Finally got the cash - need advice on new laptop

[george1979]

Hi,

So the student loan money has arrived and I need a new gadget!

I saw this on the Dell site http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15...n&s=dhs&~ck=mn

There's a 7% off code available which brings the cost down to 603.57, delivered.

So quad core i7, 1080p anti glare screen, blu ray, AMD 7730M, 32Gb mSATA SSD, 1Tb HDD and 8Gb ram.

My question/challenge for my fellow Hexites is - is there anything out there that's better value atm? I've been looking around and I've not found much that compares. Also is the build quality and reliabilty of Dell lappys decent?

I was initially thinking I'd get a cheaper lappy and a new Nexus 7 but I could use this for video editing too so might leave the Nexus 7 for the time being.

Thanks in advance

[Megalon]

Sorry to jack the thread - but whereabouts is the 7% off code. Are you sure that comes with the mSATA SSD? Couldn't see it myself

Hi,

So the student loan money has arrived and I need a new gadget!

I saw this on the Dell site http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15...n&s=dhs&~ck=mn

There's a 7% off code available which brings the cost down to 603.57, delivered.

So quad core i7, 1080p anti glare screen, blu ray, AMD 7730M, 32Gb mSATA SSD, 1Tb HDD and 8Gb ram.

My question/challenge for my fellow Hexites is - is there anything out there that's better value atm? I've been looking around and I've not found much that compares. Also is the build quality and reliabilty of Dell lappys decent?

I was initially thinking I'd get a cheaper lappy and a new Nexus 7 but I could use this for video editing too so might leave the Nexus 7 for the time being.

Thanks in advance

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What is the main use of the laptop??

[george1979]

Sorry to jack the thread - but whereabouts is the 7% off code. Are you sure that comes with the mSATA SSD? Couldn't see it myself

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/to...l=en&cs=ukdhs1

CAT- initially it was just for web browsing, movies, music, light gaming and office type work. Also for transferring footage while on a shoot. When I saw this I thought it would allow me to also do some video editing - I didn't think I'd get that kind of spec for £600.

[Megalon]

Cheers - think there is an NUS extra code for 8% if that makes a difference

[TheAnimus]

The speed of the HDD will be an issue I'd guess for video editing work, the limited SSD space will be irksome aswell.

It might be worth budging for some external USB3 HDDs that are faster.

[nibbler]

Don't forget to quidco if you buy from dell

[scaryjim]

If you're only doing light gaming you might be just as happy with an A10-4600M, and you can get laptops with those in for not much more than £400, giving you plenty of spare cash to buy external storage/Nexus 7/decent food

I picked up my new lappy from Currys, cost £429 but for that I got the A10 with 8GB RAM and a 1TB hard drive. It's surprisingly nippy even without an SSD, plenty of grunt for gaming, and it's also got a really nice keyboard for typing (the main reason I don't have a 14" H with a touchscreen, tbh).

This is the one I got: appears to have gone up in price slightly since I bought it, but ti's still a decent spec for the price:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computi...49716-pdt.html

Of course, an i7-QM and HD 7730 will give a lot more performance, but really it's down to what's more important to you - sticking to a reasonable budget, or splashing out on an uber-spec. For instance, you say you'll do "light" gaming, so frankly even Intel integrated graphics would probably be good enough (my wife runs the new UFO on a dual-core Pentium/IGP). You "might" do video editing, but will that be a main use, and will that be better served by a faster CPU or can it be OpenGL accelerated? And does it actually need a high spec machine? What programs would you be using and what size video files would you be working on?

It's all relevant, after all

That said - if you want it and you reckon you can afford it, what's stopping you? Is it just that you want to know if you can get better for the money? 'Cause I think you already know the answer to that...

EDIT to add: as Megalon says, there's no mention of the mSATA SSD on the specs page - you might want to recheck that...

[george1979]

Damn you and your logic Jim! I think you may be right though. I use my desktop for editing and 'heavy' gaming. I'd be better served buying more SD cards so I don't have to transfer while on a shoot and putting the laptop funds towards upgrading it to a haswell chip.

I think all that was stopping me was that I wasn't convinced I really needed a lappy. Just needed a calmer head to steer me right. I got as far as creating the basket and started putting in my card details before I thought I'd perhaps better sleep on it.

Definitely gonna buy the Nexus 7 though - I feel like I really need a new gadget as I haven't bought something shiny in 12 whole months!
I can justify (ahem) the Nexus as I can use it as a video monitor connected to my dslr...

Thanks