recommend me a low cost laptop

p1tse

p1tse

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i had my heart set on a macbook pro early next year saving up for one, but due to attempted break into the house etc. i've now spent my laptop savings on home security.

i'm currently running one laptop at home for everything that's photo backup, internet, microsoft office.

i thought i would save for a macbook as i hear great things, and wanted to run some sort of photo editing software and teach myself afew tricks, as my current laptop struggles with photos alone.

any recommendations on a low budget.
i think PC laptop will be cheaper than any mac options, even on the used/second hand market.

bit out of touch in this market, so i guess any recommendations or anything i should definately ignore?

i saw a dell xps used on here the other week for a couple of hundred £s, which would have been ideal.

netbooks look cheap, but screens might be a little too small
might consider second hand, but as i'm out of touch i don't know their true value really.

any advice would be appreciated
 
Lenovo do a 12" netbook starting at £275, Though you should be able to pick up a 15" laptop for £300.

Netbook= slim, light, great battery life, can run most apps well enough but not the fastest. Laptop = faster processor, bigger screen, possibly more upgradeable but heavier and short battery life.
 
any reason your going for a laptop over a desktop? As you will get more bang for buck with one of these.
There is quite a few laptops on the cheap end of the market these days, as with cameras it comes down to something you feel comfortable with using as they can vary in keyboard/mouse/screen layout and design quite a lot.
 
Have you a budget in mind? That would be a good starting point for advice...
 
my laptop is on its last legs.
why laptop over desktop, well i generally literally use it on my lap during the evening and occassions need it mobile/transportable

don't want to buy anything cheap cheap and resulting having to look again 12-18 months time.

just the dell xps on here spec wise would have been good i think and for the price:
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=183846&highlight=dell

i guess if something like that came up i would jump at it

not sure if i should look new or used
thinking maybe £300.
otherwise can get hold of macbook via higher ed (through cousin, cough) for around £680
but in reality i don't have that much to spend.

maybe a used one like the above link would be best, but i'm not on any computer forums to know of any or what's a good deal or not
 
or what should a macbook white price start at?
seen this:
"Its a White 13.3" Macbook. This is the 2006 model, the first with the Intel chip.
250GB HD, upgraded from 60GB
2GB of RAM upgraded from 512MB, so its now extremely fast.
It is running Snow Leopard, so the latest OS which is amazing.

I will completely wipe the laptop and input your name into the machine instead of mine.

I will also install iLife onto the machine, which consists of iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, Garageband and iDVD.

The ports this laptop has on it are,

2 x USB
FireWire 400 (Similar to USB but transfers data at 400MBPS)
Audio in & out
Ethernet
Display out.

If your a PC user reading this then I am happy to tell you the advantages of the Mac over a PC. A couple of which are -

- Very rare for a Mac to crash
- No need for Anti-virus software

Windows can also be installed on this OS using BootCamp which is integrated in the OS, so you can run dual OS, just choose which one at startup.

Bad Points -

The battery needs replacing soon, it only lasts around 2 hours now and the actual machine is indicating to replace. The battery is a ASMB013 if you want to look for prices.
It will need a new charger as I somehow broke mine. There all the same and can be picked up for very cheap.
There is also 3 cracks along the base at the edge of the keyboard. Will show in pics.

Other than that this machine is perfect and comes fully boxed up with the Tiger OS and Leopard OS but these are previous versions, and it's obviously running Snow Leopard now.
"
£275, but no charger - however the guy might be trying to get apple replace the case
 
what processor, RAM, Harddrive should i aim to look out for or avoid?

pc world £370 (more than i want to spend), but has:
Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor T4200
(2Ghz, 800Mhz, 1MB Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
3GB Memory
250GB Hard drive
 
p1tse said:
or what should a macbook white price start at?
seen this:
"Its a White 13.3" Macbook. This is the 2006 model, the first with the Intel chip.
250GB HD, upgraded from 60GB
2GB of RAM upgraded from 512MB, so its now extremely fast.
It is running Snow Leopard, so the latest OS which is amazing.

I will completely wipe the laptop and input your name into the machine instead of mine.

I will also install iLife onto the machine, which consists of iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, Garageband and iDVD.

The ports this laptop has on it are,

2 x USB
FireWire 400 (Similar to USB but transfers data at 400MBPS)
Audio in & out
Ethernet
Display out.

If your a PC user reading this then I am happy to tell you the advantages of the Mac over a PC. A couple of which are -

- Very rare for a Mac to crash
- No need for Anti-virus software

Windows can also be installed on this OS using BootCamp which is integrated in the OS, so you can run dual OS, just choose which one at startup.

Bad Points -

The battery needs replacing soon, it only lasts around 2 hours now and the actual machine is indicating to replace. The battery is a ASMB013 if you want to look for prices.
It will need a new charger as I somehow broke mine. There all the same and can be picked up for very cheap.
There is also 3 cracks along the base at the edge of the keyboard. Will show in pics.

Other than that this machine is perfect and comes fully boxed up with the Tiger OS and Leopard OS but these are previous versions, and it's obviously running Snow Leopard now.
"
£275, but no charger - however the guy might be trying to get apple replace the case
Click to expand...

The small cracks in the top casing are a design fault and Apple will replace the entire top of the computer so long as it is in warranty or not too far out of it.

Apple PSUs can be picked up for a not too silly price on ebay and you can get a battery for £30.

Not a bad price even with the cracks and still gives you the Apple you wanted. If you buy this laptop you are likely to get the same back for it in 6 months as it has lost most of what it is going to lose prior to becoming incompatible with the latest OS which it is nowhere near being! iBooks can be seen changing hands at that kind of money !!
 
p1tse said:
what processor, RAM, Harddrive should i aim to look out for or avoid?

pc world £370 (more than i want to spend), but has:
Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor T4200
(2Ghz, 800Mhz, 1MB Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista (R) Home Premium
3GB Memory
250GB Hard drive
Click to expand...

That machine is adequate but your problem is the budget. £400 has been deemed to be the normal entry level so anything too far below this is a compromise. You can get perfectly usable machines for less not ideal.
 
Hi

I would look to go second hand.

With regards to processor anything over 2ghz is good enough but try to get something with over 2mb cache. In regards to RAM get either 2 or 4gb, the machine will use it better. If your getting a PC laptop go XP not vista or 7, XP is stable and easy to use.

The MacBook the bloke is selling that you posted seems a good deal, Id pay full price if he gets the case replaced or £250 otherwise.
 
thanks
might look at the macbook option used
gets me into the mac world

think he also said he could get snow leopard on it too

main concern is no charger and don't want to risk buying the wrong one.


this one:
"what's this like:Samsung R710 17" laptop
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/for...ghlight=laptop
Intel pentium dual core T3400 2.17ghz processor.
2GB RAM
220GB HD
Windows 7 ultimate "

the guy is going to preload cs3 and lightroom which would be a plus as i want to get into it, ediiting.

but second hand seems the way to go for me
 
back of mind i still want a newer intel macbook.

anyone share any links to any? i think the oldest one i would look at are the early non unibody white ones (think they did it in black too at some point)

will have a look on ebay
 
p1tse said:
thanks
might look at the macbook option used
gets me into the mac world

think he also said he could get snow leopard on it too

main concern is no charger and don't want to risk buying the wrong one.
Click to expand...

You just need a charger with the power quoted being at least the right amount. The available ones are 40W for the AIR, 60/65W for the macbook and 90W for the pro (there is some movement on them though). If you plug a higher wattage one in it will do absolutely no harm whatsoever but it you put one in that is too low and then try and use everything at once it could get hot. If you look at the modern Apple monitors they often have a magsafe power lead coming from them but no option to change the power!

When I last bought one they were all the same price so I just bought the 90W macbook pro version it really isn't a problem (I use my psu for any macbook I am using!)
 
hmm ok, thanks for the heads up

going to check some ebay macbooks later
 
Have a look at the Dell Outlet shop, there are some great bargains there. Some of the cheaper end 1545 laptops are under £300 and have a good spec
 
good shout, will do on the dell outlet shop

i have a look on the apple refurb shop but all too pricey

kind of have my heart set on a half decent macbook intel core duo version now, so in search of a couple/few year old white version; however will have a look at the dell outlet.

hard thing is the spec of pc laptops seem to be alot better compared to mac at the same price bracket i.e. at £300 you find quite alot of pc laptop choice, but not many macbooks.
 
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