Which laptop?

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applecrumble said:
For your budget you should look for an i5 laptop.

I use Apple at work and they are absolute rip off:) You can get double if not triple the spec for about 1/2 the price if you stick to intel chips - AMD are even cheaper and if all you are doing is word processing or watching vids online that might be a good option.

Of all the laptops I have owned over the years my favorite are Acer - my current laptop is an e1-571 i5-3230m 2.6ghz with turbo boost 3.2ghz, 4gig ram - I use it for after effects and editing no problems. I got mine for a steal - £349. ( best way to search for a good laptop is to go by the intel chip and try and find the best laptop in your price range with the highest spec.

My last i3 acer lasted for years and was literally on 24hrs a day.
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Probably a lay question so apologies, but re RAM/CPU. My current machine has 4gb of RAM, and most of the machines in my price range seem to have this too (my current machine is 5 years old). Does that matter or will a better processor provide enough of a boost in performance? My current CPU is Pentium Dual-Core CPU T4300 @ 2.10GHz (whatever that really means)
 

Bruce the standard is now 8GB of ram for a x64 OS. This is capable of more powerful computing and is more secure. Anything with an i5 an above is sufficient for a few years of keeping up with Moore's Law.
 
From what I hear, the keyboard is all different on a Mac. I'm big on my CTRL and ALT keys. If they do even the slightest thing different, I'm out.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
Sorry, should have said, I do a lot of writing for my job, so need a keyboard. Can you get detachable keyboards for tablets?
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Bryan said:
Surface comes with w keyboard
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If you're doing a lot of typing I wouldn't suggest a Surface keyboard. Think you'd find them too small and cramped. If you're not too worried about looks either, you can get a decent Lenovo Thinkpad, i5, 4gb for prob around £400 (I buy ex-vat, so not sure on price). They are pretty decent and come from a long line of durable chunky business laptops.
 
Bruce Wayne said:
Probably a lay question so apologies, but re RAM/CPU. My current machine has 4gb of RAM, and most of the machines in my price range seem to have this too (my current machine is 5 years old). Does that matter or will a better processor provide enough of a boost in performance? My current CPU is Pentium Dual-Core CPU T4300 @ 2.10GHz (whatever that really means)
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RAM (Random Access Memory) - is a high speed (compared to your hard disk or secondary memory) memory which the processor goes to when the required data is not in the computers cache memory (highest speed memory but not seperatly upgradeable) So when playing games or rendering videos - more ram helps!

But for your described needs 4 gig or ram is plenty.

The pentium dual core chips - are the old chipsets. Dual core Pentiums do not have hyperthreading. i3 processors are still dual core, but have hyperthreading... so they can sometimes handle 4 threads at once. That would be the primary difference.

i5 processors are true quad core, and i7 processors are quad core with hyperthreading. (Hyper-threading doesn't have a strong effect in something like gaming, although some people might debate me on that, but in tasks like video edit, people can see a 10-20% increase in performance depending on system configuration.)

When I get a new pc > I find the best chipset within the range and google everysite I can find to get the best deal :)
 

applecrumble said:
For your budget you should look for an i5 laptop.

I use Apple at work and they are absolute rip off:) You can get double if not triple the spec for about 1/2 the price if you stick to intel chips - AMD are even cheaper and if all you are doing is word processing or watching vids online that might be a good option.

Of all the laptops I have owned over the years my favorite are Acer - my current laptop is an e1-571 i5-3230m 2.6ghz with turbo boost 3.2ghz, 4gig ram - I use it for after effects and editing no problems. I got mine for a steal - £349. ( best way to search for a good laptop is to go by the intel chip and try and find the best laptop in your price range with the highest spec.

My last i3 acer lasted for years and was literally on 24hrs a day.
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If you're buying a laptop for £349, you're not buying current gen. The reason your laptop is low cost is because that chip for starers was released in Q1 2013, if buy comparison I bought a 2013 MacBook Air no doubt i'd get a similar price and better hardware.

If you buy current gen PC hardware, you'll find comparable pricing. You might as well say Lenovo, Dell, HP, and everyone else rips their customers off buy selling laptops for a grand or more

For £349 you're buying a two year old computer, personally I'd go for something with better build quality and components from the second hand market.
 
maddison said:
If you're buying a laptop for £349, you're not buying current gen. The reason your laptop is low cost is because that chip for starers was released in Q1 2013, if buy comparison I bought a 2013 MacBook Air no doubt i'd get a similar price and better hardware.

If you buy current gen PC hardware, you'll find comparable pricing. You might as well say Lenovo, Dell, HP, and everyone else rips their customers off buy selling laptops for a grand or more

For £349 you're buying a two year old computer, personally I'd go for something with better build quality and components from the second hand market.
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I didn't buy the laptop this year - so when I purchased it it was current gen - At the time through research I was able to save about £100 on identical laptops/chipset configurations. Early adopters ALWAYS get ripped off so buying current gen when they come out is actually pretty stupid. That said - fair point you should at least be aware when your chip was released and consider checking performance specs.

That apple comment is also not accurate - An Apple 13 Inch Mac pro - i5 2.5ghz, 4 gig ram - 500 gig hd costs £829 on amazon atm. (900 on apple site)

Now to compare: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4288U-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3230M ( current gen apple chip vs my current chip) £350 for a 15inch better spec vs £900 for a smaller apple with a slightly newer chip. Barely any difference in performance score and for what he what the op needs probably none.

Apple will always rip you off that's what they do!!




 
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applecrumble said:
I didn't buy the laptop this year - so when I purchased it it was current gen - At the time through research I was able to save about £100 on identical laptops/chipset configurations. Early adopters ALWAYS get ripped off so buying current gen when they come out is actually pretty stupid. That said - fair point you should at least be aware when your chip was released and consider checking performance specs.

That apple comment is also not accurate - An Apple 13 Inch Mac pro - i5 2.5ghz, 4 gig ram - 500 gig hd costs £829 on amazon atm. (900 on apple site)

Now to compare: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4288U-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3230M ( current gen apple chip vs my current chip) £350 for a 15inch better spec vs £900 for a smaller apple with a slightly newer chip. Barely any difference in performance score and for what he what the op needs probably none.

Apple will always rip you off that's what they do!!
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rip off or not, you'll never be able to buy a 2nd hand Apple product for a comparable price of a 2nd hand windows laptop. Ever.
 

applecrumble said:
I didn't buy the laptop this year - so when I purchased it it was current gen - At the time through research I was able to save about £100 on identical laptops/chipset configurations. Early adopters ALWAYS get ripped off so buying current gen when they come out is actually pretty stupid. That said - fair point you should at least be aware when your chip was released and consider checking performance specs.

That apple comment is also not accurate - An Apple 13 Inch Mac pro - i5 2.5ghz, 4 gig ram - 500 gig hd costs £829 on amazon atm. (900 on apple site)

Now to compare: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4288U-vs-Intel-Core-i5-3230M ( current gen apple chip vs my current chip) £350 for a 15inch better spec vs £900 for a smaller apple with a slightly newer chip. Barely any difference in performance score and for what he what the op needs probably none.

Apple will always rip you off that's what they do!!
Click to expand...

If you don't have early adopters, you wouldn't get £350 laptops ;-)

Always a fan of shopping around, which is why i hit the big fat like button on your other post.

I had a cheap laptop for work, you do feel the difference though. As a touch typist I hit 80wpm plus on an Apple keyboard, but I can't get anywhere near that on spongy plastic. It's just not possible. The accuracy of the track pad is also worth the premium too. You'll also pay for design, weight, and aesthetics. There is a big aesthetic appeal with Apple products, and I always find it bizarre when people think this is part of the rip off process. Unless someone shops exclusively in Primark and second hand shops, chances are you're paying extra to look good, not to mention paying for how something looks in other areas of your life

Love or hate Apple, they make good hardware (with the exception of the shockingly out of date screens on the Macbook Airs), and you'll always pay for more up to date kit. Wintel manufacturers also produce premium equipment, conveniently they're not accused of ripping people off though. Plucky little Apple the underdogs still being hated on unfortunately, first it was Big blue, then MS, and now Google fanboys
 
I've had good luck with my Acer hybrid tablet, an Iconia W700.

The Aspire S7 is often considered the best Windows laptop you can buy, but they're pretty expensive. I think the V series is more in your price range.
 
I have a $119 refurbished 2 gig chromebook and love it for home stuff. Fast as hell. As far as work stuff goes I just recommended the cheapest 4 gig RAM computer you can find. They are disposable like that.
 

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