Laptop advice please .

[Cowabunga]

We or rather the wife rang a website and went through what we were after and sorted us out a refurbished laptop in the end.

Still the thick end of £300 odd quid.
New prices were something of an eye opener.

New prices are as cheap as they have ever been. For what you get these days, they are fantastic value compared to the specification you used to get for twice the money. There's an amazing choice of very well specified laptops at under £500 inclusive of VAT. The VAT is, of course, reclaimable on laptops and peripherals for business use by eligible businesses.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

New prices are as cheap as they have ever been. For what you get these days, they are fantastic value compared to the specification you used to get for twice the money. There's an amazing choice of very well specified laptops at under £500 inclusive of VAT. The VAT is, of course, reclaimable on laptops and peripherals for business use by eligible businesses.

I dunno, it seemed as soon as you mention gaming the price jumps a bracket or 2.

Only have an old clunker of a laptop here for my farm management program. So a bit clueless.
Not that I've had much access to it due to home schooling, working, zooming and whatnot these days.

 

[Chris F]

Won't go far wrong with a Lenovo product these days. Intel i5 (or AMD equivalent) and 8GB of RAM.

I should get them to spec a TFF machine as answer is always the same!

 

[Cowabunga]

I dunno, it seemed as soon as you mention gaming the price jumps a bracket or 2.

Only have an old clunker of a laptop here for my farm management program. So a bit clueless.
Not that I've had much access to it due to home schooling, working, zooming and whatnot these days.

As I think I said before, a good gaming graphics card does not come cheap and you could pay anything from £600 to £5000 for a 'better' computer. The bulk of the consumer market if for the average sub £500 machine though.

 

[gatepost]

I'm running a HP for general stuff, now getting on but apart from needing a new battery has been no problem , but i am really impressed with Acer, bought one for eldest to go to uni with, she kept it for eight yrs, only one screen replacement, and if you saw how she treated it you would cry. the case was cracked, still kept going, power input wobbly had to get it just right, still kept going, we have 2 more in the family both no problem at all.

 

[deleted user 837354]

I should get them to spec a TFF machine as answer is always the same!

Contact them and see if they want to market machines aimed at farmers and advertise them here? 'Work' and 'gaming' spec machines?

 

[J B]

Any PC you like the look of at an agreeable budget will do this, if it is mainly this you need it for. Have a walk through Currys/PC World, they need your custom to keep their doors open.

PC World???

Beware of the hard sell of all the addons that you just can't do without as well as selling you a PC that *may* not be suitable ....

 

[deleted user 837354]

PC World???

Beware of the hard sell of all the addons that you just can't do without as well as selling you a PC that *may* not be suitable ....

You can format the thing, reinstall windows and be free of all of that. Takes less than 10 minutes.

 

[Cowabunga]

PC World???

Beware of the hard sell of all the addons that you just can't do without as well as selling you a PC that *may* not be suitable ....

Virtually all laptops are suitable for office work these days. Whether they are suitable for the person and any heavier duty applications is another story of course.
All you have to do with extra warranties and cloud storage or any other dodgy extra offered, is to say 'no thanks'.
Although I buy very little from them, I see nothing wrong with PC World generally and they do have the advantage of a large range of stock, so you can see and feel what you are buying, which is important for less confident people.
It doesn't matter if a machine doesn't suit you or I in any way. What matters is that the buyer comes out of the shop happy with what they have bought and that it does the job that they need it for.
Hence my minimum recommendation if an i5 with at least 8GB RAM and 500GB solid state drive and a 1080P HD screen. Anything less may disappoint and anything more may well delight, be needed, or may just be wasted capability, depending on the circumstances. Brand? Who cares? These are commodities.

 

[Cowabunga]

You can format the thing, reinstall windows and be free of all of that. Takes less than 10 minutes.

I think he means the rubbish they will try to sell to complement the computer but which is actually just to increase their profit margin.

 

[J B]

I think he means the rubbish they will try to sell to complement the outer but which is actually just to increase their profit margin.

That is indeed what I mean
DD1 bought a laptop from PCW and was informed very strongly that she needed to purchase AV to go on it ... but luckily she refused

 

[Ukjay]

PC World has an issue with how it handles warranty fails should you need to get it repaired. We purchased a Lenovo desktop for the office that failed in the second month of ownership, and when we went to them to get it repaired were told up to 3 months to get the desktop pc back as they block ship items.
It had a failed power supply - so we ended up repairing it ourselves in the end as we couldnt be without the desktop for that amount of time, and have never viewed them with any regard since.

 

[Cowabunga]

PC World has an issue with how it handles warranty fails should you need to get it repaired. We purchased a Lenovo desktop for the office that failed in the second month of ownership, and when we went to them to get it repaired were told up to 3 months to get the desktop pc back as they block ship items.
It had a failed power supply - so we ended up repairing it ourselves in the end as we couldnt be without the desktop for that amount of time, and have never viewed them with any regard since.

This is part of what I meant by computers now being commodities, much like white goods. The shop itself, when you buy from a chain store, does not repair faulty goods. That is left to the manufacturer's repair agents/specialists and generally for laptops you would send them to the repairer when under warranty. Not sure why PC World would have them back to their store to be sent away. I certainly would not send it back to Amazon for repair if I had bought it there.

 

[Ukjay]

Not sure why PC World would have them back to their store to be sent away.

Simple really - their T+C's stated so, plus that it also quoted they offer a speedy repair...

 

[Cowabunga]

Simple really - their T+C's stated so, plus that it also quoted they offer a speedy repair...

Very naughty of them, especially as it didn't work out as anything like 'speedy'. Very sensibly though, you didn't leave it with them. I wonder if the rep was pulling your leg about 'three months', because that isn't an acceptable time line for anyone and they must know that?

 

[deleted user 837354]

The only thing with PC world is that you can often buy the exact same machine but a year or so newer (better spec) for the same money from the manufacturer themselves.

I go into PC world to have a play with machines before going home and ordering what I want from the web.

 

[Ukjay]

The only thing with PC world is that you can often buy the exact same machine but a year or so newer (better spec) for the same money from the manufacturer themselves.

I go into PC world to have a play with machines before going home and ordering what I want from the web.

And you can get other peoples personal data included FOC

 

[deleted user 837354]

Looking at a Lenovo Ideapad Duet for the weens. Chromebook so can't be fudged up too much by them (I hope). Not bad money either.