Author Topic: New laptop advice (Read 171831 times)

shelovesyou · « **Reply #320 on:** May 18, 2012, 01:16:29 am »

Does doing a factory reset gain back any loss in performance ?

Graeme · « **Reply #321 on:** May 18, 2012, 09:29:59 am »

Quote from: shelovesyou on May 18, 2012, 01:16:29 am

Does doing a factory reset gain back any loss in performance?

Yeah normally, as your system fills up with software over time it does start to slow down.

TOMMO86 · « **Reply #322 on:** May 18, 2012, 10:49:24 pm »

People's views on the Imac's?

TOMMO86 · « **Reply #323 on:** May 20, 2012, 12:49:15 am »

shelovesyou · « **Reply #324 on:** May 20, 2012, 01:43:20 am »

Quote from: Graeme on May 18, 2012, 09:29:59 am

Yeah normally, as your system fills up with software over time it does start to slow down.

Cheers mate, Been using mine between me and the Mrs for Uni past two years, thousands of bookmarks in web browser, loads of saved/copied files , to ensure we dont lose work etc, and running Pro Tools, Reason, Cubase, After Effects, Flash, Photoshop, and Melodyne doesnt help either.

Once Uni is done I want to do a factory reset and only install what I'll use.

JongWK · « **Reply #325 on:** May 22, 2012, 03:31:41 pm »

Quote from: cflyenraB on April 29, 2012, 11:17:30 am

What is a 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge i5?

The company uses a "Tick-Tock" strategy to develop its processors. Every "tick" is a shrinking of process technology of the previous microarchitecture and every "tock" is a new microarchitecture. There is a new tick or tock every year. A die shrink (tick) usually cuts down power used and allows longer battery life, while a new microarchitecture (tock) translates into more raw power.

2011: Sandy Bridge - 32 nm die "tock" (same as 2010), with better CPU than previous generation. Identified by a four digit code starting with a 2 ("Core i5 2450M" for example, where the M denotes a mobile processor).
2012: Ivy Bridge - 22 nm die "tick" with longer battery life. Identified by a four digit code starting with a 3 ("Core i5 3450M").

Basically, you are buying a 2011 laptop with a very good processor, that will enable you to do everything except serious gaming--you'll need a dedicated graphics card (GPU: graphics processing unit) for the latter, as Intel's graphics can only handle basic Windows stuff.

LiamG · « **Reply #326 on:** May 24, 2012, 12:54:03 am »

Quote from: blah on May 15, 2012, 11:53:07 pm

Wait until the new MacBook Pros come out in a few months, buy one, and install Windows 7 on it. Best of both worlds.

when are they out?

blah · « **Reply #327 on:** May 24, 2012, 12:55:56 am »

Quote from: LiamG on May 24, 2012, 12:54:03 am

when are they out?

Sometime this summer I believe. Supposedly they have "Retina" displays, not confirmed though. I bought a new MPB last winter and will be throughly pissed if they do.

LiamG · « **Reply #328 on:** May 28, 2012, 08:19:33 am »

I can't decide between a macbook Air or a cheaper alternative!

Agger · « **Reply #329 on:** July 2, 2012, 03:09:36 pm »

I've found a Macbook pro (Not the new one, the one that's been out for a year or two) for around £800. Is it worth the extra money to get the nex pro or can I might aswell buy this one and save a few hundreds.

I've be using my computer for FM, internet, streaming, download movies etc. etc. So nothing massively. The older version of Macbook pro is still a good laptop, right? And for that price.

What do you guys think?

surfer. Fuck you generator. · « **Reply #330 on:** July 10, 2012, 08:55:12 am »

Hello all.

Have gone through the past few pages of this thread and also done my own checking elsewhere...looking to get a new laptop, lower end / budget model. Seems the advice is to get ASUS (particularly from Graeme who works in the industry I think). Have a question...

Is there a laptop brand / model with the flexibility where say in the case of having to replace a part, you don't strictly have to go for an orginal replacement part. I know PCs are more flexible and laptop manufacturers used to make it such that only a specific Intel chipset say could work with a specific Dell model laptop, but has it changed? Are there more 'flexbile' models these days...

MULLENEDWINE · « **Reply #331 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:12:23 pm »

Hey chaps, going to be getting a new laptop instead of a gaming PC. I'll leave that till I have some serious cash...Offered this for £350 - Think I should go for it?

Lenova Essential G570 15.6" Laptop
Intel Core i5-2450M (2.5 MHz, 3 MB cache memory)
500GB HDD and 4GB RAM
DVD Reader / Writer
Wifi Enabled / Webcam
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit
Brand New & Sealed

Sounds decent and has a 1 year warranty. I got drew in by the i5 processor, 4GB RAM & HDD size. Could I find better? Haven't ever really heard of 'lenovo' to be honest either.

JoeH · « **Reply #332 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:17:05 pm »

The build quality of Medion is great and the specs are close to the MSI gaming laptop range:
http://www.medion.com/gb/electronics/cat/Gaming/gamer_notebooks_22

MULLENEDWINE · « **Reply #333 on:** July 17, 2012, 06:26:33 pm »

Quote from: JoeH on July 17, 2012, 06:17:05 pm

The build quality of Medion is great and the specs are close to the MSI gaming laptop range:
http://www.medion.com/gb/electronics/cat/Gaming/gamer_notebooks_22

Some of those are bad ass laptops but look at the price! That £750 one's got the same processor, HDD & RAM but has all the extras like bluray & a graphics card (And more) It's fairly close though. Think I'll be getting my one haha.

EDIT - I won't really be wanting to play any high end games on my one, but could it play old stuff like Counter Strike and that? I'd be happy with that.

LiamG · « **Reply #334 on:** July 18, 2012, 01:49:21 am »

Does anyone have the Dell XPS 15z?

bosnian brigade · « **Reply #335 on:** July 24, 2012, 04:53:46 pm »

Quote from: LiamG on July 18, 2012, 01:49:21 am

Does anyone have the Dell XPS 15z?

My brother does. Its large, but extremely powerful and fast. I would suggest though getting a dell inspiron ultrabook. wonderful

martinsquirtle · « **Reply #336 on:** July 24, 2012, 05:50:03 pm »

Looking to get a new laptop for my 2nd year of Uni. I already have a asus transformer so I'm not looking for anything too portable.I will want it for general use so for work, watching films, footie manager and for playing music.

Looking around the £500 mark. Anybody got any ideas? Preferably not a dell. My current laptop and desktop are Dells and they are shocking.

martinsquirtle · « **Reply #337 on:** July 29, 2012, 02:41:44 pm »

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-l850-162-15-6-laptop-red-12520774-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1302ea-laptop-red-14272580-pdt.html

Not sure why they are all red.

What do people think of these specs? anyone recommend anything similar or have used this computer?

LiamG · « **Reply #338 on:** August 2, 2012, 07:01:47 am »

Quote from: bosnian brigade on July 24, 2012, 04:53:46 pm

My brother does. Its large, but extremely powerful and fast. I would suggest though getting a dell inspiron ultrabook. wonderful

The 14z?

JongWK · « **Reply #339 on:** August 14, 2012, 04:05:45 pm »

Quote from: martinsquirtle on July 29, 2012, 02:41:44 pm

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-l850-162-15-6-laptop-red-12520774-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1302ea-laptop-red-14272580-pdt.html

Not sure why they are all red.

What do people think of these specs? anyone recommend anything similar or have used this computer?

That website has a Lenovo Z575 and a Samsung Series 3 for £429.99, and they have AMD's quad-core A6-3420M CPU/GPU (aka APU). That will run Football Manager far better than the two dual-core laptops you linked to.

EDIT: There's another Lenovo Z575 for £349.97, and the only difference I can see is the HDD goes down to 500 Gb from 1 Tb, and RAM down to 6 Gb from 8 Gb. Unless you need that much storage for music and movies, it is a better choice (6 Gb is plenty RAM for what you mentioned).

S.Red please · « **Reply #340 on:** August 16, 2012, 04:53:22 pm »

I'm looking for a new laptop for university. An all round one! I am looking to do work on it, browse the internet a lot (FB/Twitter/Skype), watch movies/tv, listen to music and play Football Manager. I am looking for something quiet powerful and reliable that will last. Price range is up to around £800, any recommendations?

I have had a look around. Been told IntelCore i7 is the best processor but i5 is just as handy, this correct or is there a much bigger difference than I think? Also will 8gb of RAM make much of a difference compared to 6gb of RAM?? I want to be able to browse the internet and play FM at the same time for example without slowing down as my current laptop does. The hard drive is not important really as my current laptop of 250gb is nowhere near filled and most of the ones I have seen that I could buy are around 500gb+.

rick287 · « **Reply #341 on:** August 16, 2012, 05:20:53 pm »

i7 is better than i5 but only for very demanding applications that require multiple cores, I doubt the average user will see much difference day to day. Same goes for the RAM, really. With 8GB you might suffer less slowdown if you've got a 12-nation 30-league FM file going, whilst at the same time you're typing up an essay, browsing several websites at once and watching a movie, but day to day you wouldn't really notice it. Having said that I would recommend 8GB if the price difference is small enough, it helps future proof the machine.

S.Red please · « **Reply #342 on:** August 16, 2012, 05:43:39 pm »

Quote from: rick287 on August 16, 2012, 05:20:53 pm

i7 is better than i5 but only for very demanding applications that require multiple cores, I doubt the average user will see much difference day to day. Same goes for the RAM, really. With 8GB you might suffer less slowdown if you've got a 12-nation 30-league FM file going, whilst at the same time you're typing up an essay, browsing several websites at once and watching a movie, but day to day you wouldn't really notice it. Having said that I would recommend 8GB if the price difference is small enough, it helps future proof the machine.

Glad to hear it is I have found quiet a lot of good laptops with 8GB that are i5. Particularly these two..

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-rf511-15-6-laptop-11884749-pdt.html

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-v3-571g-15-6-laptop-14893767-pdt.html

Any manufacturers that I want to stay away from? I assume there isn't a big difference to the average user in this either. But there might be some really bad ones and some stand out good ones.

martinsquirtle · « **Reply #343 on:** August 16, 2012, 05:57:38 pm »

Ended up getting a Lenovo z580 for around £600. Hasn't arrived yet but seems like a good student laptop.

Barneylfc∗ · « **Reply #344 on:** August 24, 2012, 07:16:18 pm »

Quote from: Graeme on April 28, 2012, 09:56:20 pm

This is on offer with them at the moment for the same value as your voucher...

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-series-3-np300e5a-a06dx-15-6-laptop-silver-11884746-pdt.html

Lacks Blu-Ray and dedicated graphics but for £430 they'll be few and far between. It does however have a 2nd Gen Sandy Bridge i5 with 4GB RAM, it'll easily handle the stuff you've mentioned.

I bought this laptop. It doesnt boot at all. Any ideas? Cant get the Samsung Recovery Solution to work. Literally takes 5/6 hours to load it. Then when it does load, It wont let me select any of the options, 1 of them being a system restore. I've rang the PC World support, useless. Have rang Samsung direct, useless. They have arranged to pick it up next week but I would rather get it fixed before then. Any ideas how I can do a system restore that isnt in the Samsung Recovery Solution?

matycowling1007 · « **Reply #345 on:** September 3, 2012, 03:56:44 pm »

Hi there, advice much needed ! looking for a new laptop. needs to be 13inch or less and powerful enough to play football manager, web browsing, play media etc. my price range is £400 tops. found this one so far. any idea whether it is any good ?

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-ASUS-U32U-RX054V-Laptop/791571#customerReviews

i also like this sony but its a bit smaller at 11.6 http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/sony-vaio-e-series-sve1111m1ew-11-5-laptop-white-15119726-pdt.html

and although this is out of my budget... is it worth paying the extra 100 ? http://www.ebuyer.com/391901-samsung-535u3c-ultra-laptop-np535u3c-a01uk

any info much appreciated thanks !

JongWK · « **Reply #346 on:** September 4, 2012, 05:47:11 pm »

The Samsung is worth the difference, but I'd try to get a quad-core machine if possible. You want something with as many CPU cores as possible to run FM.

classycarra · « **Reply #347 on:** September 17, 2012, 01:17:26 am »

hi i'm off back to uni in a couple of weeks and need a new laptop (although, i wouldnt be opposed to refurb)

i'm not looking for anything too high end, i just want something that's going to be able to multi task well (music/films etc while working plus obviously a load of tabs open on firefox). also handly skype is going to be especially important for me (though i'm meaning running skype - i can always get an external cam if a good laptop option doesnt have an internal webcam)

in terms of extras, i'm not looking for a huge screen, or blu ray or anything (i have a tv and ps3 thatll suit fine)

i get the feeling i'm after something with 8gb ram, although would happily go lower if its the processor thats more important for my needs - should i definitely go for quad core? (processor is probably the part i struggle to understand most - any advice welcome)

ideally it would be good to be a little future proof for a couple of years (not talking about top spec games, just general applications and stuff), when i can hopefully afford a little more outlay, but that's not essential

cheers for your help!

as an example - specs wise these look great. although the higher end of my budget, theyre just affordable - but are the graphics really poor?

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_Pavilion_DV6-6C56SA_1174930.html
http://www.ebuyer.com/391962-samsung-355v5c-laptop-np355v5c-s01uk

classycarra · « **Reply #348 on:** September 18, 2012, 11:34:53 am »

just ordered a medion laptop. has anyone ordered from them before? it says up to 10 days for delivery, surely not!

peachybum · « **Reply #349 on:** October 14, 2012, 01:26:00 pm »

Got a budget of around £1200. Any suggestions?

Upinsmoke · « **Reply #350 on:** October 14, 2012, 04:34:31 pm »

Quote from: peachybum on October 14, 2012, 01:26:00 pm

Got a budget of around £1200. Any suggestions?

What would you be using it for?

peachybum · « **Reply #351 on:** October 14, 2012, 04:49:53 pm »

Not hardcore gaming. As a desktop replacement. Just doing work stuff(just documents), watching tv/movies and the odd game of footy manager. Something thats going to last a good while.

Upinsmoke · « **Reply #352 on:** October 14, 2012, 05:03:37 pm »

Well for 1200 quid you'll be able to get a boss laptop mate. Sure it has to be a laptop? could have one awesome pc for that money haha.

You could probably get a good laptop for half of that budget to be fair mate if your just wanting it for general use and the odd game of footy manager.

Upinsmoke · « **Reply #353 on:** October 14, 2012, 06:39:01 pm »

This is decent. Good processor for a laptop, good storage, plenty of ram, you won't need more than 8gb. The integrated graphics are fine too with the i5, enough for fm anyway, u just need a decent processor for that.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-134-SA

peachybum · « **Reply #354 on:** October 14, 2012, 07:30:09 pm »

Quote from: Upinsmoke on October 14, 2012, 06:39:01 pm

This is decent. Good processor for a laptop, good storage, plenty of ram, you won't need more than 8gb. The integrated graphics are fine too with the i5, enough for fm anyway, u just need a decent processor for that.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-134-SA

Cheers pal. I'll take a look.

Motty · « **Reply #355 on:** October 17, 2012, 07:51:57 pm »

Looking to maybe get a laptop for my 10 year old instead of a tablet for Christmas ,thinking of a acer netbbook because their roughly the same price as a tablet, now I know netbooks are a poor version of a laptop with the slower processor, windows 7 not being that good ,but is one going to be good enough for what a 10 year old will need it for like games ,movies etc (also football streams for me sometimes) and do I need a certain amount of gb

blert596 · « **Reply #356 on:** October 18, 2012, 04:10:10 pm »

Well the screen is falling to bits on mine so I'm after a new one.

I'll have up to a max of £750 to spend and ideally would like something that is i7, and has a 17" HD screen, min 500 hard drive, and a decent graphics card (its the graphics cards that screw me up when trying to choose one as I never know how good/bad they are).

I'm not averse to a second hand machine thats a good spec for that money either.

I dont really play many PC games.

Any recommendations appreciated

Upinsmoke · « **Reply #357 on:** October 18, 2012, 04:15:15 pm »

Can I ask why u want the i7 over the i5 mate?

Upinsmoke · « **Reply #358 on:** October 18, 2012, 04:20:26 pm »

Quote from: Shady77 on October 17, 2012, 07:51:57 pm

Looking to maybe get a laptop for my 10 year old instead of a tablet for Christmas ,thinking of a acer netbbook because their roughly the same price as a tablet, now I know netbooks are a poor version of a laptop with the slower processor, windows 7 not being that good ,but is one going to be good enough for what a 10 year old will need it for like games ,movies etc (also football streams for me sometimes) and do I need a certain amount of gb

My partners daughter has a acer netbook. Make sure u don't get windows starter, get home/premium. Now all my daughter does is watch youtube mainly so its sufficent in that regard. however its not completely smooth. What netbook was u looking at mate?

dnkw · « **Reply #359 on:** October 18, 2012, 04:37:50 pm »

Quote from: blert596 on October 18, 2012, 04:10:10 pm

Well the screen is falling to bits on mine so I'm after a new one.

I'll have up to a max of £750 to spend and ideally would like something that is i7, and has a 17" HD screen, min 500 hard drive, and a decent graphics card (its the graphics cards that screw me up when trying to choose one as I never know how good/bad they are).

I'm not averse to a second hand machine thats a good spec for that money either.

I dont really play many PC games.

Any recommendations appreciated

This might be worth a look.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh