Any decent laptop deals about? (must come with XP)

[sidewinder]

Again a personal thing, my mum needs a new laptop.
Its easy to pick ones for work, price isnt SUCH an issue and OS isnt at all since I can downgrade everything to XP.

But for my mum its a bit more difficult...Im going to be the first port of call with it so I want it to be as little hassle as possible. So it has to come with Xp, preferably pre-installed but if you had to send off to get XP discs I could settle for that

Needs to be under £500 really, and a Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM. Hard disk space isnt such an issue. 15" screen would be fine.

Theres a decent looking Fujitsu Siemens V5535 on Dabs for £434, are they decent quality these days?
A Dell one would be ideal but I couldnt see any way to get it with XP on the home users site

Any suggestions?

[steve]

A couple on ebuyer with XP, need a ram upgrade for 2gb though:

*£50 Cashback April* HP 6715S Laptop AMD Sempron 3800+ 1GB (1 dimm) 80GB DVD+/-RW Wifi 15.4 WXGA XP Pro (Office 2007 Ready* Trial) - Ebuyer
Lenovo N200 Laptop Intel Core Duo T2330 1.6GHz 1024MB 120GB DVD-RW Fingerprint reader 15.4" WXGA TFT Windows XP Professional - Ebuyer
Asus X50RL-AP999 Laptop Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 120GB 1024MB 15.4" DVD-RW WLAN ATI XPRESS X1100 128M Windows XP Pro 2 years Warranty - Ebuyer
Samsung P400 Laptop 14.1IN Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2330 1024MB 120GB DVD-RW Windows XP® Professional - Ebuyer

[SimpleSi]

To get Dells with XP, you just order from the business section - you can't get the cheapest computers (not an issue for your budget) but you get good ones at a good price.

I've done this for 2 teachers for laptops for children off to uni.

If buying Office as well, better to buy office 2007 seperate from Amazon as it costs about the same as the Dell offering but you get the 3 user licence.
regards

Simon

[SimpleSi]

The Fujitsus are alright (and at least they still do XP via twinload system) but beware battery life - check out details before purchasing - got caught out last time when they upped the CPU spec and halved the battery capacity

regards

Simon

[localzuk]

The FSC computers I know of are awful. I would steer clear!

Personally, i'd go for a HP 6715b of some kind. Such as:dabs4work - HP "£50 Cash Back" 6715b Turion 64 X2 TL60 2048MB 160GB DVD+/-RW 15.4"WSXGA TFT XP Professional (GB837ET#ABU)

We have loads of these at work now. Good machines.

[contink]

We're in the process of buying a load from Novatech for one school and the deals are pretty good.

Worth a look as you can customise your OS as required.

[SYSMAN_MK]

You can get a Dell Vostro™ 1700 for £445 inc VAT + Del with the following spec:

• 17.0" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display
• Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5670
• Genuine Windows® XP Professional
• 2048MB (2x1024) 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
• 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8400M GS
• 160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
• 56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter - UK
• Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
• Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 (802.11 a/b/g)
• Microsoft® Works 9.0
• 1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day
• Dell™ Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Module

Just make sure you give the correct delivery address

[Geoff]

That HP with cash back is nice, we got a few here recently. Got them from dabs though.

dabs.com - HP "£50 Cashback" 6715s AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-60 1024MB 160GB DVD+/-RW 15.4"WXGA TFT XP Professional (GR656ET#ABU)

[K.C.Leblanc]

We've got a few Lenovo N2000s. Very impressed with them.