matt.price Posted May 22, 2011 Report Share Posted May 22, 2011 Hey guys, i reccently broke my laptop so i'm going to buy a new one, and i need some reccomendations, first - not toshiba , mine and my sister's are pretty shit , slow , volume control goes iffy and dvd drive doesn't pick up (some other faults as well) second , powerful , enough to cope with lots of programmes open , (browser,msn,itunes,) enough to cope with hd video editing .. i think 4gb memory is good enough? third - webcam . £600 tops ! thats a bit of a push , around 500 is ideal. standard to large screen size , 16.9 + and any other perks are ideal cheers matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockman Posted May 22, 2011 Report Share Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) I have a Dell Inspiron 1525, I bought 4GB of RAM and now its faster than my dad's desktop computer, its great, super fast and i think its a 17" screen. Edited May 22, 2011 by Rockman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted May 22, 2011 Report Share Posted May 22, 2011 For £500 you should be getting built in webcam, built in wireless (n+ preferably), 3-4gb RAM, 500gb hard drive, 3 hours battery life, dvd re-writer (blu ray player at a push) and a core i5 processor if you're wanting to do video editing. Ram makes little difference to HD editing, processor speed is usually the bottleneck. I'd avoid sony and dell, maybe look at samsung, acer, gateway, asus etc. I know this is massively under your budget, but this ticks most of those boxes and would be a decent comparison for when you look at spending more cash. Only thing is the processor may not handle HD so well. It could be fine, but it might stutter and take a while to apply effects/transitions. If you want a good bargain, this would be a safe bet. It's at £459 but was up until recently £650. Ticks all the boxes specs wise, the only way i could really fault it would be no mention of a dedicated graphics chip. If those aren't issues for you this would be a neat little machine. On the plus side, it boasts a 3 in 1 card reader, bluetooth connectivity and a hdmi slot for connecting HD devices/monitors. If it was me i'd be grabbing this one even though it's only available through home delivery though unless your local store has one. If the build isn't great you can send it back under the DSR act and i think currys send out a courier for you. Your best bet really is to nip into your local curys/pcworld/dixons/comet branch and go abuse their laptops in your price range. Flex the screens, Push all the buttons push and pull on the panels, wiggle the dvd tray. At the end of the day most laptops are very close specs wise, it's the build quality and end support that differs. What looks good on paper can turn out to have a screen that will bow as you open the lid etc leading to failure in the first year. Once your happy with the build of a machine and it meets your needs you're sorted. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trialsmax04 Posted May 23, 2011 Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 I've just got an acer 5742 which was £500 from curries. Originally had a hp for my birthday which was utter shite, so decided to go for another Acer as we have had them before and no problems so far. The model I got has the intel i5 processor which is shit hot, 500gb hdd and 4 gb of ram, webcam and 15.6" screen. Knocks the shIt out of my girlfriends dell inspiron. Highly recommended! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrialsGilly Posted May 23, 2011 Report Share Posted May 23, 2011 Have a look at this link: http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=170889&p=1735736&hilit=ibm+laptop#p1735736 Bit out of your price range maybe, but well worth the money. I personally love IBM machines , very well built unlike most of these crappy dell's that fall apart. I currently have an IBM X60 perfect notebook IMO. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 Have a look at this link: http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=170889&p=1735736&hilit=ibm+laptop#p1735736 Bit out of your price range maybe, but well worth the money. What an odd laptop to suggest. 16:10 ratio? 128GB storage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashbanggg Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 Curry's Refurbished***. + You can get 3% cashback All in all, lots of laptop for little monies Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 What an odd laptop to suggest. 16:10 ratio? 128GB storage. 128gb solid state storage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luke Rainbird Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 What an odd laptop to suggest. 16:10 ratio? 128GB storage. ...and 16:10 aspect ratio is relatively common Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muel Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 How have IBM not updated their laptops' image yet? They looked like that when I did my work experience in 2004, and I remember thinking then how they look like something that belongs in a factory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JT! Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 128gb solid state storage But that just means it's very quick, still only 128Gb. How long would that last when working with HD footage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krisboats Posted May 24, 2011 Report Share Posted May 24, 2011 But that just means it's very quick, still only 128Gb. How long would that last when working with HD footage? Around 23.5 hours at 1080p with a very good bitrate. Minus 10GB for windows so you'd be looking at around 21 hours of footage time. It's easily enough for editing a riding video with, such a drive would be ideal for editing a video on due to the much faster access times, although after finishing your project you would need to back up the raw files onto an external drive. However, it is arguable that this would actually be the best method of practice for storing your media, regardless of using an SSD or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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