Best sub £400 laptop?

[MHeadling]

Hi Guys, been having a look on the net for a sub £400 latop and got a bit lost as there are so many!

I'm after some advice on what to go for, I basically need it for i tunes, Internet and a bit of excel for my wifes accounts.

Iv got a work laptop so this second laptop isn't for work purposes.

Any ideas much appreciated!

[bodgit]

I had some great advice for same budget here
http://www.oople.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83623
Go from post 4 onwards.

[Dudders]

Originally Posted by MHeadling

Hi Guys, been having a look on the net for a sub £400 latop and got a bit lost as there are so many!

I'm after some advice on what to go for, I basically need it for i tunes, Internet and a bit of excel for my wifes accounts.

Iv got a work laptop so this second laptop isn't for work purposes.

Any ideas much appreciated!

Just got one of these for my son Adam. He's using it for school, email, facebook and internet. It's pretty quick and well built. Office was £60.00 on top.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pav...84755-pdt.html

[Cardnim]

Hey mate,
As you say, lots out there for £400 budget and you should be able to get a nice one.

AS before, one of the big things to look for is the cache (this is part of the spec of your processor) and it doesnt always follow that the faster the processor the more the cache.
Cache will have a tremendous effect on speed (and possibly stability?) and useability of your new laptop so get as much as you can afford - its different than memory or hard drive space and things like that, so always ask to see the FULL spec.

Dudders laptop is a great little number and the HP are well made; however, jsut having a quick run over the PC World website for you, and heres what I think is the pick of the bunch:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pav...41431-pdt.html

You are well under budget (so you can buy more bits for your buggy ) but you have an excellent (really excellent) processor speed, with 2Mb cache, a whopping 6Gb of memory, big hard drive and its 64bit Windows so nice and fast operating system too.

Hope it helps chum.

[Cardnim]

actually, the more I look at that spec of the HP I recommended above, the more Im thinking wow, thats a damn good bargain. Get it quick before it goes.

Just noticed its got a proper GFX card in it with 512Mb. Thats really tasty for this price range and will certainly plough through your Internet, iTunes and Excel jobs with great ease.

[JCJC]

PC World again, http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavi...ff~HotUKDeals~

For MS Office if you have 'students' http://www.software4students.co.uk/M...s-details.aspx may be ending or replaced soon.

[Cardnim]

@JCJC - love the 3Mb cache mate, good find; but Im wondering if the dual core processor and built in GFX chip let it down? I think that DV6 would have much better benchmarking speed results - what you think?

[Candyman]

Worth looking at dell outlet. I have bought a couple form there over the last year. Last one was a 15.4, I3 cpu, 4gb ram, 500gb hd, ATI 5660 dedicated gpu all for £320.

At the mo there are a few 15r's and the like for decent money with good spec. Make sure you get a "certified refurbished", they have the full warrenty and mine were new, not like new but new.

[JCJC]

Originally Posted by Cardnim

@JCJC - love the 3Mb cache mate, good find; but Im wondering if the dual core processor and built in GFX chip let it down? I think that DV6 would have much better benchmarking speed results - what you think?

Sorry, just see the i5, 6gb ram and 750 harddrive, strange that PC World have loads of these HP Laptops refurbished. (I can get to it via the HUKD link but not direct into PC World, so perhaps it don't exist anyway).

[grimidol]

Tbh it sounds like a ipad2 would also work for u also if no Acer lap tops or Dell avoid anything made by pcworld brand

[cigbunt]

have a seach on hotdealsuk..

always great deals on there...

[MHeadling]

Thanks alot for all the help and advice guys, really appreciate it

I'll have a search through all the links etc shortly.