what kind of laptop do you recommend?

[John Gregson]

something that’s bullet proof hopefully :lol1:

[Hugh Potter]

quote John Gregson:

something that’s bullet proof hopefully :lol1:

lol, kevlar coated titanium laptop anyone?

i was rather embarrassed by my outburst last night, as mrs called thru i was just ppicking up the laptop, it was about three seconds away from colliding the corner of our big pine table at high velocity. last thing i really wanted was a broken laptop and a rollocking for making a mess on the floor!

[Peter Dee]

Hugh. Why the rush?

There are so many variables that you can’t just rush out and get one.

You know the saying, buy in haste….

I would recommend a good brand name with service and backup being forefront plus as much ram as possible (2Gb).

I bought my Toshiba Satellite Pro with XP rather than Vista – something which a lot of buyers are doing – especially if it is for work.

Everyone will have their preferences so it’s more what you need it for etc which will determine what specification you get.

Dual core processors are now commonplace. If you think you have found one you like, take the time to do some web research on it for problems or appraisals.
You can also shop around for price.
I can highly recommend Dabs.com for both price and service.
Beware of the likes of PC World etc who tend to cater for the domestic market.

[John Gregson]

its always the wife that catches you when your doing a basil fawlty. :lol1:

[David Lowery]

The fault with your existing one maybe the nut on the keyboard 😕

[Hugh Potter]

quote Peter Dee:

Hugh. Why the rush?

There are so many variables that you can’t just rush out and get one.

You know the saying, buy in haste….

I would recommend a good brand name with service and backup being forefront plus as much ram as possible (2Gb).

I bought my Toshiba Satellite Pro with XP rather than Vista – something which a lot of buyers are doing – especially if it is for work.

Everyone will have their preferences so it’s more what you need it for etc which will determine what specification you get.

Dual core processors are now commonplace. If you think you have found one you like, take the time to do some web research on it for problems or appraisals.
You can also shop around for price.
I can highly recommend Dabs.com for both price and service.
Beware of the likes of PC World etc who tend to cater for the domestic market.

hi mate,

the reason for the hurry, is that i have a £500 job that need to be cut, applied and fitted by tommorow 2pm, a £300 job monday, and a shed load of artwork, it’s having go slows every time it has to think about the slightest thing, can’t work like that!!!

i guess i should look at ti from the point of view that i’ve had 40months out of it (top of the range fujutsu at the time), so it’s well paid for, and it’ll go on longer, but, i just don’t have the time to faff about !

dave n rob…. probably.
John… yup! and not the first time either!!

[Hugh Potter]

re vista vs xp, if i have to get one with vista, will coreldraw 12 and summa cutter / software all still work ok on it ?

[John Gregson]

For the computer – it depends on which way you look at it. You could buy the most expensive kit and have to upgrade certain parts after a year then replace the whole thing after 2 – 3 years. Or you could buy cheaper and more often with out the need for individual updates.

Given your tendency ( and mine by the way ) to demolish things – I would be tempted to buy cheaper and more often.

Cheers John

[Hugh Potter]

quote John Gregson:

For the computer – it depends on which way you look at it. You could buy the most expensive kit and have to upgrade certain parts after a year then replace the whole thing after 2 – 3 years. Or you could buy cheaper and more often with out the need for individual updates.

Given your tendency ( and mine by the way ) to demolish things – I would be tempted to buy cheaper and more often.

Cheers John

i think in general, i’m very good with computers and things, frustration has just got the better of me his time, i won’t be spilling coffee on it again, I’ll stick to tea!! (did that twice before coffee and it was fine!), seriously though, i had 30 months with no troubles what so ever, and still think it’s beter to buy the best you can,

been trawling staples, pcworld and curries sites, and most of the laptops are pwp, if they have xp they’re small hdd, or low on graphics etc, i’m now leaning toward one of the ‘entertainment’ based laptops, being aimed at gamers and movie makers etc, they have big drives, lots of ram, and dedicated, not shared, graphics card (ideal for the sign software),

anyone got any opinions on this one ???

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/c … mh.0&page=
Product&fm=1&sm=0&tm=2&sku=317724&category_oid=#productInformationSection

[Hugh Potter]

hmm, found virtualy the same laptop (smaller hdd) for a whole lot less here…

http://www.staples.co.uk/ENG/Catalog/ca … xedcode=WW

good deal ?

[Peter Dee]

Nice bit of kit Hugh. My previous laptop was a Fujitsu which went back twice in the first year and I finally got a full refund due to the inability of their repair dept to sort out a fault.

Have a look at the Toshiba site for full specs.
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ … _ID=129581

Using it for business I would recommend the approx £140 for a full 3 year on-site warranty. I did this on the Toshiba website and they are true to their word.
Laptops in particular are a big problem if they go wrong so it’s real peace of mind.

[John Gregson]

Hi Hugh, the second one would be the one for me – not a bad price too.

[Peter Dee]

The Staples one is not such a good spec. It has an AMD processor rather than Intel).

Looks like the main loss apart from the HD is the graphics card.
The Staples one uses shared system memory (no dedicated) whereas the dearer one has 256Mb dedicated ram.

View the full specs here:
P200-1FC
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ … _ID=137284

P200D-11R
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ … D=137263#0

You get what you pay for.

[Cheryl Smith]

I like the look of this one
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ … Shop=false

[Peter Dee]

Yes Cheryl – slightly better processor and a HD DVD drive.

Hugh, always check out the graphics card fitted as that’s what you will be reliant on. Wouldn’t go for the Staples one IMHO.

[Hugh Potter]

must be honest, i realised the staples had too less a spec after i posted it but figured you’d all have probably seen it anyways!!

gonna pop down to curys to look at the first one in a bit, my only concern is whether my software will all run fine on vista.

might use mrs laptop for a bit while i decide, trouble is, it’s only celeron and slow as fcuk when corel does anything remotely interesting!!

[Cheryl Smith]

mind you….this one looks even better!
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ … dID=137381
I think it would be worth splashing out £1 to read the write up on it in which before splashing out £1999 tho.

[Hugh Potter]

kinell Cheryl, how much!! thought my last was enough at £1100!!

my dad always warned me about girls having expensive tastes !!

[Steve Underhill]

Agree with pretty much everything Peter said above, except being reliant on the graphics card, if you are working in 2d, IE photoshop corel draw etc it isnt so much of an issue unless its an onboard graphics card sharing the physical ram.

Pretty much all the processing is done by the Ram, the scratch disk (hard drive) and CPU, in that order.
the graphics card deals with 3d operations, unless you buy a specific card to accelerate 2d graphics such as oxygen cards etc.
the faster the hard disk the better the scratch disk performance)
more expensive graphics cards are primarily used for gaming, for instance a 64 meg radeon 7000 will run corel or photoshop just as well as a £1000 twin sli setup.
When you apply a filter in photoshop or resize a document in corel etc it is the CPU and physical ram that processes the operation, not the graphics card.

That said, agree with peter on all other counts.
You get what you pay for, Sony is the exception to this rule as far as laptops go, they are nice but overpriced.
Toshiba, Asus (lesser known in the laptop market but a top name in the graphics card market) dont mistake it for Acer.. (bad support)
Samsung, Fujitsu, are among the best makes we have found to be most reliable.
Compaq is very fussy on replacement memory, there are so many variables its crazy.
Avoid Dell like the plague, we get more Dell machines in for repair that any other brand without fail every year, same for emachines, packard bell, HP, etc.
We call all these "friday afternoon" machines IE they are made on a friday afternoon in the dell factory etc while they guy building it is thinking about his weekend down the pub and looking at the clock rather than the job in hand.

To sum up.
This talking from the experience of owning a computer repair shop for the last 7 years (come January)
We see trends of all kinds, but one that we do see is that a lot of big name brands have silly faults that should never have happenned, we had a hewlett packard desktop in once and the slave CD drive wasnt connected and was set to master anyway!!
As I said Friday afternoon jobs.
Here are some websites we use as trade suppliers, you will pay retail obviously but there isnt a lot of difference.
Micro direct, good service and quick to answer the phone
Misco, same as above.
Planet micro, ok but not as good as the top 2.
Avoid Ebuyer at all cost, you will return an item and not hear for 6 weeks.
If you dont have any luck try one of these sites, if still no luck PM me and I will give you my log in details for Midwich, who do laptops but only to trade, you may find a deal there.

As I said these are not personal opinions ion brands/suppliers etc they are being recounted from 7 years in the game.
Hope this helps.

[Graeme Harrold]

Im on my second Compaq in 6 years, not a bad computer. For bomb proofness Id go with a Toshiba as Ive had a couple in the past. 1 dropped several times, and the other jumped on to ensure it could not be repaired……..and that took some doing. Quality go for Tosh, cheap with good spec, then go for Compaq………..

[Hugh Potter]

thanks for the replies all

[Jon Marshall]

Bought loads from Ebuyer and never had a problem. Even when returning stuff.

Laptops are pretty cheap now whether you buy online or in store. I’d be tempted to buy in store so you can take it back if you get problems.

[Nicola McIntosh]

hugh i just bought a lappy from currys……didnt think i would, but eventually gave in …and im highly delighted with it….specially when it was reduced from 799 to 499….does everything for me…. :lol1:

toshiba are the tops in laptops as they invented them and make the most robust ones on the market…….cheryl…your making tooooo much money :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

nik

[Steve Underhill]

Indeed they did Nik (as we know it)
but you might find this interesting

The laptop computer was actually invented by Adam Osborne in 1981 (seriously)
heres a picture
http://ligon.wcpss.net/dept/tech/studentprojects/ecdpage/ppt_Osborne1.jpg

This might interest anyone wondering about the roots of their PC

http://www.pattosoft.com.au/jason/Articles/HistoryOfComputers/1970s.html

Toshiba may have been the frontrunners but all these guys paved the way.

[Nicola McIntosh]

i know that already……my cousin designs the motherboards for applemac and his buddie is bill gates 😉

nik

[Steve Underhill]

See if they need a new sign, Im sure they can afford it :lol1:

[Nicola McIntosh]

quote Steve Underhill:

See if they need a new sign, Im sure they can afford it :lol1:

exactly 😉

nik

[Cheryl Smith]

Thanks Hugh for starting this thread as i need all the info contained in it.

My ‘Time’ laptop has finally come to the end of its life, it just turns off when it wants to without warning.
I have been browsing for a while for notebooks and there are so many out there that you could be left tied up for ages in computer babble. I know I need a good screen size 17"…high res dpi format…the colour has to be spot on…no point in designing something that looks red on the screen and prints pink (I am not sure how to spot that in a comp under the technical section…but you hope if you go for recommended and higher end graphic-gaming comps, this is pretty much a standard. A good processing speed, I think you see this in the technical as GHz and MGz so I just look for the largest numbers…as a go slow, monotonous, dreary, hate inducing, going backward speed is no good for anybodys mental and emotional health! When working with photo shop, corel etc…you need instant response!
I have learnt it is worth splashing out when it comes to the tools that you use everyday…there is no point in buying something which will send you to an early grave! Then there is the Memory…again higher the numbers the better. A good battery life is helpful, if you get some free design time between jobs, it would drive you nuts if it takes 15mins to run out of power, or to have to drag out all the cables to plug it in.
I am not worried if it doesn’t look expensive, but shiny would be nice!
These are sort of the general rules I am going by at the moment…its no wonder I am taking my time…with the money involved it would be nice to not make a mistake. So if anyone sees any basic flaws in my basic ‘how to shop comp’ method…please let me know.

As for desktop, I am also considering going for a MAC…I have heard that for graphic work, they are second to none, and the guy who recommended MAC to me, dribbles with excitement when he talks about how good his is!!

Cx

[Cheryl Smith]

quote Nicola Rowlands:

…….cheryl…your making tooooo much money :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:

nik

Isnt everybody in the signwriting game making loads of dough????
Cx 😀

[Peter Dee]

Hugh, if you get a Toshiba, have a look here at the warranty upgrades.
Well worth the 3 year deal for laptops.
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ … e_warranty

[Hugh Potter]

cheers, i’l get the warranty for sure.

i paid for a 3yr warranty (£130) with my fujtsu, but, the company said i shoulda registered it within 28days, i never received one, nor did they ask why i hadn’t returned something i should have received, to them as course. fujitsu said it was down to the reseller to send in the registration upon the point of sale, if they sold it with the laptop.

neither would pay for my repair.

so, never, ever, buy a laptop from shop@fujitsu as i think they were called. tossers !

[Cheryl Smith]

Hugh, did you buy one? please let us no how it fairs.
Cheryl

[Peter Mindham]

Hi Hugh

Whatever you buy, I would suggest an external hard drive for your data. I have three, all 250gb+. This means that all my serious data, company files, customer jobs etc can be moved around very easily. Also, if a PC decides to die. I can just move the hard drive to another PC and keep on working!

The third of the trio is a backup which I do every day and then store it away safely.

The drives are getting lower with a 250gb under £100.00 in most shops.

They are not ‘Hugh on a throw toys out of pram, and generally behave like a WWF wrestler’ proof though!! 😀 😀 😀

Peter

[Cheryl Smith]

That is an excellent point Peter, and a (thanks for the reminder) to constantly back up. filled up my last external hard drive, and just gone and bought a 500mb for £105. worth getting a fireproof safe to keep it in too or at least keep a copy off site.

[Peter Shaw]

On the subject of backups, don’t forget that that rewritable DVDs cost very little and hold 4Gb. They are quick and easy to write and take little room in your case/bag.

I backup every day so I always have an offsite backup as well as an automatic copying system giving me 2 onsite copies. These ensure that no computer hardware failure will stop production as the other copy is available on the network.

Peter

[Steve Underhill]

Once Blu-ray drives come down in price as they inevitably will, get one of those you can store 25gb of data on one disc.
I remember when bought my first external 7 gigabyte hard disk, £210 it was
how times change.

[David Rowland]

Desktop computers are small hugh.. I not read thru the thread but I have installed a few of these.. great bit of kit
http://ecomm.euro.dell.com/dellstore/ba … 646b3a5b8f
Gotta go

[John Childs]

quote Steve Underhill:

I remember when bought my first external 7 gigabyte hard disk, £210 it was how times change.

Indeed they do.

How about 1gig for £1,000. It’s still under a bench somewhere.

[Phill Fenton]

My first PC was an Amstrad 1640 – it had a 20mb hard drive 😕

[Peter Shaw]

In my former life, in an slightly obscure part of the computer industry, I was involved in designing some hardware systems. One of our dreams was to implement systems containing disk storage at target cost of £1 per Megabyte. Seems ridiculous now!

[Cheryl Smith]

my first mobile phone was the size of a breeze block. didnt have a computer until about 9 years ago, before then I had to draw EVERYTHING! dont know how I managed or made any money!

[Andre Woodcock]

Talking about the past. My first computer was a superfast one with lots of storage space and ram. That was an Apple Macintosh Plus. Check the specs:
Monitor – 8"
Ram – 2MB
HD. 10Mb
speed; 8mhz

Yet I was working on pagemaker, Illustrator 88 and so on.

That was the good old days

[Alan Drury]

Phil I had one of those twin floppy drives (5") hard disk upgrade came later.
Alan D

[Cheryl Smith]

Ive gone for this one
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/ … _ID=137485
with the extended warranty.
you get 5 free films with it and money back guarantee for the 3 years.
cant wait to see HD for the first time!
Ill let you know how it fairs.

[Peter Dee]

Nice bit of kit Cheryl, similar to mine.

One thing I did though was uninstall the bundled Norton in favour of McAfee.
I’ve never known a piece of software be so intrusive during day to day use!

I actually messed up the boot up when changing partitions and using the recovery disk worked a dream.
You are able to format the whole HD or just the boot partition which was dead handy as I keep all my work on other partitions (as well as backed up).

[Cheryl Smith]

kewl, yeh Ive used mcafee for a while and not had much bother, like you, Id rather stick with what I know. cant wait to get my sticky mitts on it!
just wish it came with xp n not vista 😕