Hey all,

I'm looking for a new (well, first ever) laptop for uni this year. I am an art student so will be using it mainly for graphics software, image editing, and the normal music listening etc. Power to run games well would also be a plus So I guess it's mainly a multimedia laptop. I don't want to be spending any more that 400/450 pounds to be honest.

I have my eyes mainly on http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126329/rb/0 and http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...esc&filter_category=&filter_string=&offset=10

The second seems to have slightly better specs for a slightly more expensive price, but im more a fan of AMD to be honest. Maybe another laptop on Ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/store/5/category/Laptops would suit me more.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

All of those have integrated graphics, so they might not have the graphical processing power you are looking for. Does Dell have a European website? If they do you might want to take a look at their Vostro line.

have a look at the acers with ebuyer - code 126338 or 126334. These have beefy graphics cards and might suit?

I'm still undecided, bah.

I guess 450 pounds seems OK for a laptop, and I am tempted to go with this one. But its single core as far as I can see, and for the same price are Intel Core Duo whatever numbojumbo http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126338

Large screen, good graphics etc.

The Turion 64 is a dual core chip. See http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_13909,00.html

If you are correct, and I hope you are, I will love you forever, and would immediately buy it

Over familiarity is forbidden on this forum. Besides I am big and brave and very very English so we don't do that sort of thing.
Buy the thing.
Today!
Jeepers I deserve a commission from Acer on this one!

I'm confused though. No where in the specs does it say X2. Isn't this the single core one I expect to find in the laptop? http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/ProductInformation/0,,30_118_12651,00.html

I think it's single core. Bummer.

Sorry - mea culpa - followed the wrong link. This is Turion mobile and not Turion 64
What about this one? Graphics not so beefy but...
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126332

I was... So happy

I don't even know for sure whether I would need x2 though.

Is this one single core as well? http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126329/rb/0

It would appear not - but the usual specification sheet is missing on this one and no trace of the model number on the Acer UK site.
If you are not sure about x2, you probably do't need it. A beefy graphics card would probably be of more use to you in what you are planning to do.

And the card in the model I was disappointed to find was not x2 is, in your opinion, a good card? 6100 I think it was.

I cannot remember which is which now - the salient point is that where there is the system RAM is shared to provide memory for the graphics card the performance is not as good as where the graphics card has it's own dedicated memory modules.

According to reviews, the system memory is shared in the one you said had a beefy graphics card too http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...esc&filter_category=&filter_string=&offset=10
I presume therefore this is still an onboard card that is uses?

If you look at the extended spec for this you will see that is a shared memory card up to a max of 128 Mb - which it takes from the system memory. The system memory is upgradeable should you want to use max graphics memory.
Hope this helps!

I'm very unlikely to stick with Vista. What do you think of this one - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128979/rb/0

Looks OK to me - graphics on shared memory but otherwise a decent spec.

Yeah that's my only worry, do they look like good graphics? Also it's HP, are they good? I'm sorry to keep changing my mind on my choices, I just want to cover all options as i'm sure you understand.

Things to consider when getting a laptop:

For general productivity and surfing and a few games you will need the following:

1. NO LESS than 1gb of ram. Max the ram on your laptop when buying. RAM also helps save battery life as the HD is less accessed. Almost all laptops use integrated graphics which "borrow" ram from the main board this is also why you need more.

2. 7200 rpm hd. Anything less like 5200 or (egad) 4100 etc will run excruciatingly slow. 60gb of space is plenty. If you plan to store movies, get a humungous external drive.

3. wireless card MUST be part of the laptop. Most new ones do. ensure you have a/b/g protocol. "N" is not standardized yet, DO NOT buy version N until the standard is ratified. DRAFT N is proprietary and NOT standard.

4. must have a dual core CPU. anything else is a waste of time. For intel this means a CORE 2 DUO or better or for AMD an ATHLON 4000 or better. DO NOT buy a low end CPU like a centrino or any single core CPU. These are rapidly becoming obsolete.

5. Don't bother with a gaming laptop. If you intend on playing high end games, buy a desktop. Laptops get hot, also less than 2% have upgradable graphics boards. By the time you want to play a newer game, your system will be obsolete.

6. Consider battery life. If you are more mobile, ensure you can run on at least 2 hours of battery life at normal cpu settings.

7. consider weight. If you are lugging it around campus, you'll want it to be realtively lightweight.