(no subject)

[nny]

Mixture of good and bad today. I'm still very definitely not healthy and not happy, and every lead I had as far as possible counselling goes has gone nowhere. On the up side, I've found somewhere to live for the six weeks I'll be in Dorset; one of the teachers at the school I'll be working at has a spare room with en suite bathroom, it's inexpensive enough that the University will cover it and I can get a lift in to school every day. Weight off my mind.

Which brings me to the point of the post. Lugging my computer down to Frome isn't going to be the easiest of tasks, and I kinda need to buy a laptop for work related things anyway - guarantee that someday I'm going to want to show mah pupils a powerpoint. So I'm looking for a laptop and I have absolutely no idea about buying computers, frankly. Should I be going with a laptop or should I be looking Macwards? Who can say?

I've got about £900 in the bank currently and I'll be getting another few hundred to spare at the end of the month, so don't recommend anything too pricey, but. What do you use? What works for you? Which brands are worth trusting?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. :)

Comments

[chasing-laura.livejournal.com]

Laptop! Macs scare me...

I use a Packard Bell now, and he's been lovely. Can't say I'm a laptop expert though. You can get decent laptops for about 500 nuggets, so there's no need to spend an obscene amount. Might still be sales on too. Probably better to buy a cheaper laptop and an external hard drive if you need a lot of memory, rather than a more expensive laptop with a bigger internal memory. But yeah...see what more knowledgeable people say!

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

I love my iBook, and the laptop I just bought is an HP, and I'm v. happy with that so far, as well.

Dell's are okay, but in general if you have a problem (being a personal consumer as opposed to a school or company buying en masse) their help/service sucks rotten eggs. Thumbs down on Gateways. S' computer is a Toshiba, and we're really quite very happy with that one, and they're fairly inexpensive, as well.

[cow.livejournal.com]

Two things prevent me from giving a really useful recommendation: (1) I use (and love) my Macbook, and those really aren't cheap; and (2) I've always lived in North America, so I've only dealt with US and Canadian computer companies.

But! That said. For inexpensiveness, Dell seems to be the way to go. Most of the companies/universities I've worked for have ordered their stuff through them, and they seem to be okay for laptops (way way way better than they were a few years ago, even). And they tend to be rather inexpensive, at least over here.

One thing I'd definitely recommend is checking with the company and noting you teach and all, 'cuz there are usually instructor / faculty / staff / academic-affiliated / something or other / K-20 discounts.

Hopefully this is actually helpful; the regional differences thing can make my good intentions useless. }:D

[cow.livejournal.com]

Oh, I forgot to add in my reply that my dealings with Toshiba were good as well. Plus I had the cutest laptop ever from them when I worked at the UW--it was about half the size of a normal laptop and less than 2kg, even with battery! (I think it was a 'LifeBook P-Series' or something like that.) I carried that thing all over the world.

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

Hoping in on replying to replies. ;-)

Dells are good, and often give discounts to students and teachers. And I know that Mac (though yes, they are expensive, but should you choose to get one) at least in the US gives a 10% discount to students and educators.

[soupytwist.livejournal.com]

I loved my Toshiba, and their support hotline is excellent.

My advice is that you're never going to be sure you've found the Very Best One For The Least Amount Of Money, so just decide how much you'll be willing to pay, and then look for ones in that price range that have the system requirements you need as far as memory and RAM go, i.e. the more of both the better. (If you want to do fancy graphics/gaming type things you'll also want to look at the graphics card, but I guess you probably won't?) You do that, you'll be just fine. :)

*smish*

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

I actually would really recommend a Mac! Currently, they are the best laptop machine you can get your moneys worth. You can run both the Mac operating system AND Windows on it, so it covers all your programs, and with their service plan, the computer will last a good computer years without need for a major upgrade.

I would say get a macbook. That's the basic laptop model. You would want to get at least 2gb of memory, and I say over 100gb harddrive if you can afford because sometimes you just gotta store your packratty things on your laptop. And I would also say try to get the 2.2 Intel processor instead of the basic 2.0, if you can.

Macs can be expensive, but it would be cheaper than a dell (which I don't recommend at all right now. They are currently designed to last about a year, two max because of the cheap parts used and then you're forced you to buy a new one). If you look at the mac website, there should be a list for an "education store" in the side bar. You just have to provide the name of your school, and they'll knock a couple hundred off the price. You should be able to get what you need for 700-900.

If that's too much, um. Asus?

[the-oscar-cat.livejournal.com]

my sister bought a toshiba laptop that is small and light and cost about £800.

it's good, and easy to travel with, unlike my dell computer which is a brick (a brick that i love, but still a brick.)

[skygiants]

I was fond of my Toshiba, but it did not last long - which could just be my evil luck with computers, but my roommate, who also had one, had a very similar experience. So I don't think it's just me.

Currently I'm using a Lenovo, and I really like that a lot. It's also, I think, one of the few Windows brands that you can get currently with Windows XP installed instead of Vista, although that may have changed. The one drawback is the speakers aren't great, but otherwise I have no complaints. (Except, again, the ones caused by my own stupidity.)

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

If I were you I'd go with an Acer (good spec, cheap) running XP if you can still find one.

Also, WTF, Frome? I used to live there!

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

Random lurker here. *waves*

I was going to buy a laptop last month, but then I didn't manage to sell my old one, so nope. But pretty much every source of information I consulted while planning concurred that Dell XPS (http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/notebooks_mobility?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn) laptops are good stuff and not very pricey. Plus, you can get them in red! What's not to love. XD

Don't get a Vaio, though. That's the one I've got at the moment, it has done nothing but break every few months and Sony's customer support is horrible.

[manynames.livejournal.com]

I've got a Philips at the moment, which I really like but I bought it on very specific critera (weight less than 1.5kg) and so I can't really recommend it if you don't have those. It's a perfectly good laptop but you can certainly get one with better specs for a cheaper price (I ended up having to buy mine from eBay to make it affordable) if the size isn't much of an issue.

I've heard good things about Acer from friends with them. That's probably where I'll look next time I need a computer.

[seshat1.livejournal.com]

I've currently got a Sony Vaio (which, for my size - not cheap) but they are LOVELY and fabulous. I love mine, even though it is dying.

But because of this (and the fact I like small, light laptops), I bought a laptop at novatech at the weekend, which I may now have to take back due to issues with current one (like my Dad deciding he's going to fix it if it kills him - if it doesn't, I may!). I had a novatech pc before, and it was brilliant, and have heard good things about their laptops. So, very random offer - you interested in a novatech laptop? I'm unsure I can take in back as I put linux on there (shouldn't be an issue if you'd rather have windows, it'll come off easily), and was thinking about selling it on. I've only turned it on once, and was £500. Won't be offended if not (or you're scared by the random offer).

[liz666.livejournal.com]

Have a chat with lunar_echo's other half-knowing all about the best brands is part of his job and he can definitely recommend a good deal.