Laptop Advice - what to buy

[marman]

Hi there

Recently bought a new external hddisk after some great advice from here,

im now looking for a new (first) laptop... I have around £1000 to spend and want "XP" not vista

What i would like it to do; Video editing on the move, photoshop, adobe premiere, dreamweaver and after effects,

Pref intel core 2 processor, 2gb ram minimum, 17" TFT minimum and as big a hardisk as i can get, a dvd r/w if HD a HUGE bonus, firewire on the machine for capturing from camera... and pref a card reader which takes Compact flash

What do you recomend?

Thanks

Marcus

Pimp away with links or if you have something for sale etc,...

[lodore]

what about dell PrecisionTM M6300?
link
lodore

[darrensen]

Hi,

Asus are well known for making good quality products and when i comes to laptops they are top notch!

Take a look at these...

Asus Laptop - A7J-R004M,A7G-R005H, Multimedia, TV, 17" WXGA -

Only downside is that it comes with Vista, so you would have to get a license of XP. But as it's a fair bit under your budget you could buy an OEM XP license.

[marman]

thanks for those links so far, the asus ones seem good, however distinct lack of HD space... 160gb is no good

anyone found acer to make good laptops? i love my acer monitor

(i already have XP license aswel)

thanks again

[darrensen]

The next step up in the Asus range is a fair jump in price...

Asus Laptop - W2, W2V, Multimedia Top Range, 17" WSXGA -

Or can i recommend buying a Macbook Pro? You can install XP on it no problem and after all the tasks your going to run, people do on Macs all the time. However it is a little over budget, but a perfect solution to your needs.

Apple Store - U.K. - MacBook Pro

[marman]

ahh i completely forgot apple will run windows now... hmmm

its a real shame there isnt a good pc inbetween with asus, they seem to skip[ £500 step

[staffsMike]

Dell Vostro 1700 ticks all but one box

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

You can have Core 2 Duo, 17" (1920 x 1200 if desired), 320gb Hard Drive, Dvd Writer, pretty sure they have firewire.

But.. it comes with Vista (on the net) Most people I know who have ordered them have been able to request XP but even if you don't you should be able to factor in a copy on top of the laptop as its very cheap for what you get

[marman]

thanks for the dell, build your own link, A nice spec machine came out at £1200 inc vat .. eek lol

[staffsMike]

easiest way to drop the price would be to lower the warranty I guess but at that sort of price they are quite handy to have.

I'm assuming it's £1200 with 3 years on site warranty

[marman]

Yes i believe it was a 3 year warranty, didnt see an option to take it off?

[staffsMike]

click on the box that's comes up (about a third down the first page) which informs you of the warranty.

The box then drops down and you can change it

[marman]

Ok, slightly over budget BUT.. looks like its great for what i want:

BASE Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.40 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT Base Warranty - 1 Year Business Hardware Support
LCD 17.0" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1900x1200) TFT Display with TrueLife™
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Matte Jet Black with 2.0 mega pixel camera
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
HARD DRIVE 320GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)

£1200

[StaffsKieran]

It might be an Idea to buy the hard drive elsewhere and upgrade. You can get 250GB drives from scan for £100.

Otherwise if you're happy it looks like a great laptop.

It's staffsMike btw.. just highjacked Staffskierans pc

You can extend the warranty before the end of the first year if you want. Might be an idea with all that hardware.

And you won't see any particular performance gain from the the 2.4 over the 2.2

[marman]

cheers dude, you have been super helpful