Which laptop?

[Jen S]

Hi everyone,

Just thought I would see what the YD knowledge pool could provide on Laptops!!

I’m buying a laptop before going in the Navy & am wondering which laptops people think are best.

I’ve got about £1000 to spend, though could stretch to about £1300.
I’m looking for something that will run all Office applications with ease, play DVD’s well & cope with editing digital pictures. I may get some games, but they will probably only be simple ones, as am not a serious ‘gamer’ (or have the time to play games!!). I also want it to be able to run multiple programmes at once without it ‘throwing a wobbly’.

What kind of processor should be looking for?

What size hard drive & memory?

Are there any ‘better’ makes than others?
I have been looking at Dell, Toshiba & Sony. Are these a good choice?

Any advice would be greatly received!

Cheers,
Jen

[Andy the Coastie]

I got a EISYSTEM one from Pc world a year ago, £ 599 and hasn't let me down.

15 " screen
512 meg DDR ram
16 bit soundblaster card
40 gig hard drive
5 usb ports
built in modem
cd rewriter that also is a DVD player

runs all the OFFICE stuff.
does all it want me to do ,,,,,, plus what you want .

have run 5 complex survey programmes off it at the same time ,,, withut any probs.

plus i can plug it into the tele and watch dvd from the laptop on big screen .



Also has a alarm for you ........ so that ya not late for them 03:30 beastings

[Fathoms Down]

The Dell, Toshiba and IBM laptops are very good machines. I'd avoid Time, Tiny and Packard Bell like the plague. Generally its best to get something from a major manufacturer as they have the resources to fund better laptop design research and have better support capabilities. I've just ordered an IBM T42p as its a cracking business machine and provided plenty of power for a reasonable price.

HTH

Nick

[JAG]

Jen,

When do you exactly expect to use it during training? Your minutes will blend into hours, your hours will blend into days, your days will become weeks, you won't know your arse from your elbow!!

Good luck though shipmate.

Ian

[Hoppy]

Well I use Toshiba for work, very rugged (mine gets carted all over).

Have to say I got a flyer through the other day for Dell, they have some darned good deals on at the moment. Only via the web for some reason. Maybe check out the website ? Deal end 8th December details here

[Bantam]

I have to do my obligatory;


Apple iBook G4. Can't go wrong!

http://www.apple.com/uk/ibook/

Included (amongst other things..)
OS-X Operating System and
Music= iTunes
Photos= iPhoto
Internet= Safari or IE.
Film Editing = iMovie
DVD Burning = iDVD
Making your own music = Garageband
E-Mail = Mac Mail.

Then you can buy MS Office for Mac and get Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Entourage (outlook) although you get AppleWorks free too.

[Jen S]

Originally Posted by Xmatelot

Jen,

When do you exactly expect to use it during training? Your minutes will blend into hours, your hours will blend into days, your days will become weeks, you won't know your arse from your elbow!!

Good luck though shipmate.

Ian

I know. I won't have much time initially, but it's more of a long term thing.

Long story, but the £1000 is being given to me. It's what I have paid parents in the form of monthly board to live at home for the year, but they've secretly been putting it into a savings account for me! I'm now getting it back as a Chirstmas present! Although it was my money in the first place, it's still great as wasn't expecting to get it back! The condition of me getting it though is to spend it on something worthwhile and NOT dive kit! So, I've always wanted a laptop, so seems a good time to do it!

Jen

[diveross]

Dell. Rock solid. 2 years no probs.

Ross

[Bunny]

Don't know if you can get one of the lower spec Sony Vaio's for that money. But Vaio easily competes with Mac for screen, image, sound and style quality. I'm a PC devottee and love my Vaio.

[Ian@1904]

I have used Dell for many years, at home we have a Dell PC and Notebook. Both have been great performers.