Non gaming laptop

[MasterBlaster76]

Hi there.

I'm on the lookout for a laptop for my nephew. He doesn't need it for gaming - mainly for surfing the net, watching youtube videos, listening to music and uploading/downloading/editing intros for MW2 clans (maybe he'll want to try his hand at making his own at some point).

Trouble is, I know jack about laptops. If this was a desktop PC, I'd know to go for a Core i7 over an Intel Core 2 Duo, for example. RAM and HDD space works pretty much the same as a desktop I'd imagine, so the CPU is the component I need to know about - also bear in mind what it'll be used for. I don't think he's going to get one for more than ?500, so that's the budget. 3gb RAM and a 300gb HDD should be ok?

One thing I do know is once you got it, that's pretty much it - you can't easily upgrade things like CPUs and GPUs in laptops, can you? So it needs to be as future-proof as possible - I'm expecting that to be tricky given the budget. Of course, a decent battery life would be good as well.

Please reply ASAP - it's his Christmas present! Yes, I know we've left it very late, it's just the way things have turned out. Will be heading off to PC World soon to buy it - it's not going to be ordered online.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[pcfan123]

I was watching Sky Sports last night and there were ads for laptops around 200-400 pounds (dont know how to do the pound symbol) low range laptops at whatever your local Best Buy type store is.

They were all dual core processors and 2-3 gigs of Ram. Honestly, for a student non-gaming laptop, that is all you would need for the next few years.

Unless he is planning on running any intense school programs on it (AUTO CAD etc) then your bottom of the rung work laptop should be fine. I bought a very cheap HP laptop and it's been running for 2.5 years now and is still fairly fast.

Just stick to the main brands and you should be ok, HP is really not that bad except for the battery life, thats my only complaint.

 

[Chewie]

Editing videos might require 4GB of DDR3 RAM but you don't really need a decent graphics card at all

 

[pcfan123]

This is a good example here

Toshiba - Satellite Laptop / Intel® Core™ i3 Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Black - C655-S5061

Toshiba - Satellite Laptop / Intel? Core™ i3 Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive

for only $450, try to find a comparative.

 

[iridescentt]

Yeah, Toshiba have a really solid range of laptops available. Go for one from their range.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

I've just found this one at Argos:

Buy Acer Aspire 5741A 320GB 15.6in Laptop. at Argos.co.uk - Your Online Shop for .

Good price and it has a Core i3 processor - that's a good CPU for a PC, let alone a laptop, isn't it?

I mentioned that it will not be for games - but would he be able to run the old games, like Rome Total War, or simplistic things like Plants vs Zombies? Doesn't matter if not, but it would be a bonus.

Edit: Average five stars across 53 reviews. Since it's an i3 processor, the Win 7 installed is likely to be 64bit, isn't it? I think this might well be the one - Acer are a good make, aren't they? Maybe I can find a similar Toshiba model to be completely sure of the quality.

Most of the Toshibas there seem to have Intel Celeron, or AMD Dual Core - isn't that a bit out of date for a CPU?

MasterBlaster76 added 17 Minutes and 42 Seconds later...

This is a good example here

Toshiba - Satellite Laptop / Intel? Core™ i3 Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive - Black - C655-S5061

Toshiba - Satellite Laptop / Intel? Core™ i3 Processor / 15.6" Display / 4GB Memory / 500GB Hard Drive

for only $450, try to find a comparative.

That's an excellent machine for a very good price - will definitely use that as my starting point. All I have to do now is find something like that in a store - as I said it's not being ordered online and even if it was, it's never getting here in time for Christmas.

This looks good:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/toshiba-satellite-c660-108-07786979-pdt.html

Might just be able to make the budget stretch to that. I'm not actually paying for it - someone else is doing that - I'm just the researcher.

 

[pcfan123]

Wow thats almost twice as expensive and has less specs than the one available here. everything is so much pricier there! sheesh!

The one you showed me is a C660 for 450 pounds

The one I showed you is a C655 for 450 dollars! and it has better specs. Keep searching around Steve, that PCworld place is ripping you off

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Wow thats almost twice as expensive and has less specs than the one available here. everything is so much pricier there! sheesh!

The one you showed me is a C660 for 450 pounds

The one I showed you is a C655 for 450 dollars! and it has better specs. Keep searching around Steve, that PCworld place is ripping you off

Yep, I know - everything here is so much more expensive than the States.

OK - just one more question - I think I already know the answer but to confirm: What's the better CPU - Intel Pentium dual core P6000 or Intel Core i3 processor? I believe it's the i3 - there are two laptops at Argos with the same price, but one has the i3:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5083383.htm

 

[Chewie]

Depending on what i3 you're talking about, the i3 would probably be better.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

# Intel Core i3 350M.
# 2.26GHz processor speed.

vs

# Intel Pentium dual core P6000.
# 1.86GHz processor speed.

The i3 wins hands down - that's what I'd say if this was a desktop PC, but I don't know how laptop CPUs work. Is the i3 dual core or quad core?

Edit: For what it's worth, the GPU is 'Intel with HD graphics card'.

 

[MattW]

i3 is dual core. Avoid the Pentiums now, they are barely a step up from Celerons.

 

[MasterBlaster76]

i3 is dual core. Avoid the Pentiums now, they are barely a step up from Celerons.

Yeah, I thought so - when I saw 'Celeron' and 'Pentium', alarm bells rang, whereas 'i3' is one of the new Intel chips, isn't it? Anyway, it's all sorted out now - and it comes with a year's Norton Internet Security. What are Norton like these days? I heard that the latest one is very good - if not, I won't bother installing it.

 

[Chewie]

I just use Microsoft Security Essentials, for a free one and for one from Microsoft it's actually pretty good.

And yea the i3 by far

 

[Sureshot]

Norton is awful. I think Dell are pretty good for laptops, certainly wouldn't use Argos or PC World.

Novatech are pretty good.

View our great range of Home Laptops @ Novatech

Processor: Intel Core i3 370 Processor
Memory: 3GB DDR3 Memory
Harddrive: 320GB 2.5" SATA Hard Drive
Chassis: Intel GMA HD Graphics
Screen: 15.6" 1366x768 HD Screen

From
?379.98 Inc VAT

Remember VAT goes up to 20% in 2 weeks.

 

[sohum]

Norton sucks.

What did you end up selecting? I've had issues with Acers and have had friends with issues with Toshibas in the past. Personally I'd stick to either Dell or HP when it came to a laptop. Maybe a VAIO if you wanted to stretch your budget.

The taxation certainly doesn't help you very much. 500GBP (about 750 USD) is more than enough to pick up a very good laptop in the US. Seems like you won't be quite as lucky with the taxation there.