Halp!

[furtle]

Hello all! I know I don't post here often :) but hoped LJ might allow a little more depth in answers than Facebook.

After 7 years of good service, the motor/fan of my Sony Vaio laptop (which I bought as a lightweight portable little thing for when I was at the Bar) has started making really awful noises. I'd been planning to get myself a bigger,

Comments

[tadeous]

what is your approximate budget?

[furtle]

Good point! I don't have any major outgoings at the moment and want to get something really good and reliable, so am happy to spend anything reasonable. Say anywhere from £300-£1200?

I remember my old Vaio cost about £1400, but I don't need anything as uber-compact and portable as it was.

[tadeous]

I agree with Ruth on HP's. We use them here and they seem pretty robust.

Toshiba also does some nice laptops.

Spec-wise I steer clear of AMD chips. You don't need an i7. You probably want an i5.
4Gb of Ram is good. 3 is probably ok. more than 4 is probably unnecessary.
About 500Gb HDD? Buy an external drive as well. Use it to backup.

Definitely get Windows 7. Get office 2010, I think there are student versions available for cheaper than full price.
DropBox is brilliant. Use it.

There are helpful IT people at your college. But they are not miracle workers and they will laugh at you when you lose your work.
Well, Laugh at you behind your back. And post on Facebook about it.

[thewhitespider]

I do indeed have a Dell - a Studio XPS 16 - which I've been very happy with. Lovely screen, fast enough to game on (which means fast enough for everything else as well) and pretty solidly hardwearing so far

[thewhitespider]

I should say - it's not hugely portable. That's the cost of having the enormous screen.

Two years of using the 16 makes my old iBook feel like a tiny toy in my hands. Which is about right, given that it's a Mac...

[smallstoat]

I've got a packard Bell Easynote, running windows 7. Does everything I could want and more (ie awesome for everything as long as you don't want to play games). Cost £400, office not included. I got that from software4students.com, very reasonable prices.
I will echo dropbox is awesome.
Also, I just bought a Seagate GoFlex 1 terrabyte USB external hard drive for copying server files from work. It's tiny, doesn't need a plug, so is extremely portable, and was well worth the £100 for the size, weight and storage capacity.
Dell are a great make but if you do have problems, the customer service is appalling. All my stuff is from Currys because it's near my house and I like to be able to talk to people in person!
Good luck

[darzil]

I tend to go Dell, and have ended up buying extra support, as support tends to be much better (in my experience) when covered, and the support was dirt cheap. Not that I've had many issues. Been using a Dell XPS M1530 for about three years. It'll play Lord of the Rings online at full graphics, and runs anything else fast. Of course, it's more of a desktop replacement machine than particularly portable, though I treat it as portable!

Have a Lenovo for work now, and it's ok, but the fingerpad and keyboard are rubbish. Mind you, no one buys Lenovo other than workplaces, as they are overpriced for what you get.

[furtle]

Thanks Chris! I got a good Sony Vaio in the end copying, it seems, many people's habits here of sticking with what they've been happy with.

I was at a Jackals Faction event last weekend and chatted briefly with a senior member of the Bards' Guild after time out (afraid I can't remember his name). I mentioned Meg the Minstrel and Thomas and he said he thought you'd sadly both given up Larp completely. You're both missed! - and I still enjoy Kathryn's albums. :)

[darzil]

I'm not particularly sad about giving up Larp, as I'd done it for a lot of years. However, I do miss some of the people, and would quite happily get together with them outside Larp. I am still in touch with some, fortunately. Get in touch if you're ever in the Gloucester area!

Glad we have left impressions somewhere! Good to hear from you!

Kathryn says "It's lovely to hear that, and to hear from you. Fondly remember your daft songs around the campfire!".

[furtle]

Thank you all for your very helpful replies!

[nathan_courtney]

I know very little about recommending laptops, but I will join the chorus recommending Dropbox, here's a referral link to get you some extra space: http://db.tt/GB2OSlU

There's a free App for the iphone too, which is fantastic.

I'll also join the chorus telling you to get an external disk and backup regularly!

[sallyf]

Another vote for HPs - when my first HP was stolen I loved it so much I couldn't bear to replace it with anything except another HP.