My Sony Vaio is 4-5 years old and is slower than a snail. Takes me ages to do anything so I'm thinking about replacing.
I use it for iTunes, surfing + Skype, minor photo editing, a bit of Excel/Powerpoint/Word, burning music CDs...
No games, no music production, once in a while for watching a DVD
This is the topline spec of the Dell
Processor
Intel® Celeron Dual Core T3100 (1.90 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 1 MB L2 Cache
Memory
4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
Hard Drive
320GB (5,400rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
Windows7
Any thoughts?
There are other cheaper ways to speed it up, depending upon how technically challenged you are:
Option 1) re-install the basic system (assuming you were given backup recovery disks). This should clear out all the cr*p that windows accumulates over time.
This could solve most of your problems - but your major problem is probably Itunes.
Option 2) Download and install Ubuntu to run under Windows - this does requre some confidence messing with the system though.
You'll have to use Open Office instead of office. But Firefox will run faster, you can use Banshee instead of Itunes - which is faster but has a different interface and Gimp (for Photo editting) comes with it.
The Dell Inspiron is a great laptop though
[i]ACER
Acer Aspire 5732Z Value Laptop - Notebooks sporting a classy design
Intel Pentium Dual Core T4300 2.1GHz
4GB RAM
500GB Hard Drive
15.6" WXGA
DVD Writer
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit[/i]
[url= http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179792 ]Acer Aspire from eBuyer[/url] is what I just got - I am pretty happy with it apart from the USB ports being on the left side (which makes using a wired mouse difficult)
I'm simply no fan of the celeron processor, dual core or not. We've just bought my g/f a insipiron 1564 for around £500, & though it only has 3gb of memory & 250Gb hdd, I'd throughly recommend it (came in purple too)
Then go for the Acer above - it has the Pentium Dual Core 😉
I have a new Dell inspiron and its quite fast. make sure its running Windows 7 tho. instantly download Firefox or maybe opera 10. I have given up on Itunes - too processor intensive. I now just use Spotify for music.
bargain price me thinks. I think PC world were doing an offer on these too!
M_F if he want to keep the price down then yes your option is much better than the one he's looking at..
the Inspiron 1564 (i5 series processor) is fantastically fast.. and I'm looking at a future proof point of view not gaming, etc.
z1ppy +1
Celeron = pap
My £350 Samsung R519 with Windows 7 does all that very well...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/202798
Intel Celeron T3100 1.9GHz
1GB RAM
160GB HDD
15.6" Superbright Gloss
DVD Writer
Webcam
Windows 7 Professional
Oh, aparently it should be crap because it's a Celeron 🙄
M_F if he want to keep the price down then yes your option is much better than the one he's looking at..
Glad you agree - I spent ages trying to decide what to buy.
you may want to consider a 64bit machine, in the not too distant future, 64 bit computing will be a common standard – as all hardware from the last couple of years has been designed with this in mind
M_F +1
Got a 5732Z also, maybe not enough USB ports and some flex around the cursor keys but great value, 500 GB disk and 4 GB RAM and 64 bit Win7.
Might as well go 64 bit as it gives memory expansion opportunities and the "possibility" of 64 bit programs for the future.
Yeah, it was the 500GB hard disk that clinched it for me as we are using it as a music and pictures machine. I don't find the USB ports thing an issue as we just have a wireless mouse attached all the time then plug in camera/external backup drive/USB stick etc as and when required.
The t3100 chip he's selected is 64 bit. It might be a celery, but they're not bad at all these days.
In short: Do NOT buy Acer!
If it works, great, but if it doesn't then god help you.
Bought one 2 years ago which had a faulty mainboard. After sending it back 3 times to a company outsourced by Acer to handle repairs (so they are not liable) it all started getting legal and such. I looked into the repair company's history and behold, it had been bankrupt/shut down/restarted 3 times in 6 years. Same directors but different company name. The company had completely dysfunctional internal organisation (couple of times my laptop was actually "lost" in their system) and appaling customer relations so it's not amazing they haven't done very well.
So unless you work in IT like me and can video the fault, compile it and send it on a DVD as proof along with your legal claims letter then be careful. I know this sounds like the usual "oh, another moaning moron" but you really do get what you pay for with Acer - and yes, they are cheap.
But by all means if it works it's great. I just don't want to take that gamble again.
But to answer the OP:
Dell: Still lots of proprietary stuff if you want to change?
Asus: My wife's, best support I can think of
Toshiba: My current, pretty ok support
Samsung: Looks good on paper but no personal experience
IBM/Lenovo: Can't fault them but not a gaming rig
I appear to have stumbled on a thread in another language 😕
At £400 and the speed at which technology changes, I purchased my machine with didposability in mind (yes I back it up regularly).
On the dell the hard disk and memory we use are standard. Unless its a mini 9 or something then the ram can be tricky. Everything else is really not for upgrading anyway on a laptop. If you buy dell pay extra for the longer warranty. Its normally worth it.
Ive got an inspiron from dell. Actually our last 2 computers where inspirons. The shittest, tacky cheapest ones.
Ive worked with IT/computers for 10 years. These things are no better or worse than the box I had in the office(expensive corporate machines). and celerons are just pentiums with a 90-99% failure rate.
the warranty is good and service is good.
get the shittest cheapest one, enjoy it and buy your bicycle a gift with your savings.
get the shittest cheapest one, enjoy it and buy your bicycle a gift with your savings.
Thats not bad advice. I'm probably not allowed to use that line at work tho! 🙂