laptop help

Paul C

Paul C

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Hi all

I was wondering if anyone can help me out with buying a new laptop. The last one I bought, (a compaq presario 700) has died on me, and i need a pretty cheap one (under five k). I don't want one that's too big as I'm a writer and need to have it portable, so a 14.1 screen is fine, but a nice solid feel would be nice, not like the creaky floppiness of the compaq. Wireless would be great so i could connect to the home network. Doens't have to be a Vista laptop, so end of range XP might be an idea. I had a look at Incredible Connection but they're all so expensive there. Any ideas?

Many thanks.

Paul
 
Paul C said:
Hi all

I was wondering if anyone can help me out with buying a new laptop. The last one I bought, (a compaq presario 700) has died on me, and i need a pretty cheap one (under five k). I don't want one that's too big as I'm a writer and need to have it portable, so a 14.1 screen is fine, but a nice solid feel would be nice, not like the creaky floppiness of the compaq. Wireless would be great so i could connect to the home network. Doens't have to be a Vista laptop, so end of range XP might be an idea. I had a look at Incredible Connection but they're all so expensive there. Any ideas?

Many thanks.

Paul
Click to expand...


Incredible Corruption actually have some really good prices on laptops nowadays if you look around a bit.

For under 5k, you are not going to find much in the way of new laptops these days.

*does a bit of searching...
 
The one on the front page of the Incredible website is R5299 and is not bad.

Battery life will not be great but then that will be the case with all the low-end machines...

Intel® Celeron® M420 processor 1.6 GHz
512MB RAM
40GB HDD
DVD CDRW combo drive
56K modem
10/100 Ethernet
Integrated 802.11b/g wireless networking
14.1" WXGA display
MS Windows XP Home
1 Year International Travellers’ warranty
1 Year local fetch, repair & return warrant
 
Amilo M(1450)Intel Centrino 1.7GHz Processor
* Onboard sound
* Up to 1024MB shared graphics
* Internal 56k modem
* Intel centrino 1,7GHz
* 80GB SATA hard drive
* Dual layer dvd writer
* 15,4" crystal view screen wide screen
* W-lan
* Microsoft works 8,0
* 12 month warranty
R5999 from Makro

Centrino processor means better battery life. Good machine for under 6k.
 
http://www.mynewlaptop.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=RQ257AA

HP 500 Intel Celeron M 350 1.3GHz (RQ257AA)
Product code (SKU) RQ257AA

* HP 500 Intel Celeron M 350 1.3GHz
* 256MB DDRII 533MHz 1 DIMM Memory
* 40 GB 4200rpm Hard Drive
* DVD/CD-RW - Fixed
* 14.1 WXGA Intel Media Graphics Accelerator 950 UMA 128MB
* Free DOS
* 1 Year Warranty

R4600. You'll have to sort out your own windows/linux though.

Edit: Oops. No Wi-Fi on this one.
 
Last edited:
http://www.mynewlaptop.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=RQ260AA

HP 500 Intel Pentium M 740 1.73GHz (RQ260AA)
Product code (SKU) RQ260AA

* HP 500 Intel Pentium M 740 1.73GHz
* 512MB DDRII 533MHz 1 DIMM Memory
* 60 GB 5400rpm HArd Drive
* DVD+/- RW - Fixed
* Intel 802.11b/g mini-pci card
* 14.1 WXGA Intel Media Graphics Accelerator 950 UMA 128MB
* Windows XP Home
* 1 Year Warranty

R5700. A much better option that the previous one IMHO.
 
The makro one does seem really nice. But isn't a 15.4 screen really big? Would it still be easily portable. You know, for sitting on the couch etc?

By the way, thanks a lot guys. THis is a great help.
 
Paul C said:
The makro one does seem really nice. But isn't a 15.4 screen really big? Would it still be easily portable. You know, for sitting on the couch etc?

By the way, thanks a lot guys. THis is a great help.
Click to expand...

Well for me the 1 inch does not make that much difference really. It does not look like a bulky machine so you should be ok, and you can always use it for watching movies, which will be better than on the 14" :)
 
Paul C said:
The makro one does seem really nice. But isn't a 15.4 screen really big? Would it still be easily portable. You know, for sitting on the couch etc?

By the way, thanks a lot guys. THis is a great help.
Click to expand...

You will notice that the Fujitsu-Siemens notebooks have very glossy displays, causes a lot of distracting reflection. I looked for a tear-away plastic scratch protection film the first time I worked with a new one!
 
Paul C said:
The makro one does seem really nice. But isn't a 15.4 screen really big? Would it still be easily portable. You know, for sitting on the couch etc?

By the way, thanks a lot guys. THis is a great help.
Click to expand...

I would go for the Makro one.....
 
I'd go for the Makro one too. In fact, don't even wonder about it. The other ones don't even come close!

BTW 15.4 is a widescreen. So the diff between that and the 14.1 sizewise is minimal.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, I think I'll go for the makro one. I've fired off an email to them as it's out of stock at the Springfield store. We'll see if they can get it here.

THanks again everyone.

Paul
 
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