Laptop advice needed please

[Alison556]

We're going to get my niece a laptop for her Christmas and I'm trying to decide which kind. We're not looking to spend a fortune on it as she's only 11 and it'll be her first computer. It's mainly to help with her schoolwork - not for faffing around on Bebo or whatever!

I was looking at a Compaq laptop - seems quite nice but there are two, almost the same apart from the processors and graphics on them.

One has a 2GHz AMD Sempron™ Processor for Notebook PCs SI-40 and NVIDIA GeForce 8200M graphics with up to 319 MB Total Available Graphics Memory. It also has 3 USB ports as well as an HDMI connector.

The other one has Intel® Celeron® Processor 575 and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD graphics with up to 253 MB Total Available Graphics memory. It has 3 USB ports only.

They both have 1gb of RAM and 120gb hard drive.

I don't know much about processors and graphics and whatnot, so can anyone tell me which is the better laptop out of the two please?

 

[tim west]

Alison as you stated its mainly only for schoolwork then the likes of HDMI outputs etc are an unnecessary addition, go for the cheapest as they both will handle the schoolwork asked of them, my two use Acers the cheapest ones i could get from tescos at the time and they have no complaints.

When they get serious about computing and need more i'll buy accordinglyunless of course they are working by then and they can get their own

 

[Alison556]

Believe it or not, the one with the HDMI output is the cheaper of the two! It's only £12 cheaper but still cheaper. One's in Comet the other in Curry's. The cheapest I could find in Tesco was an e-Machines which is £21 cheaper than the Compaq. The difference is that the Compaq has the numeric keypad on it and I think that would be handy if she was doing any sort of maths things.

It's a bloomin minefield. My computer is a Dell and I've had it years and (frantically touching wood) it's never given me any bother, but Dell's are a lot more expensive than the ones I've been looking at.

My biggest gripe about any of them is that they all have Vista! I'll have to have a crash course in it to set it up for her!

 

[JonB]

My wife has just got a new Toshiba laptop on Vista & IE8. She was using ME on the old desktop, she thinks its great.
JonB

 

[Softus]

Alison, there's no much to choose between those two, but it would be useful to know the model numbers and the asking prices.

 

[Alison556]

The first one is the Compaq CQ60 109EM from Comet for £309.99 and the second one is the Compaq CQ60 111EM from Currys at £322.00.

There isn't much in the spec apart from the processor and graphics. They're both wireless and I THINK they both have built in webcams - though I'm not particularly concerned about a webcam - I don't really want her going on chat rooms and things with a webcam - too many dodgy people out there.

 

[Doc Lenny]

You can get a Dell for a similar price, the Vostro A860. You have to select small business on the website. Not sure of delivery times though as they are showing a delay.

 

[Alison556]

Ooh, I never thought of that. Checked out on their website and it was a good price, phoned to ask the delivery times and basically got told to naff off because I'm not a business!! Thought I could get round it but they asked for my business postcode. Bit of a bummer.

 

[Estrella]

After an afternoon spent configuring two of these , I must say I am not impressed. They feel cheap and I can imagine most kids trashing them by the new year.

 

[tim west]

though I'm not particularly concerned about a webcam - I don't really want her going on chat rooms and things with a webcam - too many dodgy people out there.

But this is a chat room isnt it? oops no its a forum, ok Alison ignore the PM i sent you about being 6'6 tall slim, muscular and having a huge...

 

[Alison556]

My friend originally looked at them for her kids and although I don't know that much about computers, I wasn't impressed with them either.

I'm bleeding furious though. I went into Comet with my mum to have a look at the Compaq - that's all I was going to do - have a look. The guy was so pushy though and kept saying that it was the only one in the shop, they'd all sold out, blah blah and my mum, all worried that we wouldn't be able to get one, started believing him and before I knew where I was, I'd agreed to buy the bloody thing. Then he informed me that I'd need them to make up the recovery discs - no, I reckon I could do that myself, but away he went again about how I could knacker everything up and they'd keep a copy of all the data so that if I lost the discs, they'd have a copy and all the while, mother is nodding away, so I ended up with £15 for recovery discs, then he collared me on the way to the till and said that I'd really need Windows One Care because it was easiest to use and what I was using for antivirus (Avira Security Suite) was terrible and this would protect the system, blah blah, oh yeah and if I got it, I could have a deal on a case, wireless mouse and flashdrive. And all the while, mother is nodding frantically (she knows bugger all about computers). So, I'm now £387 lighter but discovered that he's ripped me right off by about £50 compared to their online price.

So guess where I'm away to go to? Back to Comet.

 

[Alison556]

though I'm not particularly concerned about a webcam - I don't really want her going on chat rooms and things with a webcam - too many dodgy people out there.

But this is a chat room isnt it? oops no its a forum, ok Alison ignore the PM i sent you about being 6'6 tall slim, muscular and having a huge...

keyboard????

Ignore my photo then of the 5'10" size 8 blonde with huge.....................



blue eyes.

 

[Estrella]

'm bleeding furious though. I went into Comet with my mum to have a look at the Compaq - that's all I was going to do - have a look. The guy was so pushy though and kept saying that it was the only one in the shop, they'd all sold out, blah blah and my mum, all worried that we wouldn't be able to get one, started believing him and before I knew where I was, I'd agreed to buy the b****y thing. Then he informed me that I'd need them to make up the recovery discs - no, I reckon I could do that myself, but away he went again about how I could knacker everything up and they'd keep a copy of all the data so that if I lost the discs, they'd have a copy and all the while, mother is nodding away, so I ended up with £15 for recovery discs, then he collared me on the way to the till and said that I'd really need Windows One Care because it was easiest to use and what I was using for antivirus (Avira Security Suite) was terrible and this would protect the system, blah blah, oh yeah and if I got it, I could have a deal on a case, wireless mouse and flashdrive. And all the while, mother is nodding frantically (she knows b*****r all about computers). So, I'm now £387 lighter but discovered that he's ripped me right off by about £50 compared to their online price.

So guess where I'm away to go to? Back to Comet.

A trained chimp can create the backup discs.As demonstrated by the trained chimp that served you.

Avira is fine, as is Avast, AVG and others. All of which are free for personal use.

 

[tim west]

Ignore my photo then of the 5'10" size 8 blonde with huge.....................



blue eyes.

Its got pride of place on my laptop as my new wallpaper (wolf whistle)

 

[Alison556]

'm bleeding furious though. I went into Comet with my mum to have a look at the Compaq - that's all I was going to do - have a look. The guy was so pushy though and kept saying that it was the only one in the shop, they'd all sold out, blah blah and my mum, all worried that we wouldn't be able to get one, started believing him and before I knew where I was, I'd agreed to buy the b****y thing. Then he informed me that I'd need them to make up the recovery discs - no, I reckon I could do that myself, but away he went again about how I could knacker everything up and they'd keep a copy of all the data so that if I lost the discs, they'd have a copy and all the while, mother is nodding away, so I ended up with £15 for recovery discs, then he collared me on the way to the till and said that I'd really need Windows One Care because it was easiest to use and what I was using for antivirus (Avira Security Suite) was terrible and this would protect the system, blah blah, oh yeah and if I got it, I could have a deal on a case, wireless mouse and flashdrive. And all the while, mother is nodding frantically (she knows b*****r all about computers). So, I'm now £387 lighter but discovered that he's ripped me right off by about £50 compared to their online price.

So guess where I'm away to go to? Back to Comet.

A trained chimp can create the backup discs.As demonstrated by the trained chimp that served you.

Avira is fine, as is Avast, AVG and others. All of which are free for personal use.

The thing is, I know this, but for some reason, I got pushed into it all. Harassment, the bloomin noise in the shop, this greasy looking salesman and a worried mother didn't help.

He tried telling me that I was killing my own computer by using different anti-viruses (30 day free trials) because information was left on my system from the programmes - yes, that's why I use the likes of Revo and check my registry as well - that shut him up for all of 10 seconds.