Laptop decision

what would you think about it

[wigsy_1]

Hi,

I am wondering about laptops.
I have got a bit of cash (£700) and would like to get a laptop with it.
I was wondering if anyone would have any recommendations on what laptops offer the best performance for the price really.
My necessities are for it to have a dvd-rw and decent processing speed, but nothing too special.

Any help would be great.

Cheers

Wigsy_1

[vkaryl]

I just bought an emachines 5405. I did a bunch of online research, and for the money ($850 US after rebate), it was the best deal out there. I'm extremely happy with it. It's a very very nice machine, with a lot of guts and not much downside (XPHome.... *sigh*). CD/DVD-RW combo; 512meg RAM standard; AMD Sempron 1.6mhz; 802.11g, internal 56k modem; 3 USB ports; card slot. 3 hours on battery; less than 1 hour full recharge.

It's not the lightest one out there, but for me it's perfect.... I don't run through airports much! This is the laptop one of the PC Mag biggies picked....

[krieves]

About 2 years ago I bought a Sony Vaio GRX-670. It has been a great computer. 16 inch screen, 2.0 gig Pentium 4 mobile, 60 gig HD, CD/DVD burner and dual monitor support. It is truely a desktop replacement.

The only downside to it is 1)USB 1.0, 2)It weighs around 8lbs, and 3)Poor battery life.

[Macro]

wigsy, you can get some fairly decent new laptops for that kind of money now. A good place to start would be the main UK PC magazines like PCW, PC Plus, PC Pro, PC Advisor and even the popular deisgned-for-newbies' Computer Active. These mags often run reviews and group tests of laptops. You could also try their websites.

[freeflight2]

I have one of these 17' toshiba laptops and love it since I can use it as a desktop, too.

[JonR28]

I've had bad experiences with brandname laptops, especially Vaio.

Right now I'm on an Asus Barebone that I built up myself. If you have any computer hardware experience at all I would encourage you t build your own laptop from a barebone. Asus, Acer, and ECP all make wonderful barebones.

They are commonly referred to as "whitebooks" and are generally pretty easy to assemple. They are also dirt cheap!

[cooldoug]

HP or DELL would be my best choice.