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what laptop would be suitable for college work?
My Daughter is 18 in a few weeks time and would like a laptop for her birthday. She’s hoping to go to university after the summer so it would serve her well.
Her only criteria is she wants a pink one. other than that she’s not too fussed. She will be using it mainly for word processing and storing pictures and music. She doesn’t play games but uses a PC for the internet.
I have been looking at the Dell range of laptops and these seem to offer good value for money.
I have a budget of £350 to £450 to spend
I wondered what others would recommend.
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31 Replies
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what is she doing at uni Phill??Peter bought one a couple of weeks ago, I think it was less than £400 but it’s not pink 🙄
Lynn
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As for Pink….. WRAP IT
We have toshiba and there great
Ian
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She’s applied to go to Dundee University to study Art.
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For those requirements Phil….I don’t think you would need to spend anything more than £300……….I couldn’t say which make to go for but I would spend the extra on something else for her
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yeah wrap it mate… easier tbh..
any laptop is cool… just look at software first and then hardware… does she need Office Basic (Word / Excel) or any design software.Will the classes be more Mac then PC based?
The Dell’s are great, i have a £450 Inspiron laptop here, we did kit it out with longer battery life. One thing that will make your blood boil lol.. £50 for delivery!!
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Dell has free delivery at moment 😉 I am looking for a laptop for an 18 year old girl (not pink) as well. Curry’s have a Toshiba with 2 GB ram, Vista home premium for £329
Removed the link, sorry, it was a refurbished one, thought the price was too good 🙂
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Try this lot, bought a bit from them and there OK
http://www.saverstore.com/products/computers/notebooks/
Ian
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i can tell you to stay away from vista if possible some still come with xp
and DON’T buy a dell if possible i studied a+ computer hardware software
before moving into signs and they are in the top 3 computers likely to be in any computer technicians office and the next are packard bell and compaqand like the other lads said warp it just don’t cover the air intakes 🙂
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Well I have to admit I went and bought a pink Dell complete with Vista Home edition 🙄
It arrived on Friday – her Birthday’s this Thursday
I’ll let you know how we get on 😕
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they can be a good computer also but these days any computer’s can have problems no matter who makes them or how much you spend.
i have just read a article about vista that an new service pack has come out for it this might fix quite a lot of security flaws and bugs it’s free to upgrade if it’s not already on the system you bought, here’s a link to the microsoft download.
good luck and i hope she does well 🙂
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta … layLang=en
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I use XP on my work PC’s but all my home machines have Vista on and I cant fault it. I dont understand the big issue people have with Vista, we had the exact same concerns when XP was launched and most of them were unfounded too.
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i know a lot of people with vista and everyone has called me for help at some point be it, trying to get there mp3 player to work or complete system crashes and hard drive failures vista losing the boot record so it can’t start the os and many more issues.
please don’t get me wrong i don’t have the issue it’s vista that does 🙂
some people could use the computer all it’s life without an issue and some like one of my work mates (just bought a new dell) wont even connect to the internet straight out of the box. it’s just that it’s still beta version and Microsoft is using the public to iron out the bugs.
it’s the same with the new mac os leopard that has some amount of problems
also.sometimes we get to caught up in ohhh it’s got this and it does that…
and forget how well our old operating systems worked and put them on the shelf to easily.
trust me i have been one of the people to get caught with the new mac os
and it will be a while before i upgrade again. -
dont have an issue with vista either….had laptop with it on coming up for a year, runs brilliantly, got quite used to it now, and dont like going back to xp which is the platform i use for work only 😀
nik
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Well my daughter is pleased with her new PC.
I have now been reading about Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 which allows you to install older operating systems such as windows 98 to run as a virtual machine on your new Vista driven PC
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspxThe blurb states that installing this will allow you to install older software designed for older operating systems and enable this to run on a new Vista PC.
Has anyone tried this?
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i haven’t tried this particular software myself but they are a very handy tool to have,
i use parallels on my imac so i can use some windows programs and it works quite good and it’s very much the same technology as the Microsoft program you are looking at.
i have heard of another program a few years ago called vm ware witch does the same thing.
best advice is to google form some reviews of the software as look for some user reviews of it.
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quote Phill:Well my daughter is pleased with her new PC.I have now been reading about Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 which allows you to install older operating systems such as windows 98 to run as a virtual machine on your new Vista driven PC
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspxThe blurb states that installing this will allow you to install older software designed for older operating systems and enable this to run on a new Vista PC.
Has anyone tried this?
Yes I have used it on XP to run 98 programs, works very well you can have swap folder so you can use in both op systems it would only see a lpt port on XP not used it on vista yet.
Nick.
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ahh.. now i didn’t know it was going to be free… cheers phill, might have solved a double pc issue i have
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It was not free till vista came out, does that tell you some thing 😕
Nick.
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now thinking about it, parallel security dongles in windows 98 etc.. will it work i wonder?
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Dave I used it to run the Pi v6 software it was only the server part that did not work in XP, the down load lead was a parallel port and worked fine
Nick.
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I’m guessing that the main problem for most people will be the lack of an LPT1 port on new PC’s. And the Blurb on Virtual windows says that it does not recognise USB ports ? So how do you run dongle protected software?
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it may work with a usb to serial/parallel adapter, not tried though.
if you have an usb dongle then you have a problem.
Nick.
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There are two versions available to download – 32 bit and 64 bit architecture. Is it safe to assume all new PCs now come with 64 bit architecture? How do I determine the right download to use?
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what vista do you have on your laptop?
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Home edition
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if you look at site it says it needs
"Virtual PC 2007 runs on: Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Tablet PC, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise, and Windows Vista Ultimate"
think you need the 32-bit one it used to say it would only run on XP pro but it would work on home ok, only one way to find out Phill :lol1:
make a restore point first just in case!
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Hi Phi
art hey! ! You know she will have here eye on taking over the family business in a few years time starting checking for crushed glass or arsenic in your food.
on a more serious note, my daughter is only 5 and is already showing a great flair for art, we were called down to her school by the head to be told how exceptional she is for her age at 3d and dimensional drawings
she loves watching me, making signs and she already helps me on weeding out ( I am well up for a bit of Slave Labour)I do trick her a lot, she thinks I have made every sign in south wales even on Motorways she says Dad did you make that one Dad? did I help you make that one Dad and says Mum me and Daddy made that sign (This is driving My Wife mad!)
P.S why dont you vinyl her laptop pink? I am sure there are plenty of people out there to give some advice!!!
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sounds like it will be the 32 bit version but there is a 64 bit version as well
best way to check is to right click on my computer and select properties
it should come up with the system information. -
Thanks Michael – I checked and it’s a 32 Bit processor.
Simon – My daughter returned today from a short weekend break away. On her return she discovered via a Dundee University web page that she has been offered an unconditional place on the course beginning in September. We’re all delighted for her.
The laptop I bought her is already pink by the way – so no need to wrap it 😀
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no problem
glad i can help
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Interesting thread but I don’t see Vista Home or Vista Home premium listed as host OS, I wonder if these are excluded from being a host. Anybody know?
Alan D
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