Buying a Laptop: The current Generation

Phantasos

Looking to buy an Acer Swift 3 (i5 version). Thoughts?

Anyone know where the best place is to pick one up? I don't think Amazon deliver.

Swan Curry

Placed an order on Laptops Direct on Monday, confirmed the order over the phone with them Tuesday morning. When I check the order status it just says that it will be dispatched shortly. Is this normal for them or should I send a message and find out if there's something wrong?

Alright lads, looking at this http://www.argos.co.uk/product/6516701

Was considering these:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/lenovo-ideapad-100-intel-core-i5-5200u-8gb-1tb-dvdrw-15.6-inch-laptop-80qq00n7uk/version.asp (2 generation old CPU)
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/hp-250-g5-core-i5-6200u-8gb-256gb-ssd-dvd-rw-15.6-inch-windows-10-laptop-x0q78es/version.asp (older CPU but has SSD).

I'm tending towards the one in Argos with the newest CPU. Anyone know if it's easy enough to stick an SSD in instead of the DVD?

TerrorFirmer

I wouldn't worry too much about CPU as there's very little difference between them, though the 256GB SSD in the HP is a major bonus at that price point and I'd go for that one personally. But yes, it's easy to get a caddy to replace the optical drive. Shouldn't be more than about a tenner delivered from Ebay.

However, make sure it even has an optical drive. Most laptops don't anymore.

Also worth investigating battery life between the different models.

KathleenF

Hi all.

Looking for a laptop to replace my 8yo Toshiba. Budget 450ish with room to go up to 500 for a really good one.

Ideally I need one that has/is...

Portable - under 2kg
8GB RAM
DVD/CD drive (not absolutely essential)
Card reader
2+ USB ports
500GB+ memory
Decent CPU

It'll be mostly used for word processing/storage/internet/some photo editing but I want one that will last at least a few years.

This seems decent - any thoughts/feedback would be appreciated...

http://www.currys.ie/Mobile/Product/hp-pavilion-15aw084sa-156-laptop-modern-gold/341092/401.0.0

jamo2oo9

Currently looking to buy a decent gaming laptop with a budget of around €1200. I've found quite a few in that price range but I'm having trouble deciding if I should go for 970m or pay up more for a GTX 1060/1070. 1050 is out as 970m is better than 1050 according to benchmarks.

Any ideas? Mains uses for the laptop is Cities Skylines, BF4, BF1, Space Engineers and GTAV along with Revit and Autocad for college and work. Have decided to get 16gb ram regardless of what GPU I get. Same goes for CPU as they don't differ much when it comes to laptops. Correct me if I'm wrong on that part?

TerrorFirmer

Dell recently had their new gaming inspiron with i7-7700, SSD/HDD, and GTX1050Ti 4GB for 1,100 delivered - great deal.

Worth a check what current prices/promotions are. The GTX1060 would be a big step up but also in price. The GTX1050ti would be 970M performance.

BobbyT28

Hi,

Anyt recommendations on a Laptop for my sister?

Budget €300-400
Using it for browsing, netflix, excel and word.

Was looking at the Lenova G50-80, would this be a decent one for the price or can you recommend something better for around the same price?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-80E502VQUK-Processor-Resolution-Bluetooth/dp/B01N7VVXTS/ref=sr_1_18?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1497259749&sr=1-18

commited

Trond wrote: »

Lapbook being delivered tomorrow via DHL. Amazed at the delivery time tbh. Only 8 days since I ordered :eek:

How are you finding it?

Mine never turned up, ended up in a PayPal claim etc. Disappointing.

bassface93

https://www.hpshop.ie/hp-pavilion-x360-13-u163sa-prod.html

Any opinions on the above laptop? Seems like reasonable specs for the price (i5 8gb ram 128gb ssd full hd touch etc.) I'd be open to any other recommendations people have if there are any other similarly priced laptops people have?

chases0102

Hi everyone,

Be mighty if someone could offer a bit of advice.

Looking to buy a laptop that can multi task with ease. As a teacher, I can have 6 programmes running at once - what would be the most important aspect of the laptop specification to do this, RAM, SSD, i3/i5?

Will also be using it for Netlfix, lots of browsing as doing a night course, etc.

thehamo

commited wrote: »

Ended up ordering a Chuwi Lapbook 14.1. Voyo Vbook V3 looked good too but decided to take a punt on the Lapbook for now and see how I got on.

Any verdict on the laptop? Any idea who best to buy from? How does customs work out etc?

marno21

Any thoughts on this? http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-15-5000/spd/inspiron-15-5570-laptop

The model retailing for €878.99 - i7-8550U 16GB RAM, 4GB Graphics memory, 1TB HDD with 128GB SSD.

Would be using this for general stuff along with programming/electronic design/LabView etc.

Demonique

Im looking to purchase a new laptop

Intended use: General use/gaming

SSD only, no hybrid SSD/HDD laptops, I want an SSD because it offers more protection for my data, not just for faster speeds, preferably 1TB plus

Windows operating system only

Any suggestions?

TerrorFirmer

Demonique wrote: »

Im looking to purchase a new laptop

Intended use: General use/gaming

SSD only, no hybrid SSD/HDD laptops, I want an SSD because it offers more protection for my data, not just for faster speeds, preferably 1TB plus

Windows operating system only

Any suggestions?

What's the budget? If you want a gaming laptop with a 1TB SSD you'd want to be spending the guts of about 1.5k realistically.

That would get you an i7, 16GB DDR4, 1TB SSD + something like a GTX1050Ti graphics card, good for most of the latest games at 1080p medium or so at 60fps.

tvercetti

How does this look

http://ao.com/product/x540laxx980t-asus-laptop-silver-52606-251.aspx

Looking for something around the €300 for basic enough tasks. I would like to avoid the Celerons if possible and would prefer a 13 or 14 inch.

themacdaddy

Hi All,

Looking for a good laptop to run autocad with a good display. Budget is around €1500 to €2000. Hope to have it for a long time. Any recommendations?
Ideal if wasn't too bulky either.

lewis

themacdaddy wrote: »

Hi All,

Looking for a good laptop to run autocad with a good display. Budget is around €1500 to €2000. Hope to have it for a long time. Any recommendations?
Ideal if wasn't too bulky either.

Go to PC PART PICKER, great place to get a start on a new build.

I started there before I got and built my own pc.

jamo2oo9

lewis wrote: »

Go to PC PART PICKER, great place to get a start on a new build.

I started there before I got and built my own pc.

He's looking for a laptop. Not a PC...

lewis

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

lewis wrote: »

Go to PC PART PICKER, great place to get a start on a new build.

I started there before I got and built my own pc.

He's looking for a laptop. Not a PC...

I know, that's why I said pc, for the money he's willing to spend, you'd get a lot more.

themacdaddy

lewis wrote: »

I know, that's why I said pc, for the money he's willing to spend, you'd get a lot more.

Thanks Lewis, I should have specified it needs to be a laptop as it is needed for lectures and eventually travelling to clients

lewis

themacdaddy wrote: »

lewis wrote: »

I know, that's why I said pc, for the money he's willing to spend, you'd get a lot more.

Thanks Lewis, I should have specified it needs to be a laptop as it is needed for lectures and eventually travelling to clients

Well then, that clears that up, lol.

Tedious Bore

is this Lenovo Yoga a good price for general student use...?
http://www.harveynorman.ie/computing...8gb-128gb.html

I know I don't specifically need the convertible tablet aspect, but there's 349€ off it and the specs seem good! Are they though?

I don't need a huge amount of storage. Might be running Rhino or photoshop. Just want it to be fast and user friendly.

Any helpful opinions would be great
(Sorry i posted a duplicate thread on this few mins ago but don't know how to delete)

BobbyT28

Looking to buy a laptop for someone who is going to use it for Browsing the web, playing music from HDD.

Their budget is €600 or a little more for the right laptop.

Need,

i-5
500GB-1TB HDD
DVD player

Can you let me know if this looks good or is there something online that is similiar price but you get something better?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Ideapad-i5-7200U-Processor-Windows/dp/B072Q22THY/ref=sr_1_4?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1515500038&sr=1-4&refinements=p_36%3A45000-75000%2Cp_n_feature_fifteen_browse-bin%3A8322530031%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A1481781031%2Cp_n_feature_three_browse-bin%3A213558031

Thanks
BobbyT28

Tedious Bore

I'm no expert but having recently shopped around for similar, I think that Lenovo looks good for your needs.
Also, Dell Outlet selling refurbished laptops have 15% discount code running until January 14th at the moment. Prices are shown in £ and don't include VAT, but there are laptops there with similar specs coming in 500-600€.

And maybe do a little reading on Solid State Drives Vs Hard Drives too see if that stuff matters much to you. Good luck

BobbyT28

Tedious Bore wrote: »

I'm no expert but having recently shopped around for similar, I think that Lenovo looks good for your needs.
Also, Dell Outlet selling refurbished laptops have 15% discount code running until January 14th at the moment. Prices are shown in £ and don't include VAT, but there are laptops there with similar specs coming in 500-600€.

And maybe do a little reading on Solid State Drives Vs Hard Drives too see if that stuff matters much to you. Good luck

Would you have a link to a similar spec'd Lenova ?

Might head to curry's to have a look at the return in person

BobbyT28

BobbyT28 wrote: »

Would you have a link to a similar spec'd Lenova ?

Might head to curry's to have a look at the return in person

Was looking at this

HP 15-bs104na 15.6-inch Laptop (Natural Silver) - (Intel i5-8250U, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, Intel UHD Graphics 620, Windows 10 Home) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B077Y6VP62/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MmgxAbTZ0P7N2

Could have your opinions on it, looks like it would fill fill everything I'm looking for. New gen processor, storage, SSD

wheresmahbombs

Now that I have gotten my allowance, I have been deciding what 2-in-1 to get. Currently, I'm split between the HP Spectre x360 13" and the Lenovo Yoga 920, both of which include a stylus, which will be great for note-taking while I'll be studying at home, as long as there is good palm rejection and low latency.

SAMTALK

wheresmahbombs wrote: »

Now that I have gotten my allowance, I have been deciding what 2-in-1 to get. Currently, I'm split between the HP Spectre x360 13" and the Lenovo Yoga 920, both of which include a stylus, which will be great for note-taking while I'll be studying at home, as long as there is good palm rejection and low latency.

Do not get the Lenovo.. Awful customer care. Have a new laptop and still under warranty but not working. The customer care is shocking and 3 days in I'm still no further to getting an answer

wheresmahbombs

SAMTALK wrote: »

Do not get the Lenovo.. Awful customer care. Have a new laptop and still under warranty but not working. The customer care is shocking and 3 days in I'm still no further to getting an answer

What is quality control like in your opinion?

5rtytry56

tvercetti wrote: »

.....I would like to avoid the Celerons if possible and would prefer a 13 or 14 inch.

Manufacturers will want to shift all celerons remaining in their stocks this year.

Lord TSC

Looking for advice on what I need to spend to get a decent laptop for gaming.

It doesn't nessecarily need to be utter top of the line; mostly, it's Overwatch, WoW, FF14, games that I've been running on an 8 year old laptop without too much hassle.

Is it doable for under 1k? I'm not exactly flush with cash right now, unfortunately...

TerrorFirmer

Depends on how much of it you want to spend.

This would run all those games mentioned at 1080p high settings 60fps perfectly.

This would run the games you've mentioned at ultra effortlessly and far more demanding games at ultra also.

There are a few choices in between obviously but they're the best examples of the best value at either end of your budget.

Anything lower than €600 is going to be significantly compromised in some area, most likely graphics power.

Black_Knight

Looking for advice on a laptop for my mother in law. Tech illiterate so windows is likely a must. Only request has been that she'll be typing up word documents and printing them out... and that it be cheap.

I've not looked at laptops in a long time, but if I were to put my own spec on it, i'd hope for a small sized SSD and 4GB ram. Not sure what price range those bounce between and what to avoid within that range.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated :cool:

podgey1992

I'm looking for a laptop with good performance that can handle multiple excel files open at a time, run some python code using a fair bit of RAM, maybe running SPSS and ArcGIS (all simultaneously...) ideally for under €500 - if this is unrealistic I can increase the budget slightly!

From looking around it appears I need 8GB of RAM, 1-2 TB of memory (or 226GB SSD) and ideally an intel i5 processor or equivalent. I've come across this (https://www3.lenovo.com/ie/en/laptops/lenovo/v-series/V330-15/p/81AX00CBUK) which seems a good option but I'm wondering if there are similar laptops out there for cheaper? Or if this is not a good brand/model, or it's available cheaper elsewhere? There's also this model for cheaper: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Ideapad-80TV00RYUK-i5-7200U-Processor/dp/B072Q19CV9/ref=pd_vtph_tr_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=9515D81BCEFNX9SB151B

really appreciate any advice/recommendations!

Thanks

Bawnmore

Appears to be decently specced deal on a HP laptop from the UK that I've been keeping on eye on. Saw it listed in HUKD here with a good few people there biting the bullet.

wheresmahbombs

Bawnmore wrote: »

Appears to be decently specced deal on a HP laptop from the UK that I've been keeping on eye on. Saw it listed in HUKD here with a good few people there biting the bullet.

What do you plan on using the laptop for? Would the workload be taxing on the CPU, RAM, storage, etc.?

Bawnmore

wheresmahbombs wrote: »

What do you plan on using the laptop for? Would the workload be taxing on the CPU, RAM, storage, etc.?

Sorry - never saw this. It'd be perfect for my use I think - mainly browser based, some excel and working on 2 or 3 browsers at the same time.

wheresmahbombs

Bawnmore wrote: »

It'd be perfect for my use I think - mainly browser based, some excel and working on 2 or 3 browsers at the same time.

8GB of RAM might do you some good.

Bawnmore

wheresmahbombs wrote: »

8GB of RAM might do you some good.

Looks to be upgrade-able, so that'd be the 1st port of call alright. All look OK otherwise? Spec looks decent for the price to me, but I haven't been keeping up with hardware for years so could be totally wrong!

wheresmahbombs

Think it's got the latest quad-core i5.

54and56

Hi all,

I've a 6 year old Lenovo X1 Carbon (i7-3667U CPU @ 2.00GHz, 2501 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) + 8GB Ram + 156GB SSD + 14" screen) who's battery has seen better days (max 2 hours out of it now) but other than that is still tipping along grand on Win 10 and hasn't batted an eyelid at anything I've thrown at it including apps like Kodi, Plex, MS Office, VLC etc.

My young lad is looking for a college laptop so I've decided it's time for me to get a new laptop and he can have the old X1 which I'll put a replacement battery into - already ordered and on the way, €40 or so delivered.

When I purchased the X1 I was doing a lot of business travel so small footprint and low weight was important but it's no longer as important. As a result I think I'd prefer to go for a T580 this time as it has a bigger (optional touch) 15.6" screen and has a number pad built into the keyboard.

My use is 80% business which means MS office Apps (lot's of MS Excel + PowerPoint + Outlook etc) + PDF viewer + a ton of open Browser tabs (at least a dozen open at a time) + Spotify playing + WhatsApp app etc and the 20% personal use is mostly Chrome browsing + Plex or Kodi or VLC.

I'm pretty sure I'll go for the touch screen option, the 512GB SSD and the backlit keyboard but I really don't know what mix of processor + graphics card + RAM would be optimum for my needs.

Given the above would anyone like to recommend what T580 configuration would work best and be the best value for money for me?

I'm hoping this is the right place to look for this sort of help and thanks to anyone who does.

Cheers.

thehamo

Can anyone reccomend a decent laptop for a very low (circa 150-200) budget?

I bought a Chuwi lapbook 15.6 and it's the biggest pile of poop emoji I've ever witnessed. I'm currently in buyer dispute on Amazon over it hoping for a refund.

Anyway. I'm cash strapped and in need of a laptop. Mostly for internet based stuff, but small projects like video editing as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks

AlmightyCushion

thehamo wrote: »

Can anyone reccomend a decent laptop for a very low (circa 150-200) budget?

I bought a Chuwi lapbook 15.6 and it's the biggest pile of poop emoji I've ever witnessed. I'm currently in buyer dispute on Amazon over it hoping for a refund.

Anyway. I'm cash strapped and in need of a laptop. Mostly for internet based stuff, but small projects like video editing as well.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Everything at that price is going to be a steaming pile of junk. Best you could do at that prices is a cheap chromebook which would handle web browsing but they have a lot of limitations so you need to check that out before buying.

Mars Bar

Hello all!

I've been a MacBook user for 10 years as I was originally training to be a sound engineer and so Mac fitted my needs. I stuck with what I knew so I went from a MacBook to a 2012 MacBook Pro. I think it might be time to switch back to windows although I love Mac.

I'm looking to upgrade as my needs have changed. I spend more time playing games on steam now (I want Civ VI to run like a dream on my new laptop) and I use Microsoft Office more often. I do the odd bit of video editing for work, although nothing too hard hitting. I'm used to 13 inch screens so I don't really want to go bigger than 15 inches. I'm also a stickler for how a laptop looks (a by product of having a MacBook I guess) so I want it to look slick and thin. No clunkiness!

This is an overview of what I have so I would like to upgrade on the majority of aspects, obviously.



Maximum budget would be €1,200.

Any opinions?

Alanstrainor

I think a Dell XPS15 is worth a look:

http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/xps-15/spd/xps-15-9560-laptop

It is over budget, but not hugely so. It should fit the bill, slick slim design, 15" screen and powerful. The GPU is quite decent too, and I would expect it to handle CIV okay (although you might research this a bit yourself).

Mars Bar

Alanstrainor wrote: »

I think a Dell XPS15 is worth a look:

http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/xps-15/spd/xps-15-9560-laptop

It is over budget, but not hugely so. It should fit the bill, slick slim design, 15" screen and powerful. The GPU is quite decent too, and I would expect it to handle CIV okay (although you might research this a bit yourself).

Thanks Alan! €1,200 is literally me maxing out my budget I'm afraid.

AlmightyCushion

Mars Bar wrote: »

Thanks Alan! €1,200 is literally me maxing out my budget I'm afraid.

The Inspiron range would be within budget. Not as nice as the XPS though.

http://www.dell.com/en-ie/shop/laptops/inspiron-15-7000-gaming-laptop/spd/inspiron-15-7577-laptop

Phantasos

Mars Bar wrote: »

Thanks Alan! €1,200 is literally me maxing out my budget I'm afraid.

There's an XPS 13 on sale for £999 right now on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-13-3-inch-Full-Laptop/dp/B07679C652/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1525184950&sr=8-3&keywords=xps+13

AlmightyCushion

Phantasos wrote: »

There's an XPS 13 on sale for £999 right now on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-13-3-inch-Full-Laptop/dp/B07679C652/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1525184950&sr=8-3&keywords=xps+13

Only Intel graphics though which would probably struggle with Civ.