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[Kevin Wood]

Just today got a new Latitude for work, actually. I5 with Win7 64, 8gb ram, 500gb HDD came in at about £1k, although that spec will be overkill for Mrs. Gixer.

They do have nice docking stations that make monitor, network, keyboard and mouse connections easy.

Just don't talk to be about the video drivers that came on it.

[TheBoy]

Just today got a new Latitude for work, actually. I5 with Win7 64, 8gb ram, 500gb HDD came in at about £1k, although that spec will be overkill for Mrs. Gixer.

They do have nice docking stations that make monitor, network, keyboard and mouse connections easy.

Just don't talk to be about the video drivers that came on it.

With most Dells I've had, I always removed the Dell build, and built it properly. HP are a little better (on business laptops), and can get away with uninstalling the pointless shite.

[chrisgixer]

Back OT.

Lets start with the basics first, rather than people calling out all sorts of shite without knowing the requirements. Sonys and Macbooks, I ask you!


I'm guessing this is primarily a business machine, mostly to run MS Office type apps, email and web. Not a consumer machine for playing games and watching films on.

Based on that, I would be looking towards an Ivy Bridge based i3 (Core i3-3xxx) or it (Core i5-3xxx). i7 overkill, and prone to reliability issues. If it brings it in budget, Sandy Bridge i3 (Core i3-2xxx) or i5 (Core i5-2xxx), the CPU itself isn't that different, but the graphics are down performancewise (compared to Ivy Bridge).

As hinted above, no discrete graphics, purely on reliability grounds. Use the Intel on CPU graphics. Battery gets a boost as a bonus.

RAM - 2-3Gb for 32bit Windows (can't use more than 3Gb anyway), 4+ for 64bit Windows. For the use I've assumed, no point going beyond 4Gb, it won't get used, and will zap the battery.

HDD - 1Tb? Have you been drinking? WTF for? If her work patterns need that amount of space (unlikely?), I'd be inclined to go with a smaller, faster drive (SSD, around 200Gb), and offline data to a cheap portable 2.5" external drive (2.5" so you don't need seperate power pack) - Windows (Business versions) can encrypt this, and the main drive, which I'm sure is a company requirement anyway?

Am I right in thinking she works from home a lot, but trundles into office fairly regularly? If so, portability is probably more important than a big, power sapping, hot screen? 'Elf and Safety will demand seperate monitors and keyboards - thats LAW! So you need a monitor port on laptop, and enough USB. Plus budget for a screen/keyboard/mouse.

On subject of budgets, Office is around £200 if you have to buy that out of the same budget.

In this case, I'd be looking at the more robust, servicable items from the likes of HP (Elitebook, Business etc, not Pavilion shite), Dell (Latitude) and Lenovo (Stinkpad) (despite my own personal objections to the Stinkpads). Not consumer oriented shite like Acer, ASUS, crApple, Tosh (as much as I love them), Sony, HP Pavilion and similar, and Dell Inspiron and similar. But you'll need to at least double your budget to just buy the base laptop, before SSDs, monitors, docks (if applicable), Office etc.


Are my assumptions correct, and am I near the mark?

Given the lack of info I've given   your pretty close. But I should have said, clearly , that this is to replace her own personal lap top. Work have now given her a decent work only toshiba running windows 8 by the looks. This machine is strictly for work use, due to security, so she needs her own personal Dell replaced as the drive is starting to give read errors and allocating space incorrectly, I'm told.

Her own laptop will rarely leave the house. It will perform basic office tasks for tax returns and accounts, email, web, iTunes, music, photos hence storage ( ok 1 TB drive is too big, didn't appreciate draw on battery). No games. Very rarely video. She won't be happy taking it on holiday, preferring to read books or kindle anyway.

I'd say battery life is quite important, thinking about it.

If this was for work though, you'd be bang on. But by god they'd be paying for it. Not me.

So, it's purely for her own "personal work" stuff re Microsoft office, plus the normal iTunes web email storage stuff. We do have a portable 1TB drive to back up and dump stuff onto. It won't need a dock mouse or separate keyboard, (although your quite right that she should be using those on her work lappy) as she uses her own away from a desk in personal leisure time.

In all honesty she's had nothing but agro with her Dell. Battery's fail so often she's given up and just uses the power lead automatically. There's been numerous call outs from Dell tech. It crashes causing the screen to go blocky if its picked up in the wrong way. Screen res is poor IMO, it's been replaced for dead pixels two or three times, and the second something goes wrong with it I instantly get the blame.
 Although it is over 10 years old by now to be fair.

Guessing a more modest machine then? Reliable, good battery life, doesn't crap itself when "picked up the wrong way" with decent response times. ...?

[AndyRoid]

she needs her own personal Dell replaced as the drive is starting to give read errors and allocating space incorrectly, I'm told.

Back that drive up now.

Guessing a more modest machine then? Reliable, good battery life, doesn't crap itself when "picked up the wrong way" with decent response times. ...?

My  Tosh Satellite (R630-155) gives a genuine 7 hours on battery with light use (word processing, web browsing, etc), and weighs in at a mere 1.27KG, although that was £750 when new in April 2011. The reason for it being so expensive for a "home user" machine is that it was spawned from the Portege range.

It's 30mm thick (including the lid), and is constructed from magnesium alloy so drops and knocks are soaked up quite well.
I have the i5 chip in mine, but I'm sure you could get the price down by opting for an i3 variant which will cope quite easily with H's work demands.

[chrisgixer]

Cheers Anyroid, yes she has backed it up to the external hard drive.

[aaronjb]

as the drive is starting to give read errors and allocating space incorrectly, I'm told.

Close enough (To be exact: the reallocated sector count is enormous - definitely approaching if not already at it's ceiling - and the read error rate is abnormally high.. oh and the drive makes some very interesting noises, although not the usual 'click of death' .. yet!)

Again I'm with those that say anything more than an i3 is probably overkill for Mrs G; it's going to be a million, million miles faster than the hunk o j.. venerable machine she's using at the moment, whatever OS you cripple it with

Of course my vote is for Apple, as I'm rainbow coloured if you cut me open..

[Kevin Wood]

If it's not going to leave the house why not get a stand-alone PC. You can get some very small form factor PCs or all-in-ones these days and they offer much better ergonomics than a laptop.. unless the primary mode of use is going to be in front of the TV?

[chrisgixer]

If it's not going to leave the house why not get a stand-alone PC. You can get some very small form factor PCs or all-in-ones these days and they offer much better ergonomics than a laptop.. unless the primary mode of use is going to be in front of the TV?

We have a PC. It hasn't been touched for ...since we had the lap top. So 10years. She doesn't want to go sit in the office banished to a quiet corner of the house, just go ping an email. Desc tops are dead in this house. Long live the (only just) mobile device.

She wants a lap top.

[Radar]

Bought a Toshiba satellite c660 - 155 from dabs.com a couple of years ago purely for home surfing, emails and lately streaming. I know its not fancy but it is still going strong and I have been impressed with it. Was about £320ish IIRC. Would recommend/buy same make again - 2 yrs on the specs must have improved too.

[Vamps]

If it's not going to leave the house why not get a stand-alone PC. You can get some very small form factor PCs or all-in-ones these days and they offer much better ergonomics than a laptop.. unless the primary mode of use is going to be in front of the TV?

We have a PC. It hasn't been touched for ...since we had the lap top. So 10years. She doesn't want to go sit in the office banished to a quiet corner of the house, just go ping an email. Desc tops are dead in this house. Long live the (only just) mobile device.

She wants a lap top.

Same here, understandable for those of us who just want to surf......

[chrisgixer]

If it's not going to leave the house why not get a stand-alone PC. You can get some very small form factor PCs or all-in-ones these days and they offer much better ergonomics than a laptop.. unless the primary mode of use is going to be in front of the TV?

We have a PC. It hasn't been touched for ...since we had the lap top. So 10years. She doesn't want to go sit in the office banished to a quiet corner of the house, just go ping an email. Desc tops are dead in this house. Long live the (only just) mobile device.

She wants a lap top.

Same here, understandable for those of us who just want to surf......

Why limit ones self to a desk top, when a lap top does desk and, er, lap? Madness. We don't need anything that powerful anyway, it has to be said.

[TheBoy]

Desktops have a use, hence I still have 2 here. Put if you want the flexibility of using anywhere in house, obviously laptop is where its at.


Right, with the new requirements:

Core i3-3xxx (or Core i3-2xxx if it makes price more agreeable, at expense of graphics performance (in region of 25%, cpu performance is about 5%))
2-3Gb RAM for 32bit Windows, 4Gb for 64bit Windows
Use the on-CPU graphics, not discrete video chip, for reasons given yesterday
HDD, I'd still recommend SSD, this may have to be a retrofit

If she/you wish to use it around house, as opposed to on a desk in one room (given the laptop v desktop debate, I assume so), be aware that the larger screened (eg 17") ones are heavier, more bulky, more cumbersome than the smaller ones (14 or 15").

So what is compromise around screen size, easier/more conevenient portability around house, or a larger screen?


Remember, for the most part, laptops cannot be upgraded beyond RAM and disks, so you need to nail the basics.

Everything comes with WiFi (A and G), most have Bluetooth (double check if thats important), consumer oriented tend to have webcams for video calls etc.

The more portable ones tend to lack optical drives, which is a double edged sword.


I'd be looking at brands like HP and Tosh, possibly not Dell at this end of the market. Certainly not a great time to be buying one, as all manufacturers are realigning. Can we get a few more months out of the current one by rebuilding? That said, XP ends in March.

[chrisgixer]

Screen size. Her old Dell is 15" 4:3, so a widescreen 16:9 mite seem smaller.

Although she says the Dell is a little bit bulky. So a 15" widescreen might be smaller overall and more suitable. She's not into online gaming or long periods viewing so... Yeah, 15" would be the one.
 The clarity (resolution?) of the Dell was poor IMO. Made letters look blocky and distorted while peering through a net curtain. Again I presume newer will be better?


Wifi I presume 2.4 AND 5ghz will be present on the newer models? Although the old one was fine.

Bluetooth won't be missed, I think. The Dell bt hasn't worked for years and the phones don't talk to it anyway.

Dell had a DVD player, it wrote cd's that's all I know. She'd see no optical drive as a step back I think.



Would like to thank Aaron for clearing up and diagnosing the old machine.

 The drive is dying, who knows how long it will last, but Christmas and birthday are approaching in short order. So I'm keen to get sumat sorted. hp or tosh would be good. Work machine is Toshiba 19" screen on doze8 I think. Not sure if she'd want a different machine away from work or get used to another Toshiba quicker. She says there's nothing special about the work tosh, but doesn't moan about it either. Maybe price will decide...?

Thankyou for input so far, everyone. Much appreciated.

[chrisgixer]

A couple or 3 USB ports might be handy, as she sometimes uses a remote mouse, and plugs in other stuff I can't remember. Phones and external drives etc.

[RossPhim]

Screen size. Her old Dell is 15" 4:3, so a widescreen 16:9 mite seem smaller.

Although she says the Dell is a little bit bulky. So a 15" widescreen might be smaller overall and more suitable. She's not into online gaming or long periods viewing so... Yeah, 15" would be the one.
 The clarity (resolution?) of the Dell was poor IMO. Made letters look blocky and distorted while peering through a net curtain. Again I presume newer will be better?

Excuse my cheekiness but why are you watching SWBO's laptop through a net curtain?
Does she make a habit of locking you out of the house?