Choosing a laptop for home

[ajbritton]

I'm looking for a new laptop for home use and have narrowed down to 2 possibles;

 

Advent Roma 4001 - Intel T4400 2.2ghz, 4gb ddr2 ram, 500gb hdd - £399

 

HP G62-107SA - Intel Core i3 330M 2.1ghz, 2gb ddr3 ram, 250gb hdd - £429

 

I don't do games so don't care about integrated graphics, but I do want to be able to run up to 2 VMs side by side for my own entertainment/education. My inclination is towards the HP because of the Core i3. I can upgrade the RAM in this if need be.

 

Any advice or other possibles most welcome. I don't mind spending a little bit more, but would say that £450 is absolute limit.

[pete]

If you don't mind refurb (12 month warranty) PC World have that HP for £379 here: HP G62-107SA Refurbished Laptop at cheap prices | PC World, which gives you £50 for ram or whatever.

 

With two vms + base OS on a laptop drive, your bottleneck will be disk access. If you could find out in advance what speed the hard disks are, it might be useful. Platter density of a decent 5400 drive at 500GB is equivalent to a 7200 at 250GB.

 

My suggestion (which'd be out of your price range if you bought new) would be something with a hotswap optical bay that you can stick another hard disk in.

[mavhc]

I'd pick a Dell Vostro if there's one that fits the bill, no retarded glossy screen

[ajbritton]

I'd pick a Dell Vostro if there's one that fits the bill, no retarded glossy screen

 

Good call! Much classier than the sort of stuff I was looking at in PC World today... Maybe I can stretch that budget a bit. I notice they come with 7,200rpm HDDs.

Edited July 29, 2010 by ajbritton

[ajbritton]

I managed to stretch my budget a bit and I've just put my order in with Dell for a Vostro 3500. It seems to tick all the boxes;

 

* Core i3-350

* 3Gb 1333MHz DDR3

* 320Gb 7200rpm HDD

* Win 7 Pro with XP mode installed

 

Total cost inc. VAT (got free delivery): £527

 

Big thanks to mavhc for putting me onto this one.

[ajbritton]

It's arrived and very nice it is too. The only complaint I would have to far is that the keyboard is a bit rattly on the right hand side. Not sure if this is a fault or just part of the design.

 

Windows Experience Index = 4.4

[mavhc]

Haven't noticed on the older one I have. This week I'm imaging 150 toshiba t130s, glossy screens, eww.

 

Dear Bioterrorists, please create a virus that kills/mind alters people who think glossy screens are a good idea.

[ajbritton]

I'm trying to follow up the keyboard issue with Dell. Their website directed me to send an email specifically for keyboard issues. Today I receive an email saying Dell do not offer email support for Vostros !!! (marge simpson growl).

 

I have heard of protective film that can be fitted to glossy screens that reduces the reflectiveness. Not sure how well this would fare in a school environment.

[MkII]

Interesting Andy as that's exactly what I'd be wanting to do. Thanks.

[circlestech]

I would choose the Advent machine over HP