[Magister2]

Could someone recommend the specs needed for a budget laptop for studying.

It's needed for the internet for research, not playing games or facebook.

It would primarily run MS Office Word, Excel and Publisher. *

I've done a little research, which I'd like to check with you guys.

Processor: Is Intel Core i3 or i5 or Celeron 867 enough?
Speed: Is 2.3GHz enough?
Memory: is 4gb enough?
Graphics adapter: Intel HD Graphics 3000 enough?
Graphics memory: 384MB shared enough?

Can you recommend anything else I should think about?

*I was hoping for a student package that included Word, Excel and Publisher, but offers seem to exclude Publisher. Any advice on getting publisher too.

Thanks for any help...

[barky99]

I'd avoid celeron and aim for a corei3 or i5 .... 2.3 more than enough especially as cpu's are multicore ... 4gig enough unless you want to do demanding tasks .... integrated graphics will do.
what's the budget?

as for publisher .. you could try Scribus ... open source so zero cost option
LibreOffice can do the lot .... office apps inc publisher features

[jimmy7bellies]

I think just about any laptop you can buy these days will do that.

I seen Argos advertising one for £299 recently, looked great for the price.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...ITH+NORTON.htm

[barky99]

that argos one's probably been lying on a shelf for around 2 years

[jimmy7bellies]

Originally Posted by barky99

that argos one's probably been lying on a shelf for around 2 years

Can't see that would harm it.

For £300 will you get anything better?

[tealady]

Originally Posted by barky99

that argos one's probably been lying on a shelf for around 2 years

But a good spec for £300.
Can you find a better one?

[barky99]

for just 300 you are really in refurb territory ... for example http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/m...type/laptops/0

stick to A1 grade and all should be well ... might even be totally unused!

[tealady]

And those are better because?

[barky99]

Originally Posted by tealady

And those are better because?

page I linked to shows many 64bit machines .... anything at bottom of barrel prices won't be all that brilliant .... 'budget' laptops are really in the £400 > £500 (inc vat) bracket .... which isn't even 25% of the way up the price scale .... many refurbs will be just the same as that old argos laptop

[neo_wales]

The Argos one is more than enough for the OPs needs.

[Magister2]

Thank you very much for all the replies. They are very much appreciated. You are all wonderful here!

I really like the look of the Argos one recommended here.

I have been doing some research, and came across two options:

This one.

and this one.

I was going to post these to see what people thought tonight. But I read the posts here and now I like the Argos one!

Help, what shall I do!!

[jimmy7bellies]

Originally Posted by barky99

page I linked to shows many 64bit machines .... anything at bottom of barrel prices won't be all that brilliant .... 'budget' laptops are really in the £400 > £500 (inc vat) bracket .... which isn't even 25% of the way up the price scale .... many refurbs will be just the same as that old argos laptop

You say it like the laptop from Argos is old and outdated.

My laptop is getting on for 2.5 years old, I paid £375 for it, the specs (dual core celeron 1.6mhz i think, 250gb HD, 3gb ram) are no where near on a par with the Argos laptop. It still runs very well and will do all what the OP states.

Therefore can't see any problems with the Argos laptop the specs are still more than good enough and £300 brand new is a steal,

Budget is as cheap as you can get it, no point worrying too much about specs these days as even the lowest priced machines are powerful enough for what most people use the machine for (internet, office, watch films, music, etc)

[Tassium]

A 2nd hand dual 1.8GHz (eg AMD 64 X2) with 2GB ram / 160GB HDD / Win7 is more than enough for what the OP wants.

Really who does "demanding tasks" on a laptop? It's always going to be merely WP etc, internet and the occasional 2d game.



Modern machines are ridiculous in their computing power, way over the top for most people.

[Tassium]

Tesco Outlet (on Ebay) £222 refurbs (12month guar)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COMPAQ-PRE...item416ba9308a


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-INSPI...item43b25467be

[Magister2]

Originally Posted by jimmy7bellies

I think just about any laptop you can buy these days will do that.

I seen Argos advertising one for £299 recently, looked great for the price.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...ITH+NORTON.htm

I didn't move quick enough. That laptop is now out of stock.

[Tassium]

Software can be quite expensive, if Publisher is needed (which version?) then it might be difficult to get a new machine with all the software needed for £300 / £330

Obviously student deals can bring down software prices. But are such deals also cheap on the hardware?

MS Office Pro 2010 can be got for around £80 I think for students.

The cheapest new laptop with a reasonable spec would be around £280.

To go below £300 in total would therefore need a refurb machine, i.e. the Tesco models.

[Magister2]

Originally Posted by Tassium

Software can be quite expensive, if Publisher is needed (which version?) then it might be difficult to get a new machine with all the software needed for £300 / £330

Obviously student deals can bring down software prices. But are such deals also cheap on the hardware?

MS Office Pro 2010 can be got for around £80 I think for students.

The cheapest new laptop with a reasonable spec would be around £280.

To go below £300 in total would therefore need a refurb machine, i.e. the Tesco models.

This thread has been really helpful, and given me some good ideas.

So, yes, I'm looking for a laptop around £300. Maybe with Word / Excel bundled for a little more, or maybe not. Then I can get Publisher separately.

Although... Thanks for the tip about "MS Office Pro 2010 can be got for around £80 I think for students" -that may be a better option as it includes Word, Excel & Publisher. I bet bundling Word and Excel with the laptop doesn't save me any money by the time I go and buy Publisher separately.

I'm not interested in a refurb. (I may be passing up a great deal by not liking the idea of refurb but that's my problem!)

So, yeah, I think I'm looking for a £300 laptop. Any thoughts on these?:

This one.

and this one.

[Tassium]

Either of those HPs seem fine to me.

Or this Fujitsu which has the same processor as one of the HPs (from SaveOnLaptops) but less memory and smaller HDD, but it's not purple and is £260inc

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Fujit...1_1258205.html

---
Actually if you are using Publisher a 4GB memory is probably best. I think both of those HPs have 4GB

[Bash St Kid]

I bought this not too long ago :

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pav...72577-pdt.html

(but I only paid £329.99 for it; looks like price has gone up since August when I purchased it)

[Magister2]

Thanks to eveyone for their help.

I eventually went with "this one".

You guys are great, here. Thank you so much.

[Tassium]

That Pavillion G6 is a very good price, probably because it's purple.

[Bash St Kid]

Originally Posted by Bash St Kid

I bought this not too long ago :

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pav...72577-pdt.html

(but I only paid £329.99 for it; looks like price has gone up since August when I purchased it)

What the?! - the price has gone down from £349.99 yesterday to £329.91 today??

Let's hope no-one bought it 24 hours ago.