s2hotdog Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 I expect this has been asked before So any computer wizos here who can reccomend a good one I want to be able to play games on it not that much though Wireless Internet access DVD writer and player Store my photos on it Widescreen 17" min I would of thought I expect I'll use if of work MS office + emails etc Viewing and printing drawings Can't think of anything else at the moment Link to some websites would be good Cheers for any replies Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 www.dell.co.uk Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troddenmasses Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 www.dell.co.ukChris Seconded. Not quite the cheapest (although not that far off) and they always work like a dream. We use them at work because we don't have an IT department, and nobody can be @rsed fiddling with computers to try to get them working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LandyManLuke Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 look on ebuyer.co.uk, I've just bought two budget laptops and Dell didnt get close. That said, I've got a dell and love it, but i bought that 3 years ago and it cost more than the two new laptops together. Luke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve King Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Dell auction refurbished computers on e-bay. They come with their standard guarantee and the usual bundle of junk software. Not all of them come with a monitor though. However if you know what you are looking for and do a last minute sniping bid you can pick up a bargain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpb Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Just brought myself one of these from Woolworths http://www.woolworths.co.uk/ww_p2/product/...ml?pid=50701533 Great value for money. £5 delivery. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonPearson Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Dell are the lowest common denominator... so get one if you like junk. Go with one of teh new Intel-based Apple MacBook's. Superb! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2hotdog Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 Simon Is the apple windows office compatable? I don't want to have to run virtual PC on it Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy996 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Simon Is the apple windows office compatable? I don't want to have to run virtual PC on it Cheers Steve The new Macs are Intel powered and will dual boot, XP and Mac OSX, using a bit of software called Bootcamp, (free from Apple). You would have to go and buy an XP disk to run the Mac as a PC. Technically more elegant, you can buy a Mac version of Microsoft Office from Microsoft (or Apple) for £100, if you can justify an educational discount, (have kids or be a student). If you are not a techie and just want your computer to work, I'd stick to OSX. (I claim to be a Mac person in a PC world, Macs at home and PCs at work). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s2hotdog Posted August 31, 2006 Author Share Posted August 31, 2006 So if running XP and Apple is the whole system slower That whats happens at the moment Cheers Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
02GF74 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 there are some nice spec'ed ACERs that are quite cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MJG Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 there are some nice spec'ed ACERs that are quite cheap. Acers do seem very well spec'd for the price ............ got my daughter an Acer desktop last year for xmas..... only one problem so far requiring a call to the Acer helpline that got their OS up an running again. Or as said a few times above Dell.... I've had one (desktop too) for approx three years now and it has never missed a beat..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiagoc Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 Can't think of anything else at the moment GPS navigation? MP3 jukebox? play movies from the hard-drive? ... I use a Dell laptop at work (D610) with XP that spends all day running Outlook, Internet Explorer, jabber client (a MSN Messenger clone) and a few more applications, all at the same time. I may even use a W2000 Pro in a VMware virtual machine while everything else is running and it doesn't affect my work. It's battery keeps it going for 3 hours. At home, I have an old Toshiba running W2000 Pro. I use it mainly for GPS with OziExplorer. Can't really run anything else at the same time, and the battery is near-dead. But Toshiba had great laptops. I also have a 5-6 year old Compaq, that had some display problems and the plastic/ABS case suffered a bit, but I managed to bring it back to life and is now my main GPS system. It can run OziExplorer, Autoroute 2005, compeGPS and a little application that shows a compass, all at the same time and with moving map on (I use XPort3 to "share" the GPS signal between all the applications). This Compaq is a great laptop and they still make good ones, but too pricey IMO. My sister had to buy a new laptop and I told her to buy an ACER. As 02GF74 said, they have nice specs and very good price tags. She's happy with the laptop and I have some work colleagues that also have ACERs and are also happy with it. I hope that helps (...) we don't have an IT department, and nobody can be @rsed fiddling with computers to try to get them working. can i send you my CV? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LR90 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 So if running XP and Apple is the whole system slower That whats happens at the moment Cheers Steve If you're already running apple then follow Simons suggestion and just get a newer one. I've been running a 17" macbook pro for months now with the intel core duo chip and a couple of gig of ram. Runs like a dream (only rebooted it once since gettng it to update (auto) the firmware) and use Office for Mac for compatibility. The old MS VirtualPC doesn't run on the new intel macs so use parrallels. Its great, most of the time I'm also running both XP AND Win2003 for dev/test on the same box and you can push these quite hard. If thats still not enough you can also use bootcamp and just dual boot but so far I've found the Parallels VM quite adequate for anything I need (inc running multicast ip video conf under xp). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy996 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 So if running XP and Apple is the whole system slower That whats happens at the moment Presumably you are currently running a software emulator at the moment and using a G3, G4 or G5 Mac? Apple's Bootcamp is a dual boot solution, (like having XP and Linux on the same machine), so you run one or the other. In certain circumstances a Mac running XP is faster than an any-name PC running XP, especially with multi-threaded or processor intensive activities, other things don't run so well, but are still adequate. The effect is night and day compared to a software emulator - speed wise my Mac Book running PC apps in XP is faster than my admittedly low spec desk top PC. The only real complication is when you want to swap files and data between Mac and PC applications. I save the PC files/data from external systems, close down the PC session, open up the Mac session, then retrieve the data from the public files. This is moderately annoying as I do not like using Outlook as a mail engine and use Mac Mail.......your issues will most likely be different from mine! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reads90 Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 www.dell.co.ukChris i have a dell which has been bounching around the back of my Land Rover for 25,000 miles around Aus., with all the dust and everything. great laptop. Will connect to wireless at the drop of a hat. Really please with it and would recomend it to anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
western Posted August 31, 2006 Share Posted August 31, 2006 (edited) I have a Samsung X20 very pleased with it. Edited September 1, 2006 by western Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BogMonster Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 You can say that Dell is the lowest common denominator but I guess the reality is they make stuff that a lot of people like. I've got a Dell desktop here, another one at work, there's one in the other office at work, which is shortly to become 2, the garage use a Dell laptop for programming speed limiters with, a colleague of mine at work has a Dell laptop and another one has a Dell desktop. The only problem with any of them was the last desktop, when the guy's dear little cherubs decided to make some "configuration changes" to Windows, not sure that is Dell's fault though The only criticism I have of Dell laptops is that the battery life is cr&p. And the odd ones catch fire... I've got a Toshiba Equium laptop - it was the right machine at the right price in the right place at the right time 2 years ago - and I think it is a great little machine I would never again buy a no-name computer, I have had one such desktop and one such laptop and both of them blew up far sooner than they should have done - six weeks in the case of the laptop, then the supplier went bust while they had it, and I only just got my money back. Never again.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reads90 Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 The only criticism I have of Dell laptops is that the battery life is cr&p. And the odd ones catch fire... I've got a Toshiba Equium laptop - it was the right machine at the right price in the right place at the right time 2 years ago - and I think it is a great little machine to be fair mine has a 3.5 hour battery life. Which i think is ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mr_wuffles Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 I've used Pc's for years and bought a MacBook about 2 months ago, i'd never go back now. It's an absolute dream to use and never crashes there's very little you cant do on them now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishd Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Another recommendation for Dell... but try to buy from the Outlet... much cheaper and same warranty etc. Or, the Apple seems good, I love my iMac at home and wished I'd waited to buy a MacBook Pro. OSX is a wonderful OS and shortly there will be a version of OpenOffice (Microsoft Office clone) for (native) Mac OSX. I didn't however wait for the Macbook Pro... in my impatience I bought an Acer Travelmate 8204... 2Ghz dual-core, 2 GB of ram, 120GB hard disk... and broke twice in two weeks... message boards are full of complaints about problems with graphics cards making weird buzzing noises, hardware failures and screen problems. Acer tech support are basically a service where they tell you to send it back - don't expect anything else. Although to be fair to them, both times my laptop has been away for repair it's been back within 5 working days though. Meh, bit of rambling... basically, I'd buy the Apple if I wanted it to work, the Dell if I wanted it cheap and the Acer if I'd run out of loo roll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattD110td5x Posted September 1, 2006 Share Posted September 1, 2006 Another recommendation for Dell... I have a new dell laptop for work Lattitude D620, only 4 weeks down but verry impressive on all counts; light, 6 hours of battery without the slightest hint of smoke, wide screen and very fast. From experience I can say is that there is a heap of difference in reliability between the lower priced inspiron and the lattitude - we have had around 1/3 of our inspirons on the flatbed taxi and none of the lattitudes have failed to proceed. Also, there is also a significant difference in reliability with weight, surprisingly the lighter the laptop the more reliable??? (I'm sure there is a highschool physicst here that can explain that). A lightweight "road-worrior" will survive the plush ride of a landrover, but the big heavy "desktop-replacement" laptops are hopeless and could self destruct before leaving the carpark. I wonder when I will be able to run OSX on my non-apple hardware? ttfn Matthew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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