Which laptop? toshiba/dell/acer

sunnyside

I've been looking at laptops today, wanting to get one but I don't know enough about computers to know what's good value so any advice would be great.

I had planned on buying it from Sound Store which sells Toshiba and the cheapest ones are about 899-949 euro's. Someone else recommended Flor Griffin who sell acer (I've never heard of it before but as I said I'm not very knowledgeable about computers anyway). Their prices look much better because the cheapest one is 649 and the one I like is 949 and has intel core 2 duo 1.66 (X2) 1GB RAM +120 GB hard drive. That seems good to me but it has windows xp instead of vista while lots of the cheaper ones have the newer vista. They say their prices are good because the buy and sell in bulk which I'm sure is true.

Have seen Dell recommended a lot on here so maybe that would be a good option and I looked in the Sony shop too. I would be using the laptop for internet/email, basic office work and itunes mostly so I wouldn't need any advanced functions for that. I want it to be reliable and good value for money. A lady I know said that vista isn't very popular anyway, but would it be better to get that than xp as it's more up to date? xp is definitely adequate for what I'd be using it for. And are 2 processers worth the extra money? My budget is around 1000 but less would be great. Any advice or things to avoid would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Ruu_Old

Moved from Bargain Alerts, think you would get more help choosing which one you want here.

chump

go to dabs.ie
and select your preferences

http://www.dabs.ie/productlist.aspx?&CategorySelectedId=11105&NavigationKey=11105&PageMode=1

some options

http://www.dabs.ie/productlist.aspx?&NavigationKey=11105&NavigationKey=388220000&NavigationKey=46140000&NavigationKey=407140000&NavigationKey=23&NavigationKey=46290000&NavigationKey=49290000&NavigationKey=403520000&CategorySelectedId=11105&PageMode=1

zoom_cool

I am buying a new Laptop today and I could not one any cheaper than http://www.laptopsdirect.ie they are the cheapest around with a very big selection hope this helps. By the way Acer laptops are very good for the money.

greglo23

i would go for the Toshiba over the others without question. my sister bought a dell and had trouble within 6 weeks with the wireless. a friend bought an acer from flor griffins and had no end of trouble with it which flor griffins did not want to sort out. the toshibas have a very good reputation for reliability. theres a thread on here about acers which would curl your hair . have a look at the acer laptop support sticky here http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055071271

http://tinyurl.com/2xhjcx this is the thread i was referring to above.

Greenman

I have a Toshiba over 10 months and very happy with it. I went for a Toshiba because I felt they've been making laptops for years and years.

Bought mine in a superstore locally.

If you do get a laptop let us know which and how you got on.

Yakult

Dont get vista unless you have 2gb of ram. Because it completly sucks it. So if your running a few programs its gonna be slow!

I might recomend the Dell Inspirion 6400. With the upgrade of ram if you want vista, but if not 1gb will be great for XP.

Theirs alot out their. But I think dell are great for the price personally!

Black Swan

The XP-2 vs. Vista decision is a big one!

I did not plan to be an early adopter, but got a deal on a Toshiba with Vista Ultimate preinstalled that I just couldn't pass up. But Vista has a lot of problems at present. There are many programmes and games that are compatible with XP-2, but not Vista. You need an absolute minimum of 1 gig to run Vista, but more would be better. I am running 2 gigs and it's slower than when I used XP-2 on an earlier model Toshiba with less memory. Also, there have been numerous warnings in mags that I read about buying a machine made for Vista, and not trying to convert your OS from XP-2 to Vista. Lots of installation problems if you are not a hacker type and just a user.

XP-2 runs OK now, but someday will not be supported by MicroSoft. They are already talking about the next major revision to Vista. I think it is called Figi? It will be like moving from XP to XP-2 I am lead to believe...

No hardware probs with Toshibas, and I have had more than one of them. Get the manufacturer's extended warranty. It's cheap and Toshiba does not hassle you if you need it (according to a friend of mine who is a techie at a major retailer in the USA).

Had a Dell desktop PC once. A real lemon! Went through 3 harddrive replacements before selling it.

Tom Dunne

zoom_cool wrote:

I am buying a new Laptop today and I could not one any cheaper than http://www.laptopsdirect.ie they are the cheapest around with a very big selection hope this helps. By the way Acer laptops are very good for the money.

You obviously haven't been reading this forum very long. Have a good read about the three companies you mention.

sunnyside, as you can see, you will get as many opinions as there are types of laptops. Some good, some bad, some borderline hysteria.

I would suggest you do as I suggested to zoom_cool to do and have a read over the various threads, on the various companies and post back with questions.

sunnyside

Thank you all so much for your replies, have been reading through all of them and the threads you directed me to. So many of them are about repairs and broken laptops it's worrying, I want to use the laptop, not be spending months trying to get it repaired. The shop said that the acer repair center is in Wilton, Cork which isn't far from where I live. The guy in Sound Store said that you should get 5-6 years out of a Toshiba laptop, which would be excellent.

Most of the laptops on sale have vista instead of xp and from reading all your posts on here I think I'd prefer xp. I'll mostly be using it for internet and slow is annoying. I plan on getting wireless internet-is there anything specific I'd need in the laptop to keep that working well? There's something called LAN type on the information sheets I've got about the different ones. Is that very important for wireless?

It's really hard to choose, so many of them are the same price and give you different things for that price. With most appliances more expensive usually means better/more features but that's not really working on the laptop decision. I had planned on buying it this week, thought I'd have it by now but I think I need a few more days to think about it.

Tom Dunne

Are you willing to purchase online? If so, you will get a decent laptop for your needs for in and around €500-€600.

sunnyside

Had planned on getting it in a shop but I regularly buy other things online so I'm well familiar with internet shopping. It's probably because it's such an expensive purchase that I had planned on getting it in a shop but cheaper is always good:)

Tom Dunne

Well if that's the case, I'm gonna put your money where my mouth is an recommend Dell.

As I said in a thread only a day or two ago, I've ordered/recommended a load of Dell Laptops for friends/family over the years without a problem.

If you want quality, go for IBM/Levono.

Just bare in mind you will always here horror stories about all makes and models, just as you will about cars, washing machines, lawnmowers and so on.

sunnyside

tom dunne wrote:

Just bare in mind you will always here horror stories about all makes and models, just as you will about cars, washing machines, lawnmowers and so on.

I know exactly what you mean, it's just such an expensive purchase and I won't be able to afford another one anytime soon so I want to be sure I'm happy with what I choose. Thank you so much for your help:)

wedfan

I have heard good reports about both makes. If you are looking for a good deal, try the Laptop Shop in St Stephen's Green!!! :-)

Tom Dunne

wedfan wrote:

I have heard good reports about both makes. If you are looking for a good deal, try the Laptop Shop in St Stephen's Green!!! :-)

Can you confirm you have nothing to do with them - this is not the first time you have mentioned that company.

wedfan

I can confirm to you Tom Dunne that I have absolutly nothing to do with the company!!!

Apart from the fact that I purchased a HP Laptop from them recently enough and I found them to be excellent whilst trying to decide which laptop to buy.

Another friend of mine also went to the same company and opted for the Toshiba Laptop and I know she is also very happy with her purchase.

I hope this clears up this matter. Sorry about any confusion.

Wedfan