Calling all laptop experts! Help!

[Timmah Veteran]

I need a laptop for uni, it should last around 2-3years (unless I become powerhungry and eBay it and buy another half way through) so obviously it needs to be of decent spec.

I was looking at the Comet Acer Aspire 1691 - theirs is a somewhat "crippled" version, with only a Pentium-M 1.5Ghz, stripped S-Video and Ethernet port (WHY?!) and generally reduced in quality.

If anyone knows of any these within my ?600-?700 budget, please speak up!

So, I set my sights towards eBay - looking for brand new Acer Aspires somewhat filling this gap. Last night I lost out on a Aspire 1692WLMi, it went for ?720 - I had ?660 to play with. I can't find any on the web for a decent price, and I need this laptop rather soon as I leave a week on Sunday!

So after hours upon hours trawling message boards (including this one, rather informative I must say) and online retailers I come across Novatech. At first the branding (or lack of it!) put me off, but after closer inspection their Neptune Pro 15.4" 1.8Ghz Centrino laptop really looks quite a steal!

It has the 15.4" widescreen I craved from an Acer (but would have had to settle for the older 15" with my current budget) as well as a great Pentium-M (740 I believe?) 1.8GhZ processor with all the Centrino lark I'd been after! The RAM's of decent enough spec (512MB of DDR333) for now and I'm not intending to use it for games - I won't have time for games at uni. I'll be down the pub instead.

The 80GB HDD is more than I was hoping for, a 60 or possible 40 gig alternative would have done me, and I'm not fearful of the battery life as the P-M processors are rather friendly on our Li|Ion friends.

The DVD-Multi burner (does that mean dual layer, or what?) is an added (but much sought after) bonus, and the bundled WiFi support direct from Intel's Centrino technology is great as I have a wireless router at home and can take advantage of Starbucks "buy-something-use-the-web" offers.

But what is the price of satisfaction, I hear you cry - this laptop (ex delivery, inc VAT) comes to ?668, about ?675 with delivery.

This doesn't include OS but this is what I prefer - I bought my PC minus an OS saving me ???s, and sorted it out afterwards.

Anyone got any experience of the Novatech range of laptops? How are their TFTs etc?

The exact URL is: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/NBRange.html?NNB-340

[cold14]

15.4" WXGA TFT Screen ( 1280 x 800 )

2.0GHz Intel Pentium-M Processor

1024MB PC2700 333MHz DDR Memory

80GB Hard Drive Hard Drive

Upto 64MB Intel Extreme Graphics

DVDR Multi Burner

56K Internal Modem

54g Wireless Enabled Network Port

for ?640 seems to good to be true in my opinion

i would seriously recomend an ibook for you

it starts at ?699 but you can get it cheaper if you configure it

go for it

[Fr3d]

And you can always put Linux on it if Mac OS X seems a little daunting :p

But there are some good deals elsewhere to be had too, make sure you check around in local shops as well as online ;)

[Starcom826]

Make sure you look for educational discounts as a lot of pc manufacturers provide these either through your school or their websites.

[manroweb]

Dell.co.uk have some decent deals on at present:

Inspiron 510m (N095M5) is a decent deal

[Fr3d]

Don't buy a Dell, especially not a laptop unless it's your last resort or you love Dell so much you can't bear anythnig else... Many people have had bad experiences with their laptops.....

But yeah, as Starcom826 said, the educational discount should be available for you :D

[Timmah Veteran]

Turns out I have an extra ?100 to play with:oo

So I roughly have ?750-?800

Can you recommend anything gents?

[Sn00pY]

Novatech Lappies are rather good bro - I have have recomended them to 3 friends thus far and no complaints yet :) they are solid and ok they dont look as nice as an iBook but they are good components and work well and not too expensive...

[majortom1981]

I have that crippled ati 1691. Cost me 1000 us dollars.

If you are going to do everything but play games then its the perfect laptop.

I have an awesome desktop computer and i only use my 1691. for internet, dvd burning,dvd movie watching, and network work stuff.

I do not know about the other laptops but this one has a gigabit ethernet port on it lol .

I love the 1691. For a tiny bit more you can get the 1691 with an x600 video card in it. I would look for that one.

The 1691 is no slouch though.

for its size its also light . people are amazed at the size of the 1691 and its weight.

Also runs cooler then most notebooks.

the acer 1691 is also a lot betetr then the dell equivalents. Its also lighter.

[raskren]

Last 2-3 years huh?

You need laptop with a dedicated DirectX 9 video card. This will increase the price but your machine will remain usable longer.

[Timmah Veteran]

I have that crippled ati 1691. Cost me 1000 us dollars.

If you are going to do everything but play games then its the perfect laptop.

I have an awesome desktop computer and i only use my 1691. for internet, dvd burning,dvd movie watching, and network work stuff.

I do not know about the other laptops but this one has a gigabit ethernet port on it lol .

I love the 1691.  For a tiny bit more you can get the 1691 with an x600 video card in it. I would look for that one.

The 1691 is no slouch though.

for its size its also light . people are amazed at the size of the 1691 and its weight.

Also runs cooler then most notebooks.

the acer 1691 is also a lot betetr then the dell equivalents. Its also lighter.

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Sure its the exact one? The website I posted has seriously screwed around with the config - it seems Comet.co.uk have stripped the S-Video and Ethernet (WTF?!) amongst other things... :(

I was thinking that raskren - but I'm not sure which model to go for...

[manroweb]

Ive never had a bad experience with Dell laptops.

[Pliskin]

Dell Latitudes

[gogosama]

ibook is perfect

[raskren]

Sure its the exact one? The website I posted has seriously screwed around with the config - it seems Comet.co.uk have stripped the S-Video and Ethernet (WTF?!) amongst other things... :(

I was thinking that raskren - but I'm not sure which model to go for...

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Anything as low as the Ati x300 or Mobility 9600 will suffice. I do not know what Nvidia's low-end mobile offerings are at this time.

Something else to consider is hard drive spindle speed. Typically, budget notebooks come with a 4200 RPM hard drive with a 2MB or smaller cache and 256 MB of system memory. This creates a very bad multitasking scenario in which Windows is forced to page to a very slow hard disk. Either buy a small but fast hard drive (5400 RPM) or lots of memory (512 MB or more) or both if you can afford it. More memory is preferred.

[echo]

Don't buy a Dell, especially not a laptop unless it's your last resort or you love Dell so much you can't bear anythnig else... Many people have had bad experiences with their laptops.....

But yeah, as Starcom826 said, the educational discount should be available for you :D

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and you are getting your information from where? I have a dell inspiron 6000 and i LOVE it. I also did TONS of research on laptops before I decided on a brand to go with. Dell was number one or number 2 on every site I saw. It was either dell or toshiba. One of the biggest source of information I used was notebookreviews.com, which has tons of reviews and links to other reviews as well as tons of users. right now, the dell inspiron is rated number 2 behind the toshiba satellite.

[Timmah Veteran]

and you are getting your information from where? I have a dell inspiron 6000 and i LOVE it. I also did TONS of research on laptops before I decided on a brand to go with. Dell was number one or number 2 on every site I saw. It was either dell or toshiba. One of the biggest source of information I used was notebookreviews.com, which has tons of reviews and links to other reviews as well as tons of users. right now, the dell inspiron is rated number 2 behind the toshiba satellite.

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Did you think about Acers when buying?

I've been taken by their Aspire range, though you really have to spend quite a bit to get a good setup.

Better hurry, the "save ?70" offer on the Dell Inspiron 6000 ends tomorrow.

Decisions, decisions!

And yeah I was looking at the Toshiba Satellite though it seems they're incredibly expensive for anything near that of the Aspires or Inspirons?

[Timmah Veteran]

ibook is perfect

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I don't think I'm ready for the "switch" yet, though when they go x86 I'll consider it for my next laptop (years down the line) as much as I love the look of them...

[majortom1981]

hmm the aspire 1691 series is a highly customizable notebook. Everything can be upgraded except the vid card. that could be too but u might have to take whole notebook apart.

Yo ucan upgrade the pentium m processor in it, the harddrive,the ram,the internal wreless card.

It also has a pc card slot ,usb2,and firewire ports.

So everything can be upgraded in t besides the vid card.

It has to have an svideo port and ethernet port. I mean the naspire 1691

Every aspire 1691 version shares the same base notebook.

[Timmah Veteran]

hmm the aspire 1691 series is a highly customizable notebook. Everything can be upgraded except the vid card. that could be too but u might have to take whole notebook apart.

Yo ucan upgrade the pentium m processor in it, the harddrive,the ram,the internal wreless card.

It also has a pc card slot ,usb2,and firewire ports.

So everything can be upgraded in t besides the vid card.

It has to have an svideo port and ethernet port.  I mean the naspire 1691

Every aspire 1691 version shares the same base notebook.

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Funny you should mention.

I think I've decided on the Aspire 1692WLMi from Comet.co.uk

Slightly modified version with 1Gig of RAM and 64meg X700, but still - I'm excited.

[skp]

Does the ?580 Aspire 1691 from Comet definitely NOT have an Ethernet port? I'm considering getting one, its within my budget and is the best spec I've found for the price, but the lack of an ethernet port would be a major drawback since I've not yet got a wireless router.