[soukio]

Hi all. Buying a new laptop for my daughter for xmas. It is to be used as an all rounder laptop i.e web, msn, games and school work. I have been looking at Advent, Acer, Toshiba and HP. All good spec laptops, but which ones will last the course and take a bit of abuse. Are their any others that are worth looking at, price limit £500. Many thanks, soukio

[chippyteaforme]

In my opinion, Acer and Advent are the less reliable.

As I used to work for Currys (I know, but it was a nice little high street one with very friendly staff!) I used to be left to deal with the laptops.

Mainly sold Advent and Toshiba, but also stocked Compaq, HP, and the occasional Acer and Fujitsu. Had one Toshiba back which the external AC adaptor failed on. Advent? Quite a few back. Problem with Advent is, they aren't an actual brand name. Packard Bell, another DSGi make, is actually made by NEC. But Advent? It's a name that DSGi (Currys, Currys Digital, PC World) stick on any laptop they find.

I'd say if you get a cheaper Toshiba you'll be OK, or a Compaq (part of HP). Neither will have as much 'spec' as the Advent or Acer, but they tend to be solid, and the Toshibas have a little street cred as well Compaq are a bit 'boxy' normally, but they are easy to work on from both a 'using' sense, and an 'upgrading / repairing' sense.

I wouldn't touch Fujitsu Siemens with a bargepole. It's just my opinion, but the amount I used to get back with things like HDD failures was unreal. It was the cheapest models (£399ish), but that's no excuse. I'd assume the main cause was overheating, not very deep units and a pathetic little fan and a tiny air vent.

[soukio]

Thanks Bencrest for your help. It was acually Currys we might be buying the laptop from. The latest one my daughter has spotted was a compaq V6642EM, quite a good spec with Amd Turion 64, 2gb memory, 160 hd and 15.4 screen. Are Compaq reliable and good value for money or what are the alternatives. Is curry's as good a place to buy a laptop as any and are their aftersales ok. Thanks soukio..

[Uridium]

Toshiba, Lenovo, HP or Compaq all good quality product with the benefit of parts availability should you ever have out of warranty issues. All have been building laptops for many many years.

(If you've not heard of Lenovo before it's the company that has been building IBM's laptops and desktops for them for many many years and now own the thinkpad brand outright)