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/products/index.html?rb=0&product_uid=126332&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&filter_display=both&filter_order=rating_desc&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 :D

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/products/index.html?rb=0&product_uid=126338&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&filter_display=both&filter_order=rating_desc&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.

Thanks for the long reply. To be honest, I have a good desktop, and wouldn't be playing many games on the laptop. Definately not graphically intensive games, more like something like Guild Wars occasionally? Interesting about the dual core comment being a must, I guess it would be a good idea.
With that HP one though, i'm just concerned about the graphics.

Personally I am not keen on HP/Compaq, I see too many of them in my workshop for repair; hence the recommendations for Acer.

I'm really never going to decide am I? Haha.

Try the Vostro 1500. It's for about 425 pounds fully loaded with 2GB of RAM, a Core 2 Duo processor, 160GB 5400RPM HDD, an 8600GT with 256MB of dedicated DDR2 memory onboard, a DVD writer and Vista. Quite a good deal methinks.

Ooh, very nice. The Vostro 1700 http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/4x_vostro_1700?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&l=en&s=bsd has excellent specs by the looks of things, for the same price as the others I linked too. Surely there's a cache? I'll need some people's opinions on Dell please. Does this seem like a good deal?

More spam, screw Dell. 200 something pounds VAT and shipping. Back to being indecisive.

Stay away from Dell - not what they used to be and customer support leaves much to be desired.

The VAT and Shipping is most likely due to the fact that it's meant for small business use IMO. Acer isn't very good too, since I've seen many of their lappies fail quite fast, much faster than HP\Compaq. I haven't seen any Toshibas fail in this part of the world, but internationally that doesn't seem to be the case. In any case, a mid-end HP is of decent build and I have one that hasn't failed since I bought it, so I'd vouch for it.

OK, i'm pretty much decided on the HP one http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128979/rb/0
Are the graphics OK though?

I've heard HP are good, although not the best for multimedia, as in image editing, movies and especially gaming (yes I know, no laptops are for the latter, but i'd probably want to play something like Guild Wars reasonably well). Is this true?

I doubt that's true, coz my friend owns a top-of-the-range HP model and uses it for Photoshop and watching DVDs. It's working fine for about a year and a half now.

Thalin - get yourself down to the local box-shifter like PC World (grief - did I just say that?) and buy the manager's deal of the day. Don't like it, take it back.

I think i'll pass on that offer :)

As long as the graphic capabilities are good with that HP one, i'll buy it. Are they?

I stick by my guns and recommend Acer.

I've heard people have problems with Acer and HP, as with any other brand or anything else in life. There will always be problems with something. I would get that large screened Acer laptop but it lacks dual core, and that turns me away. Although it does however have nice graphics and a large screen. The HP seems to have everything I need, and seems to be a reliable brand, if only I knew what the graphic capabilities are!

OK - as much as I hate to say it, go to your nearest box-shifter and have a look at both of them on display. Someone I know would make a choice based on colour - but then that seems to have worked for her car!

I went ahead and bought the HP laptop, although I am not overlly impressed, let me explain.

I reformatted straight away to get rid of all the **** I don't need, updated the drivers of everything etc, then ran a 3D Mark (free version) check. It gets scores of 600-800 at best, which from what i've researched is dismal because people with similar specs, or even worse specs, are getting atleast 2000.
I then proceeded to try some games. I was surprised that Half Life 2 ran quite well, with details on high, full HDR and AA it was smooth, until I got into outside areas where it dropped to 15 or so FPS. Without AA it improved and moved to about 25-30 fps or so. Not bad.
I then tried Battlefield 2, which was unbearable at high graphics but playable at medium, no AA. Dawn of War worked relatively well on high.

Games aside, the PC seems relatively fast, although not as fast as I expected.

Now this might be exactly right, and I have nothing to be concerned about. I'm rarely going to play games on it, but things like the 3D Mark score bother me, considering they are very poor compared to others I have seen with similar specs.

You pays your money and you makes your choice.......be happy!

OK well i'm about to install the graphic drivers. I'm tempted to install the Omega ATi drivers considering they are more up to date and overall better, instead of the RS960 ATi or whatever, found on the HP website.

Edit -

Well the Omegas didn't count as a driver for some reason. After installing them after removing the original graphics drivers, it still brings up a message saying it's found new hardware, and opening the control panel tells me there is no driver installed. Strange considering they are supposed to work on any ATi card.

I am having trouble installing the most updated drivers for the card. The release notes tell me that it is compatible with the Radeon 1250 which I have, yet during installation it tells me it can't find the correct hardware.

The spec says it is a Radeon 1250 so the drivers should work - unless HP have changed the spec without telling anyone. You might have to uninstall any other drivers first, perhaps.

That's what I did :suspiciou

OK - so the latest drivers don't work so perhaps try one release back if you can find them. If not on the HP site have a look on the ATi site as well.
Hope this helps - crikey, what a thread!

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.
sorry for the hijacking.

Good post. Learnt somethings from it. http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_6920G__Core_2_Duo_2.0GHz,_4GB_Memory,/version.asp, from you post this is going to be slow as it has 5200rpm?