advice on buying laptops

[tismehi]

i'm pretty sure i will buy my 14 yr old daughter and 16 yr old son laptops for xmas.

 

i'm probably ok with choosing for my girl as she usually does bebo, homework, msn, etc.

 

for this i would be thinking of spending around £300 and would avoid celeron.

 

the choice for my son is a little different as he does online gaming and i'm a little anxious that in my attempt to find a bargain, i may well buy something not fit for purpose.

 

the confusion for me really lies in the processors. sempron, celeron, athlon, etc. i'm pretty certain celeron is the slowest of the bunch, but don't have a real knowledge of all the others.

 

my own laptop is a toshiba sat pro amd 64 athlon x2. maybe i should allow my son to try some tasks on this to see if it is fit enough.

 

any suggestions on what to avoid or recomendations would be most greatful.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Hi Tis

 

Are you talking about £300 for the pair or each?

 

You'll get nothing for £150

 

The different cpu makes are just the ones that Intel and AMD turn out, eg; AMD Athlon, Intel Celeron etc.

 

It's my opinion also that laptops are crap for high end gaming and the lad would be better off with a properly configured desktop.

[shrimply]

hope you don't mind me adding this as it doesn't really answer the question.

 

You'd be much better letting your son choose, being close to that age myself, i would never like for my parents to choose anything technological for me.

 

Not only will your son know exactly what he needs but there is a good chance he will also know the best place to buy it saving you some money.

 

If its a total surprise then I know that it can be a let down, but personally am always happier to get an envelope containing a picture of what i'm getting and a price limit on christmas day than something that i am unhappy with or i know my parents paid too much for.

[tismehi]

thanks guys,

 

that gives me some food for thought.

 

i think i will now definitely buy a new desktop for my son and a laptop for my daughter with my budget of about £750.

[gavinhodges00]

thanks guys,

 

that gives me some food for thought.

 

i think i will now definitely buy a new desktop for my son and a laptop for my daughter with my budget of about £750.

 

For gaming purpose intel core 2 duo processors will be best.

[Dalo Harkin]

:)Its not really the CPU in the desktop that matters - CPU requirements are no where near as high as GPU requirements - single core will be fine - just make sure that the GPU is up to scratch

[tismehi]

i bought an advent desktop pc. model PQD5002.

amd phenom 9550, 2.2ghz. 2gb memory, 500gb hdd.

ati radeon x1200 on board. vista home.

 

any thoughts on whether this will do for online gaming?

 

if not and it could do with another graphics card, any recommendations?

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Can I just ask where you bought this Tis?

[tismehi]

yeah, at pc world a couple of days ago.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Oh dear, I wish you had told us where you were going to go Tis, I wouldn't buy a mouse mat from them..

 

I hope no extended guarantees where involved.

 

Advent support is next to meaningless in my opinion Tis.

[tismehi]

to be honest i never intended to even visit this company buy pressure from er indoors after i could not decide on any offerings from local suppliers.

i also was able to avail of 12 months interest free credit offer from them.

 

extended warranties never do it for me nor does any other promotions on hard sell from them.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

You should have gone to Dell or HP Tis, they have good hardware and wicked support.

[tismehi]

i've had some bad luck in the recent years with dell so i'm not their greatest fan presently.

 

i did opt for a hp machine but no stock was available. the same went for a toshiba model.

so i was under a little pressure to either buy the advent, dell, own brand, acer or sony.

the sony was too expensive and none of the rest available appealed to me.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Acer are very good Tis, not that it's worth anything saying that now though mate. :(

[tismehi]

well, what do i do i ponder.

should i take it back and see if they've the acer or should i settle for the advent?

 

no thoughts on fitting a graphics card!

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Check for yourself Advent support as well as Acer Tis.

 

If you find any support for Advent over and above PC World let me know.

[tismehi]

can't find any support so i think i will take the adveny back.

 

whats your verdict on

Packard Bell iMax 3515 (Mini Tower),

 

also on sale in pc world.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

This is a fair option.

 

Currys - Shop for PC and Monitor Only - Packard Bell iMedia X2326 Packard Bell iMedia X2326 with 19" TFT

[tismehi]

thanks a bunch for your patience and sound advice.

 

i will pack up the advent machine and trot over to pc world for the x2326.

 

does this have onboard or dedicated graphics - its not too clear to me and i'm no fan of onboard so if required i would fit a seperate card.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

The graphics are onboard Tis but the box has 3 PCI slots for GPU expansion.

 

More here.

 

Desktops > iMedia > imedia 2326 with 19" monitor

[tismehi]

thanks again wolfeymole, i'll get it tomorrow then get a card before xmas.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

This machine is adequate as it is Tis, with a good card it will be even better but let me assure you that even then it is will not be a top end gaming box.

 

You could pay over £400 just for the GPU alone.

 

Dalo will give you an even better idea on what to get but at the end of the day it comes down to your budget.

[tismehi]

i exchanged the advent for the packard bell yesterday.

the new package was £30 more but included a monitor so i'm pretty happy and very grateful to all who offered advice. :)

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Well that's good to hear Tis.

 

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