# Need A New Laptop



## mrteatime (Oct 25, 2006)

now then....just talking to paulboy and mentioned to paul that i need a new lappy....so he put me onto ebuyer, and there seems some good deals on there......but, what exactly do i need? 

do i need more 2gig ram and 160 gb hd? or or 4gig with 250 g hd? or 160gb hd with 2 gb ram?

im well confused.....

its got to be a family friendly so that tina can facetwat her mates, and i need it to well....do the normal stuff on it really....look on here, write a few letters, browse the web, download music and watch porn.......

any pointers guys? and if its available on the tesco website mores the better....i get another 10% of the price


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## minkle (Mar 17, 2008)

''facetwat'' :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

got the 710 a nice Toshiba from Tesco took ages going thro spec and then ended up getting the one she liked the "feel" of! lol

see if you can get win 7, vista is a pain!


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2006)

You could basically set a budget and get the highest spec. Tesco have an Acer for Â£389 with 4gb and 250gb hd. That should be more than you need from what you've said. Hard drive size doen't bother me as I use an external drive anyway. Built in card reader, wireless, dvd writer and comes with Windows 7. No webcam - would she want one?

If you are likely to take it on holiday etc then I would check out the weight too, and battery life.


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## Guest (Nov 10, 2009)

minkle said:


> ''facetwat'' :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


 :clapping:

Tesco discount nice Shawn :cheers:


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

IMHO, derived from our experiences with them at work.... ANYTHING except an ACER!


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2006)

ok, for Â£409 you'd getting a similar spec Toshiba


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

chris l said:


> IMHO, derived from our experiences with them at work.... ANYTHING except an ACER!


I'll go along with that! :thumbsdown:

Last Thursday (5th), I bought an Acer Aspire One netbook from Tescos...lovely looking machine...but it would freeze up two or three times a day. So did a little research on the Internet and found a topic on an Acer forum that consisted of 35+ pages of people with the same problem!









Took it back on Sunday (8th), got my money back and bought a Samsung N130 netbook instead. :yes: Very impressed with the wireless LAN on these.


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## Mutley (Apr 17, 2007)

chris l said:


> IMHO, derived from our experiences with them at work.... ANYTHING except an ACER!


Bugger, I had been looking at an Acer Aspire 5536 for one of my lads, what sort of problems did you have?

Cheers

Andrew


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## mattbeef (Jul 17, 2008)

Acer machines are built like chocolate tea pots is all ive have seen.

Very bad fit and finish with little durability IMO


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## squareleg (Mar 6, 2008)

I'm saying nothing. Nada. Zilch. My mouth is shut. SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!!! Noooooooo...... Not a thing shall pass my lips - which are sealed. Like sealing wax on the lips of a... seal. Not one word of advice will I utter. I remain silent; like a silent grave in a very quiet graveyard full of... hush. Nope. I have strayed into the path of shameless evangelism before - but no more. Never again will I venture into 'recommendation'. The door is... closed. Hth. N 

.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

squareleg said:


> I'm saying nothing. Nada. Zilch. My mouth is shut. SOMEBODY STOP ME!!!!! Noooooooo...... Not a thing shall pass my lips - which are sealed. Like sealing wax on the lips of a... seal. Not one word of advice will I utter. I remain silent; like a silent grave in a very quiet graveyard full of... hush. Nope. I have strayed into the path of shameless evangelism before - but no more. Never again will I venture into 'recommendation'. The door is... closed. Hth. N
> 
> .


So you'd buy an Apple Mac? :grin:

Where can Shawn get one for four hundred quid or so and have 10% staff discount?

Many people are more interested in functionality at a reasonable price than "lifestyle" or bragging rights at any cost.

That's why Shawn likes Seiko.


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## squareleg (Mar 6, 2008)

Gnnn...hmmmm...fff...ggg.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

squareleg said:


> Gnnn...hmmmm...fff...ggg.


I speak Amiga DOS and M$ DOS, but that doesn't compute, sorry.:wink1:


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## squareleg (Mar 6, 2008)

Stan said:


> squareleg said:
> 
> 
> > Gnnn...hmmmm...fff...ggg.
> ...




Seriously - Shawn, there's loads of good stuff out there. Pin down *exactly* what you want the thing for and go for a machine that will give you the most amount of functionality for the least amount of hassle for around a three-year period; three years being about the average limit before you will need to upgrade. 

.


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

I shall add my 2c to this as far as slagging of Acers I actually like them I have bought,sold & repaired over 200+ laptops in the alst three years and most of them were Acers with a few HP/Toshiba/Dell and Compaq thrown in for good measure.

Acer machines are the ford focus of the laptop world there are more acers sold now than just about any other pc manufacturer and they are not bad its like anything its the people that use them that are at fault.They are just as good if not better than Dell and whilst they are not a premium brand they make very good reliable mid range latops and the Acer Aspire one was outselling the competition 20 to one recently so selling that amounbt of laptops they are bound to have afew issues and thats why people slag them off.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

The system requirements are the same for Windows 7 as they are for Vista; that should give everyone a clue about Windows 7 and its relationship to Vista.

Iâ€™d suggest a good dual core CPU with 2Gb of RAM and a HDD to suit the amount of files you intend to keep on the machine, thatâ€™s open ended, naturally. But nothing less than 100Gb for â€œaverageâ€ usage, imo.

Vista has most of the driver issues sorted out now but Win 7 has a different driver model that might mean some of your hardware wonâ€™t work yet, if at all. That will depend on the hardware vendor.:wink1:

M$ could update Vista to Windows 7 standard with a Service pack if it wanted to (it should, to avoid further embarrassment) but it wonâ€™t because it wants to claim that Win 7 is a â€œnewâ€ operating system. :bull*******:

I wish M$ would refrain from testing its OSâ€™s in public and charging money for them, only to admit they were immature and release an improved version and charge the â€œtest dummiesâ€ for an upgrade.









.

Rant over.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

squareleg said:


> Stan said:
> 
> 
> > squareleg said:
> ...


Solid advice.:wink1:


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## ncon (Sep 14, 2005)

sonyman said:


> I shall add my 2c to this as far as slagging of Acers I actually like them I have bought,sold & repaired over 200+ laptops in the alst three years and most of them were Acers with a few HP/Toshiba/Dell and Compaq thrown in for good measure.
> 
> Acer machines are the ford focus of the laptop world there are more acers sold now than just about any other pc manufacturer and they are not bad its like anything its the people that use them that are at fault.They are just as good if not better than Dell and whilst they are not a premium brand they make very good reliable mid range latops and the Acer Aspire one was outselling the competition 20 to one recently so selling that amounbt of laptops they are bound to have afew issues and thats why people slag them off.


My 2c worth too, I have an Acer 5720g Travelmate running XP Pro. I bought it in June 2007, have used it daily without fail and used it pretty hard. It hasn't missed a beat. I was planning to upgrade in June this year (3 years old by then) but see no urgent need to do so. Based on this, I see no need to look beyond Acer. If I did, it would be a Toshiba or an HP....... or an IMAC!


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

mattbeef said:


> Acer machines are built like chocolate tea pots is all ive have seen.
> 
> Very bad fit and finish with little durability IMO


What he said. Poor build quality; case, keyboards, screen hinges (carrying the ribbon cable to the screen) low quality components; HDDs, card sockets, duff RAM, etc etc...


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## pg tips (May 16, 2003)

My Acer is 3 years old now, still working fine but it is falling to bits, screen hinges seized and ended up breaking the very thin frame they were mounted to.


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## gaz64 (May 5, 2009)

mrteatime said:


> now then....just talking to paulboy and mentioned to paul that i need a new lappy....so he put me onto ebuyer, and there seems some good deals on there......but, what exactly do i need?
> 
> do i need more 2gig ram and 160 gb hd? or or 4gig with 250 g hd? or 160gb hd with 2 gb ram?
> 
> ...


Not that tesco on the ring road near burger king? I was in there a couple of weeks ago


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## ncon (Sep 14, 2005)

pg tips said:


> My Acer is 3 years old now, still working fine but it is falling to bits, screen hinges seized and ended up breaking the very thin frame they were mounted to.


OOOh er! Well perhaps I have one of the ones held back for the Asian market and you guys get the junk in Europe?

Never mind!


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## jaslfc5 (Jan 2, 2007)

ive gone through loads of laptops in the last 5 years with work and such so i know what youre going through.obviously if you can get one through that huge store you work for then you will at least get a load of points ,just dont get an acer they are worse than useless.

ive had a dell for almost a year now and at way under 400 sheets its been very good bought from pc world highly recommended.

also have a look on bigpockets they have loads of cheap laptops on there good service and warrenty etc you could have one each at their prices.


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## JonW (Mar 23, 2005)

ncon said:


> ... or an IMAC!


Doesnt that remove hair?

Odds are you get a Mac next NCON... I bloomin love mine and theyre good value here


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## gaz64 (May 5, 2009)

I got a good samsung laptop for my daughter from europc in Glasgow absolutely fantastic service

my current laptop is an ASUS and it's served me well but for my next laptop it's got to be quad core and dual graphics cards and at least 4 gb ram alienware is looking likely


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## Alas (Jun 18, 2006)

sonyman said:


> I shall add my 2c to this as far as slagging of Acers I actually like them I have bought,sold & *repaired over 200+ laptops in the alst three years and most of them were Acers* with a few HP/Toshiba/Dell and Compaq thrown in for good measure.


Funnily enough that comment would put me off them. :tongue2: :rofl2:


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

Toshiba, Toshiba or Toshiba 

I have busted a lot of laptops on site but never a Toshiba. They all took a lot of abuse but a hinge never failed, caps never popped off, cases didn't crack........


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

H'mmmmmm...........I've got an Acer and its been very good. No probs at all


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

Griff said:


> H'mmmmmm...........I've got an Acer and its been very good. No probs at all


Give it to me and I'll kick it round site, drop it off a ladder and get fried egg between the caps and I'll report back.


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

No :tease:


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

Alas said:


> sonyman said:
> 
> 
> > I shall add my 2c to this as far as slagging of Acers I actually like them I have bought,sold & *repaired over 200+ laptops in the alst three years and most of them were Acers* with a few HP/Toshiba/Dell and Compaq thrown in for good measure.
> ...


I see what you mean mate but I bought the returns off a large internet retailer based in the north,and Acers outsold other brands 10 to 1 so most were damaged screens,leads missing,unwanted or sometimes they were faulty but as I had a contact at Acer and they were under waranty they were repaired for nothing so it was an ok buisness,Most Acera are easy to work on and are very easy to get spares for so thats why I choose to deal in them, Sony are impossible to get spares for and are stupid prices to get repaired


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## BondandBigM (Apr 4, 2007)

Another vote for Samsung here, had mine for a bit more than a year and it has been faultless. To be fair it never goes anywhere other than my little table in the front room so I don't know about how it would cope with being carted around but it seems pretty well made. I don't know what is inside it, sticker says dual pentium  It has plenty of memory for saving films and photo's and is more than quick enough for anything I do.

Not sure why everybody is down on Vista, I have had virtually no problem. Easy to use, it hasn't packed up yet and I never update it. It has had a bit of a wobble with Firefox recently but I put that down to something I don't understand how to fix.

I guess if you are only going to have it sitting in the house and pay around Â£300 and if it lasts 2 - 3 years you've had your money's worth, just bin it and start again so I wouldn't be put off buying a cheaper one.

People seem to be obsessed with the speed of these things but what's a second or two here and there. I'm never in that much of a hurry these days anyway :lol:


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

I bet Arnie would say *Acer la Vista* baby!!!!   :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


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## sonyman (Feb 9, 2009)

Acer Aspire 5410 Timeline 3GB 250GB 15.6" Laptop

Catalogue number: 206-8537 Â£389.00

Acer AS5338 T3000 4GB 250GB 15.6" Laptop

Catalogue number: 206-9915 Â£359.00

Acer 5332 T3000 3GB 160GB 15.6" Laptop

Catalogue number: 206-2269 Â£327.00

all are ok and just about within your price range from tesco direct each one has its beifits and there really isnt that much between them the timeline range has webcams but a smaller hd all have led lcd screens so thats good.

pretty much down to personal preference as i have said before though go to pc world play with themdecide which you like and then go to tescos and by one :clapping:


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

MarkF said:


> Toshiba, Toshiba or Toshiba
> 
> I have busted a lot of laptops on site but never a Toshiba. They all took a lot of abuse but a hinge never failed, caps never popped off, cases didn't crack........


T-8000 died a couple of weeks ago


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## jaslfc5 (Jan 2, 2007)

its the same as everything you ask around enough you will hear people slag off every brand out there.ive got a knackered toshiba satelite it was great until it frazzled the motherboard and hd.packard bell went spectaculary wrong after 18months ,my sons acer has been back to acer more times than ive had cooked diners.the best laptop ive bought in the last 3 years was the ibm of bigpockets for 120 sheets the abuse those things get in my centre and it has never failed .


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## MarkF (Jul 5, 2003)

mach 0.0013137 said:


> MarkF said:
> 
> 
> > Toshiba, Toshiba or Toshiba
> ...


Mac, that was built like a tank but perhaps not sufficiently well built to survive cack-handed hippies. What did you do to it?


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## chris l (Aug 5, 2005)

RM 4400.

Any Dell.

Some HPs have proved durable...


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## mach 0.0013137 (Jan 10, 2005)

MarkF said:


> mach 0.0013137 said:
> 
> 
> > MarkF said:
> ...


I only got it for my finances as I didn`t want them anywhere near the tinternet & it was only used for a few hours a month, it was probably just worn out from all the abuse mentioned above :hammer: :lol:

No worries it had served me well for the last nearly four years so I`ve no complaints :thumbsup:


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

My ACER is the Extensa 5220 and it has been excellent and still is


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## brgkster (Jul 14, 2009)

any hp lappy i've had suffered from motherboard problems,

i've had an advent that was ok,

BUT my ibm thinkpad, is the bees knees, its bombproof,

it has had coffee spilt on the keypad umteem times,

also the odd splutter and spray of various liquids spewed all over it,

it got knocked from the kitchen table to the tiled floor,

its is still working, never given an ounce of trouble,

it has to have a apacket of crisps under the keypad,

it reminds me of the old timex add

the only way you can break it is with your heel.


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## Stan (Aug 7, 2003)

brgkster said:


> any hp lappy i've had suffered from motherboard problems,
> 
> i've had an advent that was ok,
> 
> ...


I'd go along with that entirely, Lenovo/ IBM machines and the support available is outstanding. Thinkpads cost a lot of brass when new, I couldn't hope to spend at least Â£1200 on one, but secondhand ones are quite attractive.

Why buy an Apple Mac when you can have an IBM at the same price or less?

IBM Business Black has a "style" of its own, and the support network is outstanding.


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## Griff (Feb 23, 2003)

Macs are difficult to repair and the prices to fix them are hideous


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## squareleg (Mar 6, 2008)

Griff said:


> Macs are difficult to repair and the prices to fix them are hideous


Based on your vast experience, I presume. 

Ok. I got my first Mac in 1991 - a IICi. If I remember correctly, it was a 33mhz machine with 45mb (not gb!) hard drive and, iirc, 8mb (not gb!) RAM. Since then, I've had numerous other models: IIFX, Blue G4, 20 inch iMac G5, 12 inch Powerbook (the very early one), 13 inch Macbook and a 15 inch Macbook Pro. My total fix / repair bills over those eighteen years are as follows:

20 in iMac G5 - blown PSU (power service unit - like an internal transformer) - Â£120 - in about 2001

13 in MacBook - disk crash (the only one I've ever had) - supply and fit new 100gb hard drive - cÂ£150 (can't remember exactly) - 2008

13 in MacBook - new battery - Â£95 - 2009

And that's it. Â£365 in eighteen years, or just over Â£20 per annum.

I'm not banging a drum here but only point this out to counter that ill-informed comment above. Hth.


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## mattbeef (Jul 17, 2008)

While im biased Mac's generally arent too bad to repair. Its the older machines that are a total swine but i wont argue with the cost of repairing them although the prices of repairing them is going the right way on the price ladder


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## itsguy (Nov 16, 2009)

Wait a few months and get the new ultra-secret Apple tablet thing that absolutely everyone seems to know all about. Likely to be cheap-ish and do what you want it to do.

Apples don't always start as cheap, but if someone tried to tell you a Casio was basically the same as an IWC because they both tell the time... Well, you get my point.

One piece of advice before the inevitable mac / pc flame war - second hand last gen Apples can be good value, but non-INTEL models are going the way of the dodo, the latest operating system doesn't even support them so they will be left behind sooner or later. Which either means you could pick one up for pennies, or means don't get one, your call.


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