave.

[The Dude]

for 'basic' laptop use 512 is plenty normally... I only run 512mb in mine and do some fairly extreme stuff with Windows on a regular basis.
If you get 512mb as part of the deal then it's not worth upgrading unless you find you need to.

If the laptop you choose comes with 256mb as standard, I'd say go for a 512mb upgrade after buying, and you'll never have to worry about memory after..

The spec nwgarrat posted is fairly standard issue for laptops, the Cpu, hard-drive etc are all you'll need for your useage, just about any graphics will do unless you're gaming on the laptop, all laptops will have at least 2 USB connectors ( scanner, camera etc?) firewire is really just a better way of achieving the same connectivity for external devices... a card reader is really handy for transferring pics from your digi camera too...

You get lots of stuff which it looks like you won't actually use much, but all nice stuff to have options wise...

Me personally, I think the screen and the keyboard are the two most important items on a laptop, you use them both all the time, and they can't be changed..

I like Dells for just that reason, ( IBM, Samsung and Sony are the best, but cost a fortune) I haven't seen an Acer for a while so they could be just as good these days.. it's an excellent price for the spec, the Acer mentioned..

[Battlestar]

cheers mate

[Rob.Screene]

£348+vat from ebuyer.
HP cx6110
celeron 1.4GHz, 40GB, 256MB, dvd/cd-rw
802.11b/g wireless
2x usb2
1x firewire
3 hour battery life.
winxp home.
intel 915 based architecture (ddr and dual-channel?)

We've had it about a week and it's great. Just used for for surfing the web at the moment though.

The only slight minus is the cpu fan inlet is underneath, so if it's sitting on your lap and you are doing a lot of scrolling, that taxes the cpu and kicks in the fan which seems to run a bit faster when the inlet is blocked.

Build quality seems great, sompared to the Sony vaio I had before.
cheers,
Rob.