Laptop numpty

[ayjay 482]

I want to buy a (cheapish) laptop, but have absolutely no knowledge of the things at all, so a jumble of questions follows.

 

Are there any to avoid at all costs?

 

I mostly want it for use during holidays so it will spend a large part of it's life travelling around in the car, are there any more suitable than others for this?

 

What about being left in a car on a really hot day, do they suffer any problems?

 

I will be going for a Mobile Broadband set-up via a dongle, does it cause any problems if other internet access capabilities are built in, like WiFi?

 

Reading the blurb about dongles I came across this:- "The great user-friendly Modem Manager interface not only manages your connection, it displays all the messages you receive on your mobile broadband number. You can even reply to your text messages while logged in. - does this mean I need to use a mobile phone as well as the dongle?

 

Should I definitely buy new, or is refurbished or second hand one worth considering, there seem to be some reasonable deals from the traders on ebay?

 

Can I plug in a standard mouse, and if so which socket is required?

 

See, told you, I know Jack Poo about laptops.

 

 

What do you think of this one, (apart from the ram being a bit low)

Edited June 28, 2008 by ayjay

[Chris Goddard 3]

Well I too am NOT exactly UP on laptops mysself. But if someone offered me that I would baulk at the price!? When PC Wilderness can sell me an all singing all dancing machine for under £400??? And you will if you look around find i think a much better deal that that.

Panasonic are known for GOOD electrical items?? But more Cameras and Tv's etc?? Personally I would shop around on the high street first.

 

AVOID!! Personally again ANYTHING made for or BY PC WORLD!! Or any of the high street makers. Dell are USUALLY ok? As are I think Samsung and Toshiba's. Dell as asid and ACER are OK BUT can be iffy so be sure you have either a good mate or good insurance when you DROP it!!

 

Not really.

 

I personally would buy new, or from someone I trusted implicitly.

 

Yes you can, but nowadys I would suggest a USB mouse is a standard one?

 

As I say I think it is expensive for what you get. BUT perhaps someone can speak form a personal view??

 

ME?? I have bought my last three laptops from Staples! NOT cheap but GOOD under warranty (IN Halifax anyway!) thius is a Samsung and has been NO bother and the wife uses it around 6 to 8 hours a day MOSt days. It is now around 3 years old and wireless. Cost me £300 with 1/2 gig or Ram and a 40 Gig drive. CPU is I think a Pentium 4 but not sure of speed without looking!!

 

Yes!!! THEY get pinched!!!!

 

Not that I am aware of certainly!! My mate is a complete idiot and he set his own up NO BOTHER!

 

Don't think so, but never used one!?

[Jeff S 0]

Hi Ayjay,

 

Laptops aren't as expensive as they once were and they have more to offer in reliability, portability, and connectivity.

 

I would avoid second hand if you can afford it- you'll have some sort of warranty to work from should something go wrong. I have an IBM thinkpad that I bought second hand. It had the blue screen of death. I got it cheap then found that it had two different types of ram running (or trying to) so I ugraded them for identical ram and well no problems since.

 

I believe new laptops come with vista and XP is hard to come by, plus I think I read somewhere that XP wasn't going to be supported for much longer. Vista uses resources! Looking on www.circuitcity.com you can find themstarting at around 250GBP!

 

If I were to buy another laptop tomorrow I would get one with as many usb ports as possible, and an 80 gig hard drive is sufficient with most things but toshiba offers one that has a terabyte wifi (abgn) and vista I would get the most ram possible.

 

Can't help with the mobile broadband, but I picked up a wireless usb mouse for 20 quid the other day.

 

Wifi- just make sure it is abgn. This means it will be backwards compatable with all the released wireless standards. Just so you know wireless "N" has not yet been released officially yet but is supposed to be very fast.

[Andy_1984 275]

I want to buy a (cheapish) laptop, but have absolutely no knowledge of the things at all, so a jumble of questions follows.

 

I mostly want it for use during holidays so it will spend a large part of it's life travelling around in the car, are there any more suitable than others for this?

 

when looking on the internet look at the specifications for the laptop, look for battery life span

What about being left in a car on a really hot day, do they suffer any problems?

not realy, keep it out of the sun. the fan will cool the laptop down once it is switched on but it might come on more than usual but it isnt a problem

 

I will be going for a Mobile Broadband set-up via a dongle, does it cause any problems if other internet access capabilities are built in, like WiFi?

 

Nope

 

Reading the blurb about dongles I came across this:- "The great user-friendly Modem Manager interface not only manages your connection, it displays all the messages you receive on your mobile broadband number. You can even reply to your text messages while logged in. - does this mean I need to use a mobile phone as well as the dongle?

 

i think this means if you "have" a phone that you access broadband through or a phone that works through broadband will recieve text messages and display them on your computer or it could be that in order to get broadband you need to use the phone aswel there are some internet packages that work this way

 

Should I definitely buy new, or is refurbished or second hand one worth considering, there seem to be some reasonable deals from the traders on ebay?

it doesnt realy matter just try not to buy a very old one

Can I plug in a standard mouse, and if so which socket is required?

 

newer laptops dont have the standard ps2 plug for old mice and keyboards, check on the back and sides for the green and purple sockets and again in the specifications on the websites you look at look for the word "ps2 connectivity" - nope thats not playstation 2

 

See, told you, I know Jack Poo about laptops.

dont worry

 

What do you think of this one, (apart from the ram being a bit low)

 

its a bit old, plus those things are seriously heavy! ive got an older one and they are not the best for comfort, the mouse pad is tiny, and the keys are dificuilt to press being so close together

 

 

hope this helps

[ayjay 482]

Many thanks for your input, it's all been helpful, I think I need to firm up some ideas on the specs and go looking again, but there's just too much choice out there and it gets quite bewildering when I only want something fairly basic.

[ColinW 0]

I wouldn't touch a second hand one now that the new ones are so cheap. Laptops all have one weakness, that is that they have a piece of flexible pcb linking the two halves. There's only so many times that flexible link can be open and closed before it cracks, at which point it gets a bodged up repair and stuck on Ebay! The other thing is that people selling them tend to have in mind what they paid two years ago and not what they cost now!

I bought my Acer from PC World and have had no problems with it. I try not to throw it around because it's not exactly rugged!

If you are going to use the laptop on the move a lot then battery life will be very important, my Acer for example is terrible in that respect. You might have to buy a mains inverter as well, to power the thing in your car. It can be cheaper than getting a car charger specific to the laptop and is obviously more useful for other things.

(Deleted my comment about dongles as I think things are changing in that area, just be aware of the usual "up to" adverts regarding speed!)

 

Oh yes, don't do what I did and buy a massive screen model. I can hardly fit it into my bag when I have to take it to work!

Edited July 1, 2008 by ColinW

[mr motorola 2]

http://www.cclonline.com/product-categorie...category_id=266

 

Have a look here Ayjay

 

Although in 12 months time it could be out of date and pushed to one side by this baby here.........

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9761814-7.html

Edited July 1, 2008 by mr motorola

[jedibond 5]

Hi Ajay,

 

From a work perspective I was involved in a project last year to select a new standard laptop for 4,000 people. We ended up with the Dell D620 (large screen) and the Dell D420 (small screen). I've got one myself and it goes everywhere with me and is used and abused every day and no problems with it so far. Our engineers were given Toshiba's as they are probably the most rugged laptops out there, my mate has one for his work and he says it's virtually indestructable !

[Jeff S 0]

virtually indestructable !

 

My thinkpad is like that- with the twins around I can count on two hands how many times it has been dropped and stood on! Doesn't go well in water though I have had a coke dropped in it.

 

Youtube Video ->

Edited July 2, 2008 by Jeff S