Thread: Laptop

OK, I'm *considering* a new laptop; not really sure at the moment what with money being tight where I'm going to uni and all... Anyway, tell me what you think of this (for ?521):

Processor: C2 Duo T7250 (2 x 2.00Ghz)
RAM: 2GB
Hard Drive: 160GB
GFX: 256MB Intel integrated X3100 (GM965) - I don't really know how this performs, but it's not meant to be for gaming anyway so as long as it's reasonable

1.8kg - 12.1" Widescreen : Pretty damned portable

That's about it. Comes in a stylish Black or an arty White. For an extra ?60, that T7250 can be bumped up to the T7700 (2 x 2.4ghz), if more power were something I was too worried about. I'm currently running on a 1.6 Centrino Duo though, so the step up to the Core2 Duo 2.0 should be fairly noticeable anyway.

What company making it? A reliable company is worth at least ?50 more than a less reliable one.

Yer, it's pcspecialist.co.uk - I've no idea the reliability of the brand, but even the best brands get a good number of poor reviews. Which is a downer, but on the other hand it comes with 1 year collect/return policy. And I *know* the bad bits about, say, Dell, whereas at least I've not heard anything bad about these guys. Like you say though; if I could be sure of a good brand, I'd happily pay the extra ?50. Thing is, a laptop with specs like that anywhere else isn't just ?50 more.

Also, since all the components are bought standard from a third party supplier (any intel T7XXX chip will work with any intel T7XXX motherboard, for instance), there's not *that* much they can skimp on. Apart from customer service, which shouldn't be a problem anyway, so long as the thing's delivered in working order.

The specs sound good for the price, for Vista however I would recommend 3GB at the very least. Even with a better processor your going to feel the drag. Saying that though knowing you you'll have Vista off it and Linux on within 24 hours of getting it

Actually, part of the cheapness is because I picked the "Ubuntu" OS option; save you ?70 and I've got plenty of winXP license stickers lying around so I can just stick one of them on there.

I recommend that you don't use integrated graphics, it can be a downfall even if you don't use it for gaming. Get a Geforce 8600M on there, dead cheap but half decent.

Problem is, it turns out that if you want a laptop without an integrated gfx, you're looking at a significantly higher price range (~6-700 at least), since they know they're gaming laptops. Yeah they've got better specs in other ways, but I don't really care about that