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[jonathanh]

Hi, looking to buy a new laptop for less than £500.  Am tempted with the Sony Vaio NR10 at £490, but wondered if there are cheaper alternatives.  The vaio had 2gb ram and 160gb memory. on a intel dual core 1.46hz.  Am not a techie so would appreciate help. Is the Toshiba  Equium A200 ok? Currys has it on £400 (a £100 discount on the original price). it has the same main specs as the vaio, though I suspect the graphics and sound card is not as good.  am concern about reliability.  using it at home for surfing and music.  thanks in advance.

[STMO123]

TB will be along in a minute to smack your arse for mentioning sony.

[TheBoy]

I'm one to talk, I bought one of my other pet hates - an HP 6720s Business Laptop (2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 965 chipset, x3100 video, 1G RAM (£35 from Crucial for a matched 2G pair), 160G HDD, wifi, bluetooth etc) for £450 about 6 weeks ago.

[The Cambelt Kid]

Hi, looking to buy a new laptop for less than £500.  Am tempted with the Sony Vaio NR10 at £490, but wondered if there are cheaper alternatives.  The vaio had 2gb ram and 160gb memory. on a intel dual core 1.46hz.  Am not a techie so would appreciate help. Is the Toshiba  Equium A200 ok? Currys has it on £400 (a £100 discount on the original price). it has the same main specs as the vaio, though I suspect the graphics and sound card is not as good.  am concern about reliability.  using it at home for surfing and music.  thanks in advance.

I've been in the trade for 10 years now don't rate much to the build quality or aftersales support/warranty from Sony.  Goto dell.com/tv , ebuyer.com , dabs.com for a Dell or HP, i buy Dell at work and swear by them!  Infact i am using a Dell laptop now, i have x2 of them and also have a Dell server and workstation upstairs too  

Warranty is 2nd to none.

Cheers

[Ken T]

It depends how much you want to spend. There are some new ones around £299 advertised on TV recently.

Ken

[TheBoy]

Hi, looking to buy a new laptop for less than £500.  Am tempted with the Sony Vaio NR10 at £490, but wondered if there are cheaper alternatives.  The vaio had 2gb ram and 160gb memory. on a intel dual core 1.46hz.  Am not a techie so would appreciate help. Is the Toshiba  Equium A200 ok? Currys has it on £400 (a £100 discount on the original price). it has the same main specs as the vaio, though I suspect the graphics and sound card is not as good.  am concern about reliability.  using it at home for surfing and music.  thanks in advance.

I've been in the trade for 10 years now don't rate much to the build quality or aftersales support/warranty from Sony.  Goto dell.com/tv , ebuyer.com , dabs.com for a Dell or HP, i buy Dell at work and swear by them!  Infact i am using a Dell laptop now, i have x2 of them and also have a Dell server and workstation upstairs too  

Warranty is 2nd to none.

Cheers

Dell aftersales are some of the best in the industry (thats no compliment, as even they are average), esp once you get past the initial helpdesk.

They seem to have lost their way with consumer laptops and desktops at the moment though.

[Del Boy]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/133384
Isn't bad.

[Craig_R]

Yep you can pick up a good Toshiba laptop for 299 with 2 gig of ram and 120 Gig Hard Drive but the speed is a little low but it depends on what you want one for, If its just web browsing it will be fine if you need one for 3D modeling like i do or video editing the fast CPU the better

[Kevin Wood]

Anyone got any ideas for a Laptop with a real serial port that can be had with XP?

Dell Latitude is about all I can come up with at the moment.

Kevin

[Craig_R]

I run a Dell Lat CPx 650 with Xp for my Car Computer and its fine

[Markjay]

I'm one to talk, I bought one of my other pet hates - an HP 6720s Business Laptop (2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 965 chipset, x3100 video, 1G RAM (£35 from Crucial for a matched 2G pair), 160G HDD, wifi, bluetooth etc) for £450 about 6 weeks ago.

I agree with TB about the HP, that's a good budget laptop, very good spec for the price. Only 1y warranty, but that can be upgraded if it is really important to you.

[TheBoy]

I run a Dell Lat CPx 650 with Xp for my Car Computer and its fine

As do I.  Runs cheapo tech2, real tech2 and vagcom easily

[TheBoy]

I'm one to talk, I bought one of my other pet hates - an HP 6720s Business Laptop (2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 965 chipset, x3100 video, 1G RAM (£35 from Crucial for a matched 2G pair), 160G HDD, wifi, bluetooth etc) for £450 about 6 weeks ago.

I agree with TB about the HP, that's a good budget laptop, very good spec for the price. Only 1y warranty, but that can be upgraded if it is really important to you.

Whilst I accept its not perfect (no HDD activity light, a gay turquiose power LED, and most annoying, its HP!), its a fantastic machine for day to day stuff.  And having a Core 2 Duo 2G means it will still be decent in 3 years

[mark.adams]

I agree with the earlier comments about sony's after sales service (or lack of) and the fact that sony kit is obsolete by the time you get it home.... but you have to be honest, they do look good...

[theolodian]

Dell aftersales are some of the best in the industry (thats no compliment, as even they are average), esp once you get past the initial helpdesk.

They seem to have lost their way with consumer laptops and desktops at the moment though.

I thought so too, but then they came out with the M1330. The missus got one and loves it. I have to say that I'd be really tempted to get one too, but like many it only has Vista. (Vista annoyed me yet again today.) I can afford to wait a little longer, but if nothing else decent comes out that's what I'll be getting.