Hi guys, I'm off to uni in a couple of weeks and I don't have a computer just a crappy Toshiba laptop ive been using since 2007. Unfortunately I'm pretty crap at buying stuff like this, so I was hoping the more knowledgeable souls among you, could recommend a decent PC for me. Obviously being a student the most Important thing is price, so don't be posting any Alien-ware Computers or £1000 apple gimmick computers I would say around £400 ($750-800)would be my limit although I could possibly stretch that slightly if someone see's something mind blowing-ly good.
I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the US, sandy bridge core i3 laptops are easily in the $500. sometimes you can find big sales and get sandy bridge core i5 laptops at the same price. Truthfully, for someone like you, I wouldn't even recommend something like that. Get a netbook.
That's about $800 USD I guess? Just got a Lenovo Thinkpad T-Series T420 with a Sandy Bridge i5 for my aunt for that price to replace her crappy Toshiba that died. http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=19C791A03AF24034A0011B825513BCED The Thinkpad T-Series are some of the best notebooks you'll find. The best advice I can give you is don't buy anything consumer grade. The build quality is terrible. Get a laptop that's made for enterprise.
Here is a cheap laptop good enough for web browsing, word processing, and casual 2D games. £279.97 http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-5336-15-6-laptop-black-10945110-pdt.html?srcid=369&xtor=AL-1 i3 Packard Bell (still around???) for £379.00 http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bell-ts13-hr-034-15-6-laptop-red-10783808-pdt.html
if you need something for under 500 bucks us get an HP DM1z. It's a fusion based 'net'book. It hardly outpaces the atom in 2d stuff, but it does, and it doesn't TOUCH the core i3's in 2D stuff. but in 3d stuff it smokes both!! (unless your core i3 has a discrete vidcard ofc) Not to say it's gamer at all, but it'll play any 5 year old game (except crysis) just fine at low settings. Folks use it to play more 'casual' games like WOW on the cheap all the time! It can play Starcraft 2... just might buckle a bit in a zerg rush... an i3 would be better there (Civ5 and other similar games...)
Don't buy anything from HP. They're in the process of pulling out of the consumer PC business, and everything they make is garbage.
Do you want a desktop PC or laptop? A laptop might be easier for Uni but I've always preferred using a proper PC for assignments and work.
I'm honestly not sure tbh, A laptop would be more practical as I could take it to lectures and such, however I think I would prefer a desktop as you usually get more for your money and I figure most of my work will be done on computers anyway. Just depends on what I can get for my money.
Unless he plans on gaming, future upgrading, etc, does he need a desktop? Get a cheap laptop and put it on a desk and there's your desktop. I personally don't see the purpose of one nowadays unless you'll be doing gaming or real productivity on the machine.
Don't listen to monkey he's not rational. The DM1z is EASILY the best performing/ best made BRAZOS based laptop. bar none, it is head and shoulders above the competition, which is head and shoulders above the atom based competition! I don't care how long a recycled garbage netbook lasts, it's a 300 dollar investment! ooh big woops. It'll last you 9 months and you'll be thrilled. Being made by HP aside it is the BEST netbook on the market! Also HP dumping the PC market in 14 months has NOTHING to do with the E350 based DM1z... it's not gonna be relevant in 14 months anyway. And what DO you need from the OEM anyway? a 14-month old BIOS? most everything else comes from AMD, it's straight up APU. This is the sanest thing you can do at a Uni. Only other route would be getting a laptop costing 2x as much. This thing is not upgradable passed the RAM and SSD (HDD). A more expensive laptop would let you upgrade the Vidcard, but I don't think anything else is upgadable in the laptop world at all. If you must have upgradable, you need a desktop. Than again the DM1z IS unbelievably cheap, you can replace the entire thing for just as much...
thanks for the advice so far guys, Not interested In a netbook at all. I've had a few friends that brought one and they were slow underpowered, expensive gimmicks and the battery life on most of them seemed to be pathetic making them useless for lectures IMO. I think a laptop is the sensible way to go about things. I'm looking at a Samsung S3520 a Lenovo G570 and a Lenovo Ideapad Z570 currently although the Ideapad is a tad to expensive for my taste at £480.
I like the ideapad. It's simpl built better than Samsung or even Lenovo's lower class line. Unfortunately it costs 2x as much as my netbook but... Fusion based netbooks are MUCH better than Atom based netbooks or earlier AMD based netbooks, those were awful! You should give one a try! It's not like the old ones, it's something new! Much better than tablets even. BUT if you can swing the ideapad I'd do that in a heartbeat. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Notebook-i3-2310M-Windows-Premium/dp/B004TQQEI8/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1315147817&sr=8-7 I might change my tune a bit after seeing HP charges a premium for it's DM1 overseas. I knew it wasn't customizable like it is in the US (always go for the base anyway... never buy upgrades at oem!) Lenovo makes a similar laptop for 50 quid less... it's just 32-bit though but for that price I'd rather buy the 64-bit o/s separately. (279 uk pounds) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-Ideapad-Notebook-Windows-Premium/dp/B004TQQCAS/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1315148797&sr=1-1 overall the z570 is WAY better, BUT the cheaper one will get you through the day with enough money to buy pizza AND IT'S NOT HP!! :/ edit: oh yeah, you won't be able to game on the z570 though... just sayin. REALLY old games and starcraft only :| thanks to Intel's wondrous graphics capabilities... youd be better off buyin a used macbook
QFT. Netbooks are crap. They're the pinnacle of dumpster technology. I bought one a few years ago during the height of the netbook craze and returned it because it sucked so badly. I'd go with the Samsung over one of the cheaper Lenovos. The Thinkpads and high-end Ideapads are excellent, but Lenovo's cheaper stuff tends to be junky. The Samsung laptops I've encountered had excellent build quality.
I'm really Tempted by the Ideapad,it seems to have pretty decent specs for the price but I've heard that Lenovo's customer service is shoddy in the UK, but that's not something that bothers me massively. the samsung is my second choice atm but it is £100 cheaper so that may swing it for me. I agree with you on Samsung Build quality everything I've ever owned that samsung has made has been Indestructible and good to use, I had a touchscreen phone made by them that I drowned and it still worked almost perfectly. I might wait a week or two and see if there are any price changes but I'm not hopeful.
just got this from maximumpc, this is a desktop budget SB/ integrated gfx versus a desktop Llano http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/llano_vs_sandy_bridge_which_500_pc_right_you?page=0,1 the Ideapad z570 will be roughly similar to that Sandy Bridge again, it'll be great, just... only 1000 on 3dmark?? and not the latest 3dmark either?? It's not like the Brazos (E350) will be as good as the Llano... but it won't be that far off. maybe 2500 to it's 4000. That's certainly no looker, but again it'll get you by on WOW and some fairly recent non gfx intense games like Torchlight and Indy games. An Intel laptop won't do that.
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X120e netbook and an i5 laptop. For web browsing and email they perform just the same. For web surfing around the house I prefer the netbook.
The AMD 'equivalent' is much much better than Atom. Until you use one I suggest you stop giving baseless advice. Also, most Brazos based notebooks are just that, small notebooks, not netbooks. Unless they have 1GB RAM and win7 starter max, they aren't a netbook. I agree netbooks are crap, they were created by Intel so that they wouldn't ever compete with notebooks. The standard was bad from the get go and is horribly out of date now. There's no reason not to have 2GB or more ram (price being so low and extra power use negligible). After using a couple I really think most users don't need any more than a E-350 based machine with 2-4GB ram IF they want the portability of a 10-13" device max.
I haven't used the atom, but I take my experience from a single core celeron and that is HORRIBLE. Anything dual core is MUCH better than single core so even the dual core Atom might be alright. But still ya gotta give the (weaker) Brazos the go over it just because of the graphics processing.