I need a laptop recommendation

[beeswax]

My eldest daughter's at university in mainland Europe and I need to get her a new laptop before she goes back in September. I bought one in a rush a couple of years ago (a FujitsuSiemens AmilPro V2010). As well as being within my budget at the time, the company also offers Europe-wide servicing. I'm sure others would possibly do the same. Has anyone any recommendations around the £500 mark? I'll probably stick with XP Home/Pro for now.

[Geoff]

Lenovo?

http://www5.pc.ibm.com/uk/products.n...+3000+C+Series

[Joedetic]

I recently bought a reconditioned thinkpad t41 (not lenovo model an actual IBM) from ebay. It is the best machine i've ever had. It's been upgraded in the refurb to have gig of ram, new battery and new lid+screen. I upgraded the 30GB hard drive to a 120 myself and it really is the best laptop i've had.

£300. I can wholley recommend IBM/lenovo. Although, the lenovo keyboards arent as good as the famed IBM Thinkpad ones.

[Galway]

Acer are very good value for money ...

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...d=lx.ay10x.065

Acer Aspire AS5613AWLMi £499 Inc Vat
* Processor: Intel Core Duo T2350 1.86Ghz 667FSB 2MB L2 Cache
* RAM: 1024MB DDR2-533MHz
* Hard Drive: 120GB SATA
* Screen: 15.4" TFT CrystalBrite (1280x800)
* Optical Drive: DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer
* Graphics: Integrated Graphics supporting 224MB
* Wireless LAN: 802.11a/b/g
* Weight: 2.9Kg
* Warranty: 1 Year - Upgradeable to 3 Years
* Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
* Fast Ethernet 10/100

If you really want XP

Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pro V3505 Notebook £496.90 inc VAT
* Intel Core Duo ( T2250) 1730MHz 2048KB (L2 Cache)
* Power-saving Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology for long independent working
* Increased productivity due to latest Intel 945GM chipset which supports new technology standards: DDR2 memory, PCI Express and S-ATA
* Enjoy the viewing quality of brilliant 15.4-inch TFT display
* Ideal connectivity through WLAN. Antennas are integrated for best signal reception
* Variety of interfaces for best connection to the peripherals
* Germanys quality standard
* Award-winning best-in-class manufacturing
* Mechanical and function stability through extensive quality tests
* Short reaction and transportation time
* 1 Year Warranty

Id have the Acer ... better machine.

[mark]

This HP is a Misco exclusive and they said there were 3000 in stock last week although I can't see it on the site today! We've gone for a few - seemed great value.

HP NX7300 Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66GHz / 15.4 WXGA / 1024MB / 80GB HDD / DVD+/-RW / XP Pro / Laptop / Notebook PC

£399.99 minus £50 cashback + VAT (=£469.99 - £50 = £419.99)

[Geoff]

Acer are very good value for money ...

http://www.cclonline.com/product-inf...d=lx.ay10x.065.

I know. However their after sales support sucks.

[alonebfg]

another one is novatech I know a schol who swares by them and have not had a problem with them. Had a problem with one and it was fixed by the next day. and to saave money you can opt not to have and os with the machine.

[StewartKnight]

you can get some Sony laptops for under £500 with Core Duo, and the incredible x-black screens.

I have bought about 15 of these for staff, and they all love them!

[bossman]

@beeswax:

Toshiba Satellite Pro A120SE-189 - Core Duo T2250 / 1.73 GHz - Centrino
Duo - RAM : 1 GB - HD : 80 GB - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - Gigabit
Ethernet - WLAN : 802.11a/b/g - Microsoft Windows Vista Business - 15.4'
Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) TOS6687 PSAC1E-05V021EN
£431.00

Recently got a quote in for the above from company called XMA. Just purchsed 10 and will be downgrading to XP pro.

[beeswax]

Thanks for all your help on this, you've given me a lot of useful advice.

[crc-ict]

another one is novatech I know a schol who swares by them and have not had a problem with them. Had a problem with one and it was fixed by the next day. and to saave money you can opt not to have and os with the machine.

I wouldn't go for Novatech notebooks personally - they don't so much make their laptops as assemble them, they're all based on third-party chassis.

I'd always recommend going for a recognised well known quality branded machine which has been designed and built as one unit by one company. Just my personal choice.

[alonebfg]

I wouldn't go for Novatech notebooks personally - they don't so much make their laptops as assemble them, they're all based on third-party chassis.

I'd always recommend going for a recognised well known quality branded machine which has been designed and built as one unit by one company. Just my personal choice.

I have asked about this and from what i can make out they are not assembled they are disinged and built as a unit IE from asus ans such like. I have asked this befor. But branded units like Acer they took 5 week to repair a machine and sony took 3 weeks novatech as i worked in a school gave me a support laptop while mine was being repaired now that is service. and had it back working within a week. By the way the repair was teachers fault they broke cracked the display. I am finding more and more bigger companys are getting too big and dont give a s££t once you have bought there product. also Some even try and sell you products you dont need.

[PeterW]

All current novatech notebooks are uniwill and clevo chassis so you have two quite big players there!

Other chassis used have been;
gericom (uniwill mitac)
mitac
msi
movita

[beeswax]

The FujitsuSiemens AmilPro V2010 my daughter has now has been very reliable. The only problems of any note was the original hdd being 40Gb. I changed that over one holiday and she's been fine, and you have to remove the keyboard to add extra ram. I spent half an hour giving it a good clean last week, and to be honest it looks like new. She has her programmes on the internal hdd, and saves her work to an external hdd. Having said all that, I don't want her to be left without a laptop should this present one fail. Because she's so far away it's also an important tool for communicating with us. I know the idea is generally to change equipment every three years, but I don't think I could face the meltdown if she was somehow to loose all her work.

[ruggie_uk]

I don't think I could face the meltdown if she was somehow to loose all her work.

Ever considered using online storage? I used to msn important docs to myself to use their servers(I'm sure their backup system is better than mine).
Now I use www.box.net to keep files until msn includes file storage.