kennett Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 Looking at new laptops, and looking at spending at up to £400. Have found an Asus on curry's. Intel i5 processor 2.2 g 3mb cache 8 gig Ram 1tb storage for £400. What's the verdict, any good? Will be used for Internet, basic word processing and photo download from camera with a bit of editing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wascal Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 I find currys / pcworld to be a bit pricey for what you get try http://www.ebuyer.com/ or http://www.scan.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buze Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 Last Asus I had about 3 years ago was ****. It was that price range, and had a glossy screen (yuck) and was /creaking/ -- basically if you took it from one corner, the whole chassis bent and creaked in a rather nasty way. And the keyboard was dire. I don't have a counter recommendation tho, sorry _ i reverted to using an old and trusted Lenovo... But try to find a place that has the one you like and 'handle' it a bit, there's more than tech spec in a laptop... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
la bala Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 The only thing i can say is, my grandson is at Cambridge Uni studying computer sciences and all the computers are Asus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortune Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 (edited) I bought an Acer 11 inch to take abroad with me because it was big enough to see, light- ish to have on my lap, small enough to go in a hotel room safe, nice keyboard, 4 g of ram and a more than big enough hard drive, don't need a porters sack barrow to tote it around. just a nice little machine. laptops seem to have gone bigger and heavier in recent times and weigh a ton if you want to use it on your lap. My first desktop computer in about 94 was an absolute top of the range machine and was a 486 DX66 with 8 megabytes of ram and a hard drive of 540 meg = 1/2 a gig. And these were megabytes not gigabytes. What I started to think about was have a good look around before you buy because most anything on the market will do what you want and a lot more Edited July 12, 2016 by fortune Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itchy trigger Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 I recently bought a lenovo G50, not expensive, slim, quite a good screen, keyboard is fine, only thing is the battery life is not what I would call fantastic, but again don't really know much about laptops, always had desktops before, bought on a deal at tesco, asked the tech guy in the superstore, he said this one for the graphic card, gives a great picture on my 42" HD plasma, only thing I don't like is windows 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Mule Posted July 12, 2016 Report Share Posted July 12, 2016 (edited) Some good advice here Personally I have no issue with ASUS. My own personal preference is for Dells. They are easy to work on and upgrade, the online support is the dog's knees and the bee's bo,,,,,,, You can get drivers easy peasy The support is in India (unless you buy premium support), but at least they pick up the phone. You are almost certainly going to get Windows 10 if you buy new. If you do make sure you get at least 8Gb of RAM, it works with less, but creaks a bit. If you can get an i5, go for it, but an i3 will not be the end of the world. You don't say what you want it to do. Surfing and emails won't need much, but if you're doing the accounts, running serious graphics / gaming,,,, And yes I do know what I'm talking about, before some of our more vocal types try to jump down my throat - again. Actually: if you have a local pawn shop ('cash generator',etc.) that will supply a guarantee,,,,, Edited July 12, 2016 by Alpha Mule Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShootingEgg Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 The only thing i can say is, my grandson is at Cambridge Uni studying computer sciences and all the computers are Asus.that will just be the best deal the uni got for the kit. Company o work for who support the uni's network buy Dell and Mac books. For your price range id be looking at ebuyer or dabs, both online. And you could pick up an HP, Toshiba, Samsung for the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chancer2 Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 If you can spend more and get more. That way it will stay up to date longer. The 1 spec item you should look for a Sata111 SSD hard drive it will make a big difference to performance. DELL all the way on ease of upgrades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 If you can spend more and get more. That way it will stay up to date longer. The 1 spec item you should look for a Sata111 SSD hard drive it will make a big difference to performance. DELL all the way on ease of upgrades. DELL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Canis Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 If you can spend more and get more. That way it will stay up to date longer. The 1 spec item you should look for a Sata111 SSD hard drive it will make a big difference to performance. DELL all the way on ease of upgrades. I would disagree -IT is the one time that buy cheap -buy twice is actually a good idea. A PC that is High specification today will be entry level in a couple of months time!. far better buy one for £300 today and replace it in 3 years time than spend £600 and keep it for 6 years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 I would disagree -IT is the one time that buy cheap -buy twice is actually a good idea. A PC that is High specification today will be entry level in a couple of months time!. far better buy one for £300 today and replace it in 3 years time than spend £600 and keep it for 6 years The spec of the PC depends on what you want to-do with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosd Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 The spec of the PC depends on what you want to-do with it. Depending on the level of editing the OP is aiming for, it sounds to me that a pretty basic spec is suitable. The machine being looked at has a decent processor, space and RAM to do everything he requires in my opinion. And I also agree with previous poster, when it comes to PC's or laptops, you don't spec it to make it future proof, you buy to suit your current needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy. Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 (edited) And I also agree with previous poster, when it comes to PC's or laptops, you don't spec it to make it future proof, you buy to suit your current needs. I beg to differ. OP's current spec is just about ok for this day and age. Give it a year and that thing will start to struggle. Yes, money was no issue, but the (now second) last laptop I bought was an i7 Dual Core 2.5, 16GB ram, 256SSD. That was in 2011 and I've literally just upgraded. That's five years of perfectly useable and powerful use, all for a well invested machine from the start. Edited July 13, 2016 by Billy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortune Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 Will be used for Internet, basic word processing and photo download from camera with a bit of editing The machine wont be taxed very hard with this usage. I'd go small and basic. the weight and size of some laptops can be a real burden. keep the investment value in the machine low so if it is out of warranty you dont feel that you have to spend out a lot for an up to date model if that should happen. technology is moving so fast that yesterday is old hat you've only got to look at how often windows is re vamped. It only seems like yesterday when win 7 was new and how many versions there have been since.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old'un Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 I beg to differ. OP's current spec is just about ok for this day and age. Give it a year and that thing will start to struggle. Yes, money was no issue, but the (now second) last laptop I bought was an i7 Dual Core 2.5, 16GB ram, 256SSD. That was in 2011 and I've literally just upgraded. That's five years of perfectly useable and powerful use, all for a well invested machine from the start. That spec is very similar to my currant PC which I built 2012, I find it is still fast enough for all my needs and if you look at similar i7 spec PC's today they are selling for £600+ so after 4 years it is still a relatively high spec machine and capable of running all currant software. One thing that will speed most PC's up is a SSD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennett Posted July 13, 2016 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 Thanks all, I'll keep looking for a bit longer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosd Posted July 13, 2016 Report Share Posted July 13, 2016 I beg to differ. OP's current spec is just about ok for this day and age. Give it a year and that thing will start to struggle. Yes, money was no issue, but the (now second) last laptop I bought was an i7 Dual Core 2.5, 16GB ram, 256SSD. That was in 2011 and I've literally just upgraded. That's five years of perfectly useable and powerful use, all for a well invested machine from the start. Hey Billy Hope you're well My point is this, I know a little about PC's and appreciate probably not as much as you. But In 2011 the laptop you bought was all singing and dancing. If you do t mind, how much did you pay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alpha Mule Posted July 14, 2016 Report Share Posted July 14, 2016 Computers don't struggle as they get older, they struggle when you ask more of them or load more software on (intentionally or not). As Cosd asks, how much did the machine cost in 2011?SSDs do make a difference (depending on whether your internals can make full use of their speed), but RAM is dirt cheap just now and can make a huge difference. Worked on a workstation today that had dual Xeon CPUs, 64Gb RAM with room for another 64Gb, dual NICs and a pair of SSDs. The video card cost as much as a small car! (and it was a Dell) Just a tad jealous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy. Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 (edited) I think I paid £1600 for it. Seems better than buying a £400 laptop every year to keep up with software requirements etc. The only reason I got rid of it was because I knocked it off a table and caused some damage to the logic board, which would cost £600 to fix. So I dropped £2000 on a new laptop and that will keep me going for at least five years. Edited July 16, 2016 by Billy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Heron Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 We have Lenovos at work they are very slow and look like they were built at the bottom of the garden in a shed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oxfordshooter Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 Ignore all of this advice just pay more and buy an Apple computer. It will last last three times as long, won't get riddled with viruses and malware and should you decide to sell it in a couple of years will hold it's value like no Windows PC ever could. As a main computer I use a Mac Mini desktop machine which was made in 2006, absolutely no issues and handles all my music, documents and browsing needs. How many people on here use a Windows PC that old? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosd Posted July 17, 2016 Report Share Posted July 17, 2016 Ignore all of this advice just pay more and buy an Apple computer. It will last last three times as long, won't get riddled with viruses and malware and should you decide to sell it in a couple of years will hold it's value like no Windows PC ever could. As a main computer I use a Mac Mini desktop machine which was made in 2006, absolutely no issues and handles all my music, documents and browsing needs. How many people on here use a Windows PC that old? I recently converted to Apple. I bought the all singing and dancing iMac 27" and it is excellent. I would recommend Apple all day long but the price is at the top end which doesn't help the OP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hedge Posted July 18, 2016 Report Share Posted July 18, 2016 My last 3 laptops have all been Lenovo's (used to be IBM). Performance is average but for £30 I fitted more RAM and went from the stock 8GB to 16GB and it runs a lot better. It's generally multiple applications that slow a 'puter down as they can't multitask very well. More RAM is a cost-effective way to improve performance. Or buy a Mac! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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