Good laptop for under Â£800

handyman · 17-05-2010, 15:07

Hi all,

Looking at possibly getting a new laptop thru work and its so confusing with all the different types of processor etc so would like to know if anyone has any suggestions.

I'm think I would look for something under Â£800 (inc VAT). Needs to be 4gb at least, with a good battery life, quiet and needs a bit of meat in the performance department. Not sure between dual core , core 2 i3/i5 as which will be the best option. Also not bothered if it is AMD under the hood.

Typical use will be with an external monitor as well so a 13/14" is ok as well as the normal 15" screens. I would have most of the office apps open together with Firefox, Dreamweaver and an ftp app with normally firefox, ie and safari open as well :-).

Lord Nikon · 17-05-2010, 15:24

See if you can find an Asus G50 or G70 series laptop. It's a 4Gb Ram gaming spec laptop so plenty of horsepower, mine is a Core 2 duo and can handle bioshock 2 smoother than a PS3, battery life is about 5 hours on a standard battery. External outputs are VGA and HDMI as standard, drive is SATA internal but can take 2 SATA drives internally, Optical drive is also SATA and it has an eSATA port, 4 USB2 ports, 1 firewire, Expresscard port and goes like a rocket.

Graham M · 17-05-2010, 15:25

I received my Dell Studio 15 with the Core i3 M350 2.26GHz) CPU on Friday, everything else is stock although i could've specced it up a bit, so 3GB of DDR3, 320GB HD and an ATI Mobility HD 4570 512mb (which is quite impressive in what it will run smoothly!), came to Â£570 or thereabouts. The screen is clear and it runs whisper quiet. Lovely piece of kit

17-05-2010, 15:25

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshi...EN/version.asp something like this for example?

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Asp...on.asp?PID=384 this ones better. This one outspecs the rest so far by a considerable amount

Horace · 22-05-2010, 11:43

There's an 'England Expects' promo on a couple of high end Toshiba laptops with a full refund if England win the world cup (lol) ..just so you know. http://www.toshiba.co.uk/england/england-expects.php
Click the England Expects link at the top for the full range of laptops with the offer.

chrisjones · 24-05-2010, 22:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham M

I received my Dell Studio 15 with the Core i3 M350 2.26GHz) CPU on Friday, everything else is stock although i could've specced it up a bit, so 3GB of DDR3, 320GB HD and an ATI Mobility HD 4570 512mb (which is quite impressive in what it will run smoothly!), came to Â£570 or thereabouts. The screen is clear and it runs whisper quiet. Lovely piece of kit

I recently went for an i5 spec 15 series, great bit of kit! Sure it looks a bit 'cheap' but its actually very nice to use and the quality is far and away better than the Acer. On the topic of the Acer, I had five faulty machines in a row from them, yep FIVE!! The quality control on display was shocking, I had problems ranging from scratched screens to its 'insides' sticking out of the the keyboard - crazy!!
Between the Dell and Acer I would take the Dell even if your loosing out on spec a little. Like I mentioned the build quality of the Acer's I had were simply awful, really quite shocked at how bad they were.

Lord Nikon · 25-05-2010, 06:57

I have an Acer Aspire 5100 - Never again will I buy Acer, and I will advise people to avoid them. On mine the motherboard developed a problem with the optical drive interface. 1 in 10 times the optical drive will be recognised and will work. The rest of the time not even the bios will see it. All components have been reflowed, and / or X-Rayed to confirm proper connectivity. It's the board itself. Searching forums indicates I am far from the only one with the problem, and Acer do not want to know. I will never again buy an Acer laptop.

I bought an Asus G50 to replace it. and I will recommend those to as many people as will listen. Fantastic machines.

AbyssUnderground · 27-05-2010, 12:26

Take a look at http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180894. Good specs, good price. Acer aren't the best brand but they sure do some nice specs for a nice price.

chrisjones · 27-05-2010, 13:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by AbyssUnderground

Take a look at http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180894. Good specs, good price. Acer aren't the best brand but they sure do some nice specs for a nice price.

And more often than not as an extra bonus they throw in a fault or two! Lol

Hom3r · 27-05-2010, 15:26

For that kinda of cash you could get a lappy with dedicated graphic card memory.

PeteLockwood · 02-06-2010, 15:18

i have a acer 5740g its great

core i5 2.26ghz cpu
ati radeon hd 5470 (outputs 1080p piece of ****)
4 gig ddr3
led screen
500 gig hdd

great piece of kit for Â£600!

AbyssUnderground · 02-06-2010, 15:23

Mines the core i3 2.13GHz version with 320GB HD. Still great for Â£530. It won't be 4GB of DDR3 either I don't think. Don't they have to come in 3's? LED Screen means LED backlight, not OLED screen.

PeteLockwood · 02-06-2010, 15:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by AbyssUnderground

Mines the core i3 2.13GHz version with 320GB HD. Still great for Â£530. It won't be 4GB of DDR3 either I don't think. Don't they have to come in 3's? LED Screen means LED backlight, not OLED screen.

yes, it is ddr3 and yeah i know it is LED, low power consumption and excellent quality!

02-06-2010, 15:32

i3 i5 and some i7 are double channel only the top end i7 on the x58 are triple

PeteLockwood · 02-06-2010, 15:38

i mean the frequency of the ram 2 x 2 gb ddr3 1066mhz