Laptop for college

neonitrix

looking for the best online deal

must have reasonable processor speed
good amount of ram
& good battery


thanks guys


Neonitrix

fangio99

look on ebuyer.com, dabs.ie and laptopsdirect.ie. They usually have some decent deals on refurbished models.

Also try elara.ie, its the only one based in Ireland so you can avoid paying shipping and collect in Dublin.

Iron Hide

Argos have a deal on an acer aspire at the moment. Run a mile from dabs though, i've had massive problems with them in the past. And i'd always buy new as opposed to refurbished.

BeanFlicker

what about the first laptop shown in the link:

http://ireland.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/specials/deals_1?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

also try Harvey Normans, their brilliant to haggle on price and to throw in a few extra's.

Penrose

Always purchase new when going for laptops, RAM is fairly cheap at the moment but a good battery with a fast processor would set you back a good bit indeed.

Best bet would be to ask the college can you purchase it on their account, they usually get bulk discounts.

iphone168

Brand new LENOVO with accessories pack at 399.

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180576551581&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

rickyjb

Might be a little pricier than some of the ones mentioned above but this MSI is a good deal at 569.
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/05_NOTEBOO/productdetails/80000098/MSI_CX500_470NL_T4500_4GB_320GB/CX500_470NL/default.aspx
Lightweight, great battery, better processor/hard drive capacity/memory than you'll find with most laptops this price and it has an ok graphics card.

Komplett also have a pick up point in dublin (blanchardstown) so no delivery charges...

norbert64

BeanFlicker wrote: »

what about the first laptop shown in the link:

http://ireland.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/specials/deals_1?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

also try Harvey Normans, their brilliant to haggle on price and to throw in a few extra's.

Celeron CPU

rickyjb wrote: »

Might be a little pricier than some of the ones mentioned above but this MSI is a good deal at 569.
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/05_NOTEBOO/productdetails/80000098/MSI_CX500_470NL_T4500_4GB_320GB/CX500_470NL/default.aspx
Lightweight, great battery, better processor/hard drive capacity/memory than you'll find with most laptops this price and it has an ok graphics card.

Komplett also have a pick up point in dublin (blanchardstown) so no delivery charges...

Similar spec ARGOS Halloween special
MSI CR610 Blu-ray 16in Laptop for €499
http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/5082511.htm

Argos also have 10+ laptops for under €400. Some aren't that bad spec wise.

rickyjb

The processor is a lot better in the CX-510 (2.3 core duo vs 2.0 AMD) as is the graphics card. The only thing going for the CR610 is the blu-ray drive but seeing as the screen itself isn't full HD I'm not sure how useful this would be! Maybe if you wanted to connect up to your HDTV and didn't already own a PS3/bluray player...

Depends on if you think the 70 quid is worth it for the better processor/graphics card.

norbert64

Was mainly for folks who were looking at a €500 max budget.
Graphics would be for gaming though right. Even with that kinda spec, would it really be all that wise/viable?

rickyjb

It's far from a high performance graphics card but you'd be surprised at what games you could get away with running at an ok resolution with that setup. It has support for directx 10.1 which might be a tad ambitious for the latest games but it should be able to run most directx 9 games well enough.

Maybe it's not that important to the buyer but might be something to think about. Would also be useful for decoding/playback of HD video content or any other non-gaming but graphically demanding applications...

norbert64

Sticking with the €500 marker.

DID have the following Core-i3 Sony Vaio for €499.
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Sony_VAIO_E_Series_VPC_EB1E0E_WI__Review_5901304

Technically, there's already newer EB2's and 3's out but it's not a bad price/spec. :cool:

tamtamtalk

fangio99 wrote: »

look on ebuyer.com, dabs.ie and laptopsdirect.ie. They usually have some decent deals on refurbished models.

Also try elara.ie, its the only one based in Ireland so you can avoid paying shipping and collect in Dublin.

Hi, I would not advice you to buy anything from Dabs. Troublesome, incompetent, shabby, bad service and breaking the UK purchase of goods act.
My husband bought a quite expensive returned netbook a couple of years ago from the UK company. It had many problems, the first one that they sent it without the battery! They refused to send a battery, saying that they didn't have any but their website was listing them for sale. They said we could buy a new one from them for over £70 but they would not refunded it. My husband phoned them, emailed them, send them letters by post trying to have it repaired or replaced. Later he contacted them complaining. Later on contacted the UK government funded consumer advice organisation, got their advice, and again phoned, emailed and wrote to Dabs without success. So far, they ignored all correspondence and communications. He also contacted Acer, the manufacturer but they eluded any responsibility, saying that it was the retailer who were reponsible for providing a missing piece or to replace a faulty machine, not fit for the purpose and not received as specified. The guarantee expired last year. Just a few days after the guarantee expired and it was bought, the netbook died completely. It lasted a year, without portability as it did not have a battery. It was around £170, wasted money, time, energy and spoiling our time. In addition, the customer service was rude.
The prices are good but everything else is not. They have some cheap stuff but the result is too expensive at the end.