Laptops
It's time for me to buy a new laptop, ever since this one crashed last year it's been a little unpredictable, then it had another crash at Christmas since when we've been backing everything up daily! I've managed to get a partial grant from a lovely charity through this week (thank you so much ill_elle for giving me some of your jam!) so I've spent today looking around. Except I find any purchase like this terrifying, there are so many different options in so many places, you know as soon as you've made the decision and paid for it a better deal will turn up. I find it a bit overwhelming! So I just thought I'd post so anyone who is inclined can give me advice or just say 'yes, that seems a sound decision!'.
The grant means that I am tied to buying it from somewhere that they can transfer the money to me, they won't give it to me in cash but they will give it in Amazon gift vouchers. No it doesn't make sense to me either but the nice people are giving me £150 so I will nod along. Unfortunately I've discovered that ebuyer don't do gift vouchers, gutted, so I'm just looking at Amazon and Play at the moment as they seem the most straightforward plus I can give AYME the affiliate money. However if anyone has any suggestions of other websites that are worth a look I'd be very interested!
So I'm thinking ideally 1GB RAM / 120GB HDD. I know you can get so much bigger and more powerful but I really don't think I need it, at the moment I'm on 256MB / 40GB and it was fine until it got a bit old, I've still got 15GB of space spread over it. I even feel like that seems too big and too much but it would seem ridiculous to risk getting something I might grow out of when they're in my price range.
However weight is a bit of an issue, Fran weighed our current laptop (on the kitchen scales, it felt so wrong!) and it's 2.9kg. With the whiplash this is a bit too heavy for me to lift without some pain, so while I don't see the point in getting a expensive crazy light one I'm thinking perhaps I shouldn't go heavier than this. Unfortunately this rules lots out as I'm looking in the cheap seats!
Despite all those restrictions I seem to have found some options! Going up in price I'm looking at:
A Toshiba Satellite Pro L40-17F from Amazon which is 2.8kg, and everything I was wanting for £329.99 with 3.2hrs battery life. I don't really know anything about Toshiba as a brand, any thoughts?
An Acer TravelMate 5320-101G12Mi from Play which again fits the bill for £339.99, weighs 2.9kg and has 3hrs run time. I am already very positive towards Acer so this is the front runner.
Heading over £400 there's another Acer TravelMate, the 4233WLMi from Play again. This steps up to 2GB / 200GB with a dual processor for £419.99, but will I really feel the benefits of that seeing as I don't use the computer for games or anything? Is it worth £80 more than the previous one? This is 2.8kg, 2.5hrs run time.
Or another Toshiba Satellite, this time the L40 17H for £424.25 from Amazon which is up to 2GB / 160GB, 2.8kg and 3.2hrs battery again.
There are also a couple of Sony VAIO's right at the top of what I could potentially spend, a NR11 for £449.99, 1GB / 160GB, dual core, etc. and a NR21 for £469.99, with 2GB / 200GB, 2.9kg but a 2.5hr battery. I just included this as I've heard good things about them generally, I don't know how much better they are if they are at all? I can't really imagine pushing for the extra but if they're incredible maybe I would.
So these are the ones I'm looking at, for today at least I am done reading about different laptops! I think I want to go with one of the Acers really, I'm currently using an Acer TravelMate and this one has been great, so I trust them. I'm inclined to just go with the cheaper one, what with it being cheaper obviously. Also I don't really do anything all that demanding, I do quite often sit with Thunderbird, Firefox, Open Office, Irfanview and FTP open but this machine just about copes with that most of the time so something four times faster ought to be fine. I'm just not sure I need the fancier model, unless Vista really saps crazy amounts more power? But I'd be very interested to hear opinions on the matter! Also, if you know better sites to buy laptops from which give gift certificates then that would be great, in case they have any better deals.
Thank you!
The grant means that I am tied to buying it from somewhere that they can transfer the money to me, they won't give it to me in cash but they will give it in Amazon gift vouchers. No it doesn't make sense to me either but the nice people are giving me £150 so I will nod along. Unfortunately I've discovered that ebuyer don't do gift vouchers, gutted, so I'm just looking at Amazon and Play at the moment as they seem the most straightforward plus I can give AYME the affiliate money. However if anyone has any suggestions of other websites that are worth a look I'd be very interested!
So I'm thinking ideally 1GB RAM / 120GB HDD. I know you can get so much bigger and more powerful but I really don't think I need it, at the moment I'm on 256MB / 40GB and it was fine until it got a bit old, I've still got 15GB of space spread over it. I even feel like that seems too big and too much but it would seem ridiculous to risk getting something I might grow out of when they're in my price range.
However weight is a bit of an issue, Fran weighed our current laptop (on the kitchen scales, it felt so wrong!) and it's 2.9kg. With the whiplash this is a bit too heavy for me to lift without some pain, so while I don't see the point in getting a expensive crazy light one I'm thinking perhaps I shouldn't go heavier than this. Unfortunately this rules lots out as I'm looking in the cheap seats!
Despite all those restrictions I seem to have found some options! Going up in price I'm looking at:
A Toshiba Satellite Pro L40-17F from Amazon which is 2.8kg, and everything I was wanting for £329.99 with 3.2hrs battery life. I don't really know anything about Toshiba as a brand, any thoughts?
An Acer TravelMate 5320-101G12Mi from Play which again fits the bill for £339.99, weighs 2.9kg and has 3hrs run time. I am already very positive towards Acer so this is the front runner.
Heading over £400 there's another Acer TravelMate, the 4233WLMi from Play again. This steps up to 2GB / 200GB with a dual processor for £419.99, but will I really feel the benefits of that seeing as I don't use the computer for games or anything? Is it worth £80 more than the previous one? This is 2.8kg, 2.5hrs run time.
Or another Toshiba Satellite, this time the L40 17H for £424.25 from Amazon which is up to 2GB / 160GB, 2.8kg and 3.2hrs battery again.
There are also a couple of Sony VAIO's right at the top of what I could potentially spend, a NR11 for £449.99, 1GB / 160GB, dual core, etc. and a NR21 for £469.99, with 2GB / 200GB, 2.9kg but a 2.5hr battery. I just included this as I've heard good things about them generally, I don't know how much better they are if they are at all? I can't really imagine pushing for the extra but if they're incredible maybe I would.
So these are the ones I'm looking at, for today at least I am done reading about different laptops! I think I want to go with one of the Acers really, I'm currently using an Acer TravelMate and this one has been great, so I trust them. I'm inclined to just go with the cheaper one, what with it being cheaper obviously. Also I don't really do anything all that demanding, I do quite often sit with Thunderbird, Firefox, Open Office, Irfanview and FTP open but this machine just about copes with that most of the time so something four times faster ought to be fine. I'm just not sure I need the fancier model, unless Vista really saps crazy amounts more power? But I'd be very interested to hear opinions on the matter! Also, if you know better sites to buy laptops from which give gift certificates then that would be great, in case they have any better deals.
Thank you!