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  • squacksquack Posts: 837
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    Hi Marie,

    It really depends what you want to use it for, but.... I'd personally avoid the Toshiba in your first link as it has a really old Core2 processor and the other link has a Celeron and I really don't like Celeron processors.

    What's your budget? If you can go up to £400 then I'd recommend another Toshiba 850 but with an Intel i5 instead.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Satellite-Professional-15-6-inch-Integrated/dp/B00BCWIX4K/

    It has a bit less memory than your original choice but a much better processor and everything else seems the same.
  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    I didn't see this new thread when I posted my reply to your other thread. I spent ages looking at laptops for you. Was there any need to start this thread, except to confuse?

    There really isn't any difference between the Celeron 1000M and the Pentium B960 processors, but they are both slightly better than the AMD A6 4400M of the HP G6-2395SA laptop from your other post. The i5-3210M from the Acer that I recommended however is far superior as is the i5-3230M on the Toshiba L870.

    The Toshiba C850 has very poor sound and its build quality is supposed to be inferior with a spongy keyboard.
  • marieukxxmarieukxx Posts: 4,830
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    Thank you evil c I looked at both replies. I am looking at the laptop you found for me now.
  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    Seeing you have a PC World locally, can I suggest that you pay them a visit, look at the laptops on display, play around with the keyboards and generally get a feel of as many as you can to assess how heavy they are, where the USB ports are situated on the cases etc. Try different machines by the same manufacturer to see if the keyboards feel the same across the range.

    By all means ask the salesmen for help when you want to pick a laptop up but don't ask them for their buying advice, otherwise they'll recommend whichever ones there's more commission on or the ones that the management want them to sell this month.
  • marieukxxmarieukxx Posts: 4,830
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    evil c wrote: »
    Seeing you have a PC World locally, can I suggest that you pay them a visit, look at the laptops on display, play around with the keyboards and generally get a feel of as many as you can to assess how heavy they are, where the USB ports are situated on the cases etc. Try different machines by the same manufacturer to see if the keyboards feel the same across the range.

    By all means ask the salesmen for help when you want to pick a laptop up but don't ask them for their buying advice, otherwise they'll recommend whichever ones there's more commission on or the ones that the management want them to sell this month.

    Thanks, I eventually went and got my laptop and this is what I chose.

    http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/toshiba-satellite-c850-1lq-15-6-laptop-21322535-pdt.html

    I'm happy with it so far. I was intending to buy this one but the guy in PC World said it was really slow and recommended the one I bought because it was faster and for multi tasking.
    http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/toshiba-satellite-c850-1nu-15-6-laptop-21322534-pdt.html

    So my first link is the one I got in the end.

    My old laptop is a Compaq Presario C300
  • marieukxxmarieukxx Posts: 4,830
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    The sound is absolutely shite on this new laptop!!!!!!! It is just awful compared to my old one which had perfect sound.
  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    evil c wrote: »
    The Toshiba C850 has very poor sound and its build quality is supposed to be inferior with a spongy keyboard.

    Don't say you weren't warned!
  • marieukxxmarieukxx Posts: 4,830
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    evil c wrote: »
    Don't say you weren't warned!

    I know I know lol. You were 100% right, the sound is plain awful. I was shocked at how bad it is tbh. I've got an HDMI cable to hook it up to my tv for watching stuff but I'm gonna get a logitech sound bar I saw that has really good reviews.

    I suppose you can't get everything you want on a budget, the laptop is good other than the sound issue.
  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    Yes true enough, external sound is the way to go for the majority of laptops. Luckily the sound on my laptop is really good, but then again it cost me £900 as a refurb, £1400 new. For a much better sound though I connect to my hi-fi. You should already have this on Windows Media Player (apparently) but if not you could try this freeware product, SRS Audio Essentials: http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/137767-srs-audio-essentials-12312-windows-7-8-x86x64-workaround-with-patch/

    Here's a review from PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/239927/srs_audio_essentials.html
  • marieukxxmarieukxx Posts: 4,830
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    evil c wrote: »
    Yes true enough, external sound is the way to go for the majority of laptops. Luckily the sound on my laptop is really good, but then again it cost me £900 as a refurb, £1400 new. For a much better sound though I connect to my hi-fi. You should already have this on Windows Media Player (apparently) but if not you could try this freeware product, SRS Audio Essentials: http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/137767-srs-audio-essentials-12312-windows-7-8-x86x64-workaround-with-patch/

    Here's a review from PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/239927/srs_audio_essentials.html

    Thanks. If I download that can I use that without plugging it into an external source? Sorry to be thick but I just learn as I go with computers. I wish I could afford to get a top of the range laptop but I can't. My old laptop has sound just like my tv. I'm gonna go for the logitech sound bar thing for sure.

    You know I said I went with the intention of getting a certain model but the guy said it was really slow, was he right? I paid an extra £50 for this one because he said it was faster. Links are above.

    Thanks for all your help :)
  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    Well, in theory the 1LQ should be the better machine processing wise as the CPU is the i3-2348, as opposed to your 1NU with the Celeron 1000. See this comparison from cpuboss: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-2348M-vs-Intel-Celeron-1000M

    Even though the i3 is better it is still a basic CPU on a basic machine. It will be OK for day-to-day stuff but struggle on demanding tasks. Also the 2348 processor as well as the integrated graphics HD3000 is 2nd generation. We are on 3rd gen now ie 3xxx and HD 4000. (Actually there is the new HD 5000 as well). You're going to get a 10-15% increase in processing power with 3rd gen Intel CPUs. So for example see this: http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i3-3120M-vs-Intel-Core-i3-2348M

    This is further complicated as you can find 3rd gen i3 and 2nd gen integrated graphics combinations, such as the Toshiba L850 1V0 which has the i3-3120 and the HD 3000.

    With integrated graphics the HD 4000 outperforms the HD 3000 by 40-50%.

    Then again you could look for a 2nd gen i5 CPU which will beat both (probably) i3 gens, and if you're not going to be playing any games or doing any intensive graphic work then having the HD 3000 won't matter. Really if you're playing games or doing video editing (for example) the best solution is to use a dedicated graphics card or at the very least the HD 4000.

    You'll struggle as well getting good sound as you really need an HD sound card in the laptop AND some decent on-board speakers. At the price point of £370 ish, that's not going to happen with the majority of machines, and if it does, then there will be compromise in another area.

    You might find an i5 refurb with W7/W8 would suit you instead, if you can find one with 4-6GB RAM, preferably 6GB, but then you will have to negotiate the swap with PC World. Your best bet is to save up a bit more and buy a more expensive laptop with a better CPU or one with an SSD (see next para), bearing in mind that some laptops are more equal than others.

    We haven't mentioned yet where hard disks come into the equation. The newer laptops now have a solid state disk (SSD) in addition to the (soon to be old-fashioned) hard disk drive (HDD), or just an SSD and no HDD. HDDs come in 2 speeds. 99% of laptops have the 5400rpm drive rather than the more expensive and faster 7200rpm drive. The SSD wipes the floor with both of them, so startup times are reduced to a few seconds and disk access times are considerably faster.

    Phew, long answer. As regards the SRS, you actually already have it, the HD Premium version, if you look at the spec, so ignore my suggestion. Obviously then this means that the on-board speakers are rubbish.
  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    Just to add to my post above as I've run out of editing time, there is a 4th gen of CPUs now just filtering into the market, so for example i3-4xxx.

    So to recap in basic form:

    Intel CPU 2nd gen i3, i5, i7 - 2xxx (also known as Sandy Bridge).

    Intel CPU 3rd gen i3, i5, i7 - 3xxx (also known as Ivy Bridge).

    Intel CPU 4th gen i3, i5, i7 - 4xxx (also known as Haswell).

    Intel integrated graphics 2nd gen - HD 3000

    .........................................3rd gen - HD 4000

    .........................................4th gen - HD 5000
  • marieukxxmarieukxx Posts: 4,830
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    Wow! You sure do know your stuff!!!!!!
  • evil cevil c Posts: 7,833
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    Well if it helps you understand the basic differences, it'll have been worth it. As with any product really the consumer wants the best (perceived) performance at each price point and the manufacturer wants to attract you to buy it at minimum cost for maximum profit.

    The more you know about what makes the product tick, the more informed a decision you can make when (and what) you buy, and with laptops or TVs etc. you also should try to have a hands-on experience with the product before that final purchase. Then you can decide what is right for you and you can take advantage of any bargains that periodically (quite frequently) appear from the retailers.

    You can see from the i3 generational comparison and the 2nd gen i5, that having the latest model of one CPU family doesn't stop the previous model of a better family beating it. So last year's i5 would beat this year's i3 (not in all cases, but most). You can also see that the Intel CPUs are subdivided inside each generation, so you get 21xx, 22xx, 23xx (for example only), and 31, 32, 33 etc and these are updates within each family.

    I could go on but I won't. I just hoped I've helped you understand the basics. We field a LOT of the 'which laptop should I buy, is this one any good?' questions on this forum and that's because yer average punter can't figure out the differences performance wise between the CPUs and the graphics and the HDD speed and the compromise that each of these major components can impose on the others.

    I mean when my laptop was new (Dec 2009) it was all singing and all dancing but let down by a 5400rpm HDD ( much to the professional reviewers general annoyance). There was one reason for this. It was brought out to be a direct competitor (but approx £200 cheaper) to the Macbook Pro, and the 7200rpm drive was a lot more expensive. Faced with the need to make as much profit as possible, and knowing that the majority of buyers either don't know or don't understand the difference between HDDs, my laptop was compromised even at the highest price point.
  • kate36kate36 Posts: 13,715
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    i recently bought a toshiba satellite with 1TB HDD, 4gb RAM, pentium i3 processor with a 15.6 inch screen. It has skullcandy speakers built in whichare v good indeed. I love it!!
    and windows 10 preinstalled.:)
  • poppasmurfpoppasmurf Posts: 1,781
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    I bought one of these in September from Argos on eBay:

    http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Toshiba-Satellite-L50-15-6-Inch-Intel-2-16-GHz-8GB-1TB-WIndows-8-Laptop-White-/361428432942

    It's cheaper than the one the OP was looking at, has a better specification, AND it's actually in stock.
  • TassiumTassium Posts: 31,639
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    It's two years since the OP was looking for a laptop, I imagine it's all sorted now.
  • kate36kate36 Posts: 13,715
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    Tassium wrote: »
    It's two years since the OP was looking for a laptop, I imagine it's all sorted now.

    hahahaha...I never looked at the date :D
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