Getting a notebook

[nichomach]

Well, even if the uni don't allow it, lots of comapnies do student licenses for commercial programs (basically, it's a good way of boosting sales later).

[MadduckUK]

Are you sure you want a dell?

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=32550

[Dpool10]

I've been looking for a similar deal to you and for that price the best I could find is the FSC amilo xi1546.

It can be found for a £1000 at nice pc it has decent amount of ram (1gb) a reasonable graphics card ati x1800 only beaten by Nvidia 7900 gs, 7900 gtx and 7800 gtx. It also has intel duo core T2400.

It can be picked up at the following website:

http://www.nice-pc.co.uk/amilo_Xi1546_1024_100gb.html

[phoney_tech]

dpool10 you man are a legend!

you could just have solved my laptop problems in one fell swoop!

whats fujitsu build quality etc like?

[nichomach]

Fujitsu Siemens machines' build quality is generally absolutely fine. Not Rolls Royce, but significantly better, IME, than say Acer. Also, users here who've dealt with their support have been complimentary.

[phoney_tech]

cheers nicho!

that about settles it then once i see a review or two will most likely be buying one that is one hell of a price/performance especially if you get the 2ghz core duo machine with 200gb hd though i want to find out how easy it is to upgrade the memory to 2gb as that would round out the laptop

[FInalD]

It's not that hard at all, memory upgrades are some of the easiest things to upgrade with a laptop (apart from battery or PC card).

Here is one site you can get it, and here is another. Just make sure you know what number of pins the SO-DIMM RAM has. The price of memory for laptops isn't that high which means you can easily buy two sticks of 1024MB (1GB) RAM and slot them into your laptop giving you a lovely 2GB. Laptops only have the two memory slots so you'll have to buy two sticks of 1024MB RAM.



InvG

[fredered]

whats fujitsu build quality etc like?

Build quality seems to be fine apart from there is a line of their notebooks where the plastic all starts cracking up, last I heard they were denying it was a problem and saying people must have dropped them [the numbers made it seem unlikely] if you do go for fujitsu I would search to make sure it is not an affected model or they have fixed the problem

[Gerrard]

There is some info on the Xi 1546 here :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/show...t=amilo+xi1546
You will notice on the the next page that it also has the highest performance/price ratio in the list. The only problem I know of with FSC is the stuttering bug on M3438s described in a link in that forum. Haven't heard whether it exists with these yet.

[phoney_tech]

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Yeah know memory is easy to upgrade but ive never had a laptop before so was just checking as to how easy it was or if id have to think about it.

Reckon that is a pretty good deal apparently it doesnt suffer the raid0 problems with stuttering so i read.

Havent read anything about the plastics problem with the xi but im guessing its too new for anyone to have found that yet.

[Dpool10]

Hey just to let you guys know, I have now ordered my new laptop and although I was looking at the FSC amilo xi1546 from nice PC, have now switched to the lower model of the dell xps M1710. The reason being that I phoned them up and managed to get a really good specs, at a great price of £1175, this includes delivery.

You can check the specs out below:

Intel ® Core™ Duo Processor T2500 (2 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2
Memory 2048MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
Video Card 256MB NIVIDIA7® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS
Hard Drive[ 80GB (5,400 rpm) Hard Drive
CD/DVD Drives 24xCDRW/8x DVD Combo Drive With Software (with Media)
LCD 17 inch UltraSharp™ WUXGA display with TrueLife™ Display resolution: 1920 x 1200
Standard Warranty 1-Year International On-site service
Cover It with Dell Support Services 1-Year On-site service

Note the 2048MB of ram plus it has faster processor and a better graphics card and LCD screen compared to the amilo xi1546.

The best way to get a deal like this is to phone up dell now state that the best price you've seen for this on the net is £1233. This is true as the best way to get dell pcs and laptops on the net is through the following sites:

http://www.dmxdimension.com/

http://www.wizmarkcomputers.co.uk/index.html

which as stated presently has the above configuration at £1233. Tell them that this is to expensive and your interested in the amilo xi1546 for a £1000 and they will offer you a deal. I'm sure if you bargin longer you may get a even better deal then me.

Hope this help you guys.