laptops

[nku]

Hi, I am looking to buy a laptop. It would be used for internet access, including online gaming & word documents really. A decent amount of memory / hard drive would be good. Any ideas as to good make etc? Also, ones I've looked at are Intel Celeron & Intel Core. What's the difference?

Thanks in advance.

[Jackster228]

Hi
You need to have a fixed budget in mind and then go for the best spec for that price. If the laptop will be running Vista then i would recommend at least 3gb of RAM, otherwise you may find it slow. If the online gaming is a mporpg then you will need a decent graphics chipset in there as well.

[VHG]

>at least 3gb of RAM,

Silly suggestion.

I run Vista on 2Gb of RAM and it is fine.

More than 3Gb of memory is a waste of time with Vista anyway because the Windows most of us use does not support more than about 3Gb.

[VHG]

>Also, ones I've looked at are Intel Celeron & Intel Core.

For some reason Intel make loads of different CPUs with a complex set of names. Trying to explain all the name and the differences between them all would take ages.

In simple terms CPUs can be either single core or dual core. The best are Dual Core, so if you see a CPU called "Core 2 Duo" or similar that is pretty good.

Celeron tend to be the cheaper low end CPUs, so these are built for the budget market. Having said that they do a dual core Celeron just to confuse us all.

Top be honest almost any CPU you get nowadays will be fine for everyday use. As a simple rule the more you pay for a laptop the better the CPU will be (not 100% true I know but a reasonable guide)

A laptop running Vista will be better with 2Gb of memory rather than 1Gb.

[VHG]

If you really want to know the difference between the various laptop CPUs see this Intel site:

http://www.intel.com/products/laptop/processor s/index.htm?iid=processors_body+nb_core

There are 3 tabs near the top, "Core" family, "Pentium" family and "Celeron" family

"Core" are the best, "Celeron" are the "low end" and "Pentium" sit some way betwween the two.

All three families offer "dual core" CPUs, but as I said the "Core 2 Duo" are the best

[VHG]

Loads of "good makes" like Sony, HP, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo (IBM), Samsung, Acer

Avoid the cheap "own brand" laptops from places like PC World, Currys etc.

These include Advent, Packard Bell and E Systems.

[nku]

Thanks very much. Ideally don't want to use vista, would rather stick with xp. I'd prob say max of �400 to be honest.

[wideboy]

Do you need to have a CD/DVD writer/player in the laptop? If not, then consider one of the new Netbooks. You could get a 'good' one for around �300 (�100 to spend on other things this Christmas - even an external CD/DVD for installing software and backing up?).

I can personally recommend the Advent 4211 from PC World (it has now been upgraded to a 160GB Hard Drive from the original 80GB) and you can install another 1GB main memory quite cheaply. This would have everything you need in a very portable package. The only thing is the battery life (you might find PC World giving a better one?).

If you spend a bit more, you can get the latest MSI Wind (on which the Advent is based) and they have upped the hard drive capacity and increased the battery life.

If I were to choose now, I would consider the new Samsung NC10 (looks VERY good) but Lenovo also have a new one at about �300 (may be available soon):-

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx =5BTY&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=lenovo&PageMode =3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&NavigationKey= 0

Make sure you get a 10.2" screen - very readable. Each of these has wireless, bluetooth, card reader and built-in webcam.

They run very cool and quiet. VERY portable - great for camera users.

Some people have even installed Vista and some have got Mac OS X running on it as a cheap version of a Mac Book (if you really want a challenge, you can play around with Linux).

Google away!

[wideboy]

PS. Don't worry about Advent and PC World! I don't usually give them my custom but in this case I saved �50 over the MSI Wind - only got a 1 year guarantee (but it could be extended [NOT in store!, later by post]) and I got a very nice case from Carphone Warehouse (they've now put up the price from about �8 to �12).