Solved Purchasing a New Laptop

[denwilliam]

What are the main points to look for when puchasing a laptop in the price range up to about £700.It will be used in the main for e-mailing,surfing the internet and games.Is a SSD superior to a hard disk drive and if so are there any drawbacks with them.Also what processor would you recommend.Any advice and guidance would be appreciated..

 

[ignatzatsonic]

What are the main points to look for when puchasing a laptop in the price range up to about £700.It will be used in the main for e-mailing,surfing the internet and games.Is a SSD superior to a hard disk drive and if so are there any drawbacks with them.Also what processor would you recommend.Any advice and guidance would be appreciated..

Obviously features and basic specifications would be a primary consideration, but I'd also give a lot of thought to build quality and support---what is going to happen if you have failure of some type within warranty?

SSDs are inferior only as regards price and capacity. They are noticeably faster than standard drives. If your laptop will hold only 1 hard drive, an SSD may not be large enough to hold all of your data--in which case go with a standard HDD.

At your budget, I'd guess you can get an Intel processor of some type. They are generally better performers in the mid and upper price ranges.

If you have a supplier picked out, maybe you can post a link to the web site.

 

[denwilliam]

Thank you for your reply which is helpful but is there any processor you would suggest?.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

See if you can get something in the i5 family from Intel in your budget.

Here are a bunch of them from a US source. Make note of the processor model numbers, such as 2430M, 2450M, etc and see what you can find from your chosen suppliers.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...06740 600003988&IsNodeId=1&name=Intel Core i5

 

[whs]

Everything you want to do can be done with any laptop - except gaming. That is always a problem because you will need a high performance GPU which produces a lot of heat. And the heat problem is one of the main drawbacks in laptops because there is little room for adequate blowers and to evacuate the hot air.

Rather than focussing on the CPU, I would focus on the GPU in your case. An i5 CPU is a good compromise and plenty for most applications. It can even handle such tasks as video encoding pretty well. For the GPU you have to look what is being offered, but it should have at least 1GB of it's own RAM. The so called on-board video facilities will not do for gaming.

I have equipped all my systems (including my 4 laptops) with SSDs. I would never go back to spinning disks. But the best is to buy the SSD seperately and exchange it against the HDD. That recovered HDD you can use as an additional external storage with the help of a USB enclosure. They cost pennies.

Speaking of USB - you should have at least 1 USB3 port. That makes external disks a lot faster. An eSata port is even better. I once had a Sony laptop that had both. But that cost $1175 and may be far out of your budget range.

I would recommend a 120GB SSD and put some of the data on an external drive (e.g. the enclocure or large USB sticks). But if you plan for very large games, a 256GB model may be better. You are looking at $100 to $200 for those. Apart from the SSD performance aspect, you also get a lot less heat from an SSD than from a HDD.

Bottom line: buying a laptop is easy if it were not for the gaming. A desktop has a lot more options and can be equipped with a lot more powerful devices than a laptop which is limited an space and therefore very heat sensitive.

 

[Layback Bear]

I would like to emphasize one of whs very good points. Gaming creates heat and laptops dissipate heat poorly.

 

[denwilliam]

Thanks to all three for those comprehensive answers,certainly got something to chew on there.Those numbers for the processors,do they mean anything or are they just designation no.s,what I am trying to say is how do you compare the performance of one against another.Sorry if I seem obtuse but am not au fait with all the technical terms.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

The numbers on CPU models generally don't tell you a lot.

You can look up a benchmark score for most any CPU here:

PassMark Software - CPU Benchmark Charts

Most of the CPUs in your budget range would be in the "high end" or "high to midrange" charts.

For instance, the Intel 2450M is rated at 3583.

The charts give you a general idea of overall "horsepower" of various CPUs.

Differences of a few hundred points aren't likely to mean anything, but you'd probably notice a difference of, say, a thousand points in some circumstances.

Overall, you would probably be more impressed with a CPU that had a rating of 3000 in a laptop with an SSD than you would be with a CPU with a rating of 4000 in a laptop that had a standard hard drive. But I don't know if you can fit an SSD into your budget.

People game with laptops all the time---you just have to adjust your expectations to a lower level than on a desktop PC. Laptops just have gaming limitations due to their modest graphics and heat buildup.

 

[denwilliam]

That is great,solves a mystery that has had me scratching my head.When I said games it is mainly playing chess against the computer and not those combat games the more energetic play Why I would prefer a SSD is because I tried a Crucial 128GB M4 in my laptop and was most impressed with the improved performance but failed to obtain full benefit due to my other laptop components.

 

[whs]

The Crucial M4 is a good choice. I have one myself and am very pleased. I left mine on Firmware level 0309 because some people reported problems with the newest level 000F.

 

[denwilliam]

Thanks to all who have helped prepare me for venturing into the sales market but there is one last question I would ask,how can you tell,apart from the sales blurb,what is a new up to date model and how long others have been available.There is such a wealth of choice out there that a prospective buyer feels overwhelmed and bemused.

 

[whs]

My experience was that the electronis shops such as BestBuy keep a certain model for about 6 weeks to 3 months. Then they replace them with newer models.

I once bought a laptop at Office Depot and after about 4 weeks it showed some problems. I could not get the same model as replacement because it was no more in stock. A similar observation I made with a certain Sony Vaio model at the Sony website.

So just buy what suits you now and don't expect it to be around for long. Here is a good reference site with best prices of the day: Cheap Laptop Deals: Find the Best Online Laptop Deals and Sales at Deals2buy.com Gives you some idea what laptops cost in the US, but the UK prices will probably be different.

 

[denwilliam]

There is certainly some good deals in that address you gave me but it's a pity it's not in the U.K.as well.Best place I have found here is Buy It Direct for electronics.Thank you all for your help.

 

[whs]

Yeah, All European countries are more expensive than the US. That's why I buy most of my stuff there and haul it to Germany.