New Laptop - Is this any good?

[IKWeb]

Morning All

 

My hardware days have come and gone, and I haven’t kept up to speed with new hardware progressions. So I would like to ask the people of Edugeek who keep upto date with hardware changes is the below spec Laptop any good, or if anyone could recommend a better unit for the money?

 

I am not worried about the OS as I have licences for 7 Pro, and I also have a SSD for the hard disk so again not worried about that. The price of the below unit which is a Dell Inspiron is coming in @ £650 Inc VAT

 

 

The spec is

 

Processor - Intel Core i7-2630QM Cache memory 6 MB

 

Operating System - Windows 7 Home Premium

 

RAM - 6GB DDR3

 

Graphics card - NVidia 1GB dedicated

 

Screen type - Widescreen LED

 

Screen resolution - 1366 x 768

 

Screen size - 15.6" HD screen

 

Screen features - LED backlighting 16:9 aspect ratio

 

Hard drive - 640GB 5400 SATA

 

Optical disk drive - Blu-ray combo

 

Memory card reader - 8 in 1 SD card reader

 

USB - UBS 2.0 x 3

 

WiFi - 802.11 g/n

 

Bluetooth - Yes

 

Video interface - 1 x HDMI & 1 x VGA

 

Webcam - 1.0 MP

 

Battery - Lithium-Ion 6 cell - up to 4 hours battery life

 

Size - 376 x 260.2 x 32.2~35.3 mm

 

Weight - 2.65 kg

[witch]

Looks like a reasonable machine but is quite pricey - what do you need it for? Do you need an i7? As discussed in another thread, http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/82269-im-allowed-new-laptop.html

the difference between i5 and i7 is really only a bit of boot up speed

[difinity]

The spec looks good, just the screen resolution looks a little low.

[MYK-IT]

Check out http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk

 

For example, they have the following for £299 (inc VAT) after £100 HP Cashback

 

HP ProBook 4320s

Intel® Core™ i3-380M Dual Core Processor

13.3" HD Screen

Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit

3GB DDR3 RAM

320GB HDD

DVD Rewriter

512MB ATI 5470 Graphics

Webcam Bluetooth & HDMI

Includes Free HP Carry Case

XX826EA#ABU

[IKWeb]

I work in the field visiting schools, and then working on the school system. So my laptop is my main machine. I also wanted to get something which is going to last the next 3 years give or take. Thats why I look @ the I7 machine.

[flyinghaggis]

The spec looks good, just the screen resolution looks a little low.

 

I'd agree. 1366 x 768 is fine for a 11-12" laptop but if I was buying a 15" model I'd definitely want something higher.

Edited September 19, 2011 by flyinghaggis

[IKWeb]

I'd agree. 1366 x 768 is fine for a 11-12" laptop but if you're buying a 15" model I've definitely want something higher (unless you have poor eyesight and find the larger native text size a benefit)

 

Smaller the better for me, as I can put more on the desktop

[IKWeb]

I found this machine on the HP website.

 

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelaptops/pdf/dv7-6101sa_ds_ene.pdf

 

Not sure about AMD? How does the processor in the machine match a I5 / I7 machine. Also I noted from the PDF it has 2 HDDs in stalled? 2 x 500gb so I could replace these with say 1 x 250GB SSD and then the 2nd 500GB disk could be the data disk?

[Admiral208]

if the screen is HD as you said, wont the max resolution be 1080 min??

[difinity]

1600x900 isn't HD

[3s-gtech]

Screen spec isn't amazing (seeing this a lot on Dells currently), and obviously the HDD is pretty pap though that doesn't matter if you have an SSD.

 

There seem to be a number of decent deals doing the rounds every so often of laptops with the i5-2410M, which is a fast processor but hits a good budget sweet spot. Many of these come with decent graphics cards, RAM specs and screens for under £500.