Buying 17/17.3" laptop - recommendations

Ken3

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Hi

After several years of having desktop have decided to buy laptop.
Budget can go upto £800.
Have got nearly £300 of vouchers to use at PcWorld/Currys Digital so buying it from there.
Want larger screen - 17.3" is the size that keeps coming up!
Planning to use it on sofa using an 'e-tray' (laptop tray) to put it on.
Want 2.5/3 hours battery so don't have to put power cables out all the time.
Wireless - router will be upstairs
Will not use it to play computer games
Will use it for word processing, spreadsheets,
Internet and email - definitely. Will use it to connect to work server to access the 3/4 programmes we use there - I don't know if it means more power, memory needed! The connecting to the work server will happen in next 2/3 months.
Photos - not editing, at least not yet,
Music - storing, playing, not file sharing.
Movies - don't know about movies - watching yes! downloading - haven't yet and would have find out more!
Webcam - yes!

Hope that enough information.
Recommendations wanted please.

Thanks.


Ken


Ones I've seen on PcWorld website include:


Compaq Presario CQ71-320Sa @ £499.97
Operating system Genuine Windows (R) 7 Home Premium
Processor Type Intel Pentium Dual-Core Processor T4300
Processor speed (2.1Ghz, 800MHz, 1MB Cache)
Memory Size 4GB MB
Memory Type DDR2
Hard Drive Capacity 320 GB
Optical Drives Lightscribe Super Multi DVD-RW
Floppy Disk Drive NO
Screen Size/Type 17.3 Diagonal HD LED Brightvie
Graphics Card Type Intel Media Accelerator 4500HD
Graphics Memory Up to 1695 MB
TV-out YES
Sound Type Altec Lansing integrated speak
Modem Type Integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet
Wireless Enabled YES
No. of USB Connections 3
No. of Firewire Connections 0
Infrared Port Included NO
Other Interfaces HDMI, WiFi, VGA, Card Reader
Battery Type 6 cell Li-On
Battery life (up to) 2 hours
Software Titles Included Works, Office H&S Trial
Weight 3.05 kg
Height 45 mm
Width 277 mm
Depth 412 mm
Colour Silver


Dell 1750 @ £519.99
Operating system Genuine Windows (R) 7 Home Premium
Processor Type Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor T4300
Processor speed (2.1Ghz, 800Mhz, 1MB Cache)
Memory Size 4GB MB
Memory Type ddr2 800mhz
Hard Drive Capacity 320 GB
Optical Drives DVD/RW
Floppy Disk Drive NO
Screen Size/Type 17.3
Graphics Card Type Intel 4 Series Integrated
Graphics Memory Shared Memory MB
TV-out NO
Wireless Enabled YES
No. of USB Connections 3
Infrared Port Included NO
Other Interfaces Card reader, VGA
Battery Type 6 cell
Battery life (up to) 3.5 hours
Weight 3.4 kg
Width 413 mm


HP Pavilion DV7-3020SA @ £619.99
Operating system Genuine Windows (R) 7 Home Premium
Processor Type AMD Turion II M520 Dual Core processor
Processor speed (2.3Ghz, 1MB Cache)
Memory Size 4GB MB
Memory Type DDR2
Hard Drive Capacity 320 GB
Optical Drives Lightscribe Super Multi Writer
Floppy Disk Drive NO
Screen Size/Type 17.3 WS LED Brightview
Graphics Card Type ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4530 To enable images to be displayed on your monitor
Graphics Memory 512MB dedicated (up to 2302MB) MB
TV-out YES
Sound Type Altec Lansing + subwoofer
Modem Type 10/100/100 gigabit Ethernet
Wireless Enabled YES
No. of USB Connections 4
No. of Firewire Connections 1
Infrared Port Included NO
Other Interfaces 5 in 1, HDMI, media remote
Battery Type 8 cell Li-On
Battery life (up to) 4 hours
Software Titles Included Works, Office H&S Trial
Weight 3.52 kg
Height 43.2 mm
Width 277 mm
Depth 413 mm
Colour Black


Packard Bell LJ65-DM-028 @ £669.98
Operating system Genuine Windows (R) 7 Home Premium
Processor Type Intel Core 2 Duo processor P7450
Processor speed (2.13Ghz, 1066Mhz, 3MB Cache)
Memory Size 4GB MB
Memory Type DDR3
Hard Drive Capacity 500 GB
Optical Drives SuperMulti DVD
Floppy Disk Drive NO
Screen Size/Type 17.3
Graphics Card Type NVIDIA GeForce G210M
Graphics Memory 512MB dedicated MB
TV-out YES
Sound Type Realtek ALC272 T
Wireless Enabled YES
No. of USB Connections 4
Infrared Port Included NO
Other Interfaces wifi vga hdmi 5 in 1 card
Battery Type 6 cells li ion
Battery life (up to) 2.5 hours
Software Titles Included adobe photoshop elements
Weight 3.3 kg
Height 38.6 mm
Width 280 mm
Colour black


Dell Inspiron 1745 @ £799.99
Operating system Genuine Windows (R) 7 Home Premium
Processor Type Intel Centrino 2 processor P7450
Processor speed (2.13Ghz, 1066Mhz, 3MB Cache)
Memory Type DDR3
Hard Drive Capacity 640 GB
Optical Drives dvd+/rw
Floppy Disk Drive NO
Screen Size/Type 17.3
Graphics Card Type ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
Graphics Memory 512 dedicated MB
TV-out NO
Wireless Enabled YES
Infrared Port Included NO
Other Interfaces 802.11 b/g
Battery Type 6 cell
Battery life (up to) 3.5 hours
Colour black
 
There is one more available at PcWorld which isn't listed on their website.


HP PAVILION DV7-2230SA @ £719.99
INTEL processor - Core - 2 - Duo T6600
2.2Ghz
800 Mhz
2 Cache
4 Gb memory
DDR3 memory type
500 hard drive
512MB DEDICATED
TV-Out YES
Webcam YES
YES
USB Ports 4
Firewire 1
Weight3.52
Dimensions 412 X 277
 
I've just ordered the HP Pavilion 3020ea 17 inch at £999.(after some faffing around with Dell and ACER models - nothing wrong with them, but too many reported throttling issues with Dell i7 core's, and ACER don't do a 17 inch screen model in the UK)
I'll report back when it arrives.

Phil

Edit - to the OP, I would look at Brookheathers suggestion. If you don't want or need to play games you probably don't need such a high spec laptop as you are after.

Edit again; but then, I probably don't need my spec either!
 
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