Is this laptop any good?

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Glass Books

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Name
Sunni
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I'm looking for a laptop that I can use for:
T'internet
Photoshop CS4
Gaming, but nothing taxing - World of Warcraft mostly, possibly Dragon Age

I have my desktop which will still be my main computer, this laptop is mostly for when I'm away with work etc - so that I can take my camera and my laptop and have something to do in the evening after work.

I've found this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173882 for £370 but I have no clue about laptops so not sure if it's good enough to run photoshop and the games above. Does anyone know? If you don't want to click the link, it's got Core 2 Duo T6600 2.2GHz, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 15.4 TFT, DVDRW, Webcam, 6 Cell, NO OS.

I'll be getting the Windows 7 64 bit OS for it, which brings the total to £443. Could I be getting anything better for that price?

I hope you can help! I need to order this tonight as I'm going away with work on Sunday :gag:
 
Looks pretty good apart from it has integrated graphics which is rubbish for gaming. If Photoshop is more important though, memory is more important than graphics. On the same site:

- HP Compaq 615, AMD Dual Core Athlon X2 QL-66 2.2GHz, 320GB HDD, 2GB RAM, 15.6" HD LED, DVD±RW, ATI HD3200, Bluetooth,2MP Webcam,WIFI, Windows 7 Home Premium £350 (could spend the extra and upgrade the memory to 4GB?) - Link

From laptopsdirect.co.uk:

- Acer Aspire 6930G, Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 (2.0GHz), 250GB HDD, 3GB RAM, 16" HD Screen, Blu-Ray Drive, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9300M, 1Mpx Webcam, WIFI, HDMI, FingerPrint Reader, Windows Vista Home Premium (Free upgrade to Windows7 available) £450 - Link
 
Personally, I think you won't go too far wrong with any of the suggestions above.

As craig quite rightly points out, the integrated graphics is the main down side to the cheaper laptops. On the other hand, I think you'd need to spend a minimum of £600+ to get a laptop to play decent games on... so I wouldn't be too fussed about that.

A couple of things I'd personally recommend (remember, this is my personal preference!)
- Go with the Core2Duo processor, they're superb
- Look at reviews for battery life, honestly some will last <1 hour, some will go all day!
- Definitely, definitely get Windows 7
- Decide whether you want to go for style or function, because both costs extra!
- Finally, I see you have a D90, get one with a built in SD card reader!
 
That one has similar specs to mine, except I have a dedicated graphics card. I can run Ps and still have other apps open without any trouble. I also manage to play COD MW2 at 1280x720 with no trouble, even when playing LAN games.

So it should be fine if you find one with a dedicated GC :thumbs:
 
Thank you everyone for the suggestions, I was lucky and managed to read them before the forum went down :)

I should have mentioned initially that I can't abide Dell and HP, hehe... but I had a good look at the Acer Aspire 6930G - the only problem with that one was that it didn't come with Windows 7 installed, which means I'd have to use Vista (shudder) until I could get a replacement, which was no good for me as I leave in three days.

Thanks to John's list I managed to narrow it down a LOT, especially the core 2 duo requirement and SD reader helped. I decided that I won't be doing THAT much gaming on it, and went for the Asus X5DIJ . Next day delivery, so I'll have it by tomorrow! :clap:

Thanks again for the help! (and don't tell me now I've made the wrong choice... :lol: I would have checked with you all but the forums were down and I had to order fast to ensure I would get it tomorrow.. )
 
Good find! :thumbs: Asus are a great brand, the make good quality stuff imo, looking at the reviews on there seems many others are happy with it too. It's got lots of little things that make it great, like the fast version of wireless, numeric keypad, good battery life, good built quality etc ontop of a good spec'd processor etc. Looks pretty good too! :)
 
CraigyBoy86 said:
Good find! :thumbs: Asus are a great brand, the make good quality stuff imo, looking at the reviews on there seems many others are happy with it too. It's got lots of little things that make it great, like the fast version of wireless, numeric keypad, good battery life, good built quality etc ontop of a good spec'd processor etc. Looks pretty good too! :)
Click to expand...

Yes indeed!

Just thought I'd update to say that ebuyer delivered extremely fast, I think I ordered at 7 pm and it arrived at 9 am the next day :thumbs:

The laptop is great, and I'm loving Windows 7! I've had no problems running CS4, browsing and playing music at the same time. Not tried gaming yet though! The speakers are pretty bad so don't buy this is you're not prepared to use headphones, but apart from that I'm very happy with it. I use it more than my desktop now, and I've only had it since yesterday! :D

Thanks again everyone for all your advice. :clap::thumbs:
 
Are the speakers on that Asus laptop really that bad? My sister is on a lookout for a new laptop and was going to advise her on that one but as she doesn't own any external speakers she will be using those for iPlayer, music, etc.

Thanks.
 
wingo said:
Are the speakers on that Asus laptop really that bad? My sister is on a lookout for a new laptop and was going to advise her on that one but as she doesn't own any external speakers she will be using those for iPlayer, music, etc.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Well when I played music it sounded tinny, and the volume doesn't go very high. I haven't tried adjusting the equaliser in itunes yet though, that might have an effect. It should be fine for watching movies, but I wouldn't use it as a music player.

Let me have a fiddle with the equaliser and see if it makes any difference.. hang on
 
The equaliser in itunes had very little effect, so I'd say it's a no go if you want to use it to play music without extra speakers. I also tried plugging my headphones in (they're the big type, not the little ones that fit in your ear) and the sound then was great.

Watching a movie works better than listening to music, but the volume is a bit low so I'd recommend using headphones for that as well, or external speakers.

Hope that helps!
 
Thanks for the replies! Will let my sister know and see what she thinks about it!
 
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