Which £500 laptop

[Russ]

looking at getting one for christmas, i've seen two today in town :

Buy ACER ASPIRE 7720.082 | 17" widescreen laptop - Specification | Comet
Currys - Shop for Laptops - COMPAQ V6560EA LAPTOP FOR THE HOME AND OFFICE

just wondered if there was anything better for the same money. all it needs tbh is wifi,c2d,vista (for 360 media streaming) and 2gb ram

[staffsMike]

You could get a dell vostro in that budget. 17 or 15". If you order over the phone, push for discounts and you can get fantastic deals.

something like 1.6 core 2 duo, 2gb ram, 160gb HDD even an 8600GT could be had for that budget..perhaps a little more.

[Russ]

dont dell charge a million pounds delivery for every mile you live from mars?

[staffsMike]

well yes but, if there are no current deals on at the moment (free delivery is usually one) then I've always found the delivery charge is negotiable over the phone

EDIT: this is a nice deal as well
Asus X51RL-AP999 Laptop Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 120GB 2048MB DVD-RW WLAN ATI XPRESS X1100 128M Share VRAM 15.4" Vista Home Premium 2 year warranty - Ebuyer

[Agent]

Nothing to do with the specs, but the off-white laptops tend to mark quite easily.
If you're an aesthetics whore like me, it will annoy you quickly if it happens.

[UltraMagnus]

i will second the suggestion on the dell vostro 1500, great, solid laptop

and they only charge a flat rate of about £60 for shipping, which you can haggle off if you try

[usxhe190]

if you buy dell - MAKE them provide free delivery

it should be pretty easy since lots of places have free delivery now.

[this_is_gav]

Bought a load of Vostro's for work, and they weren't shifting on the delivery at all, even arguing that it's part of the price of the laptop rather than a separate charge. Perhaps I just got a bloke on a bad day. Still worked out much cheaper than anywhere else for even a remotely similar spec though.

[merple]

Just out of interest, I've seen you guys mention calling dell up to haggle a few times now.
Just wondering what kind of spec/price you're getting.

[usxhe190]

Bought a load of Vostro's for work, and they weren't shifting on the delivery at all, even arguing that it's part of the price of the laptop rather than a separate charge. Perhaps I just got a bloke on a bad day. Still worked out much cheaper than anywhere else for even a remotely similar spec though.

when this happens, hang up on the guy and call again to find someone who will haggle - this is retail level though not business level...

[this_is_gav]

Yeah, when you've been on the phone for 25mins already (58min total call length) and only just managed to find someone who would accept a school as 'small business' (3rd guy we'd tried), then I was rather inclined to stick with the guy we ended up with.

Did still get a discount of around £20 on each laptop though, which saved around £300 total, so they do still haggle a bit to businesses. I'd have played it stronger had we had a firm contact.

[Gr44]

I managed to get a Vostro 1500 Vista Hom Premium 2Ghz/2GB/160GB/8600GT + truelife + 9 cell & remote for £650 inc.

VAT/Shipping. That was about 2-3 months back so I'm sure you can get it for less now... espically if you go without the upgrades and ditch the GPU.

[Agent]

Thats blinking good mate

[Russ]

rang them and they offered this with the 15" 1400x900 res for 550, i was gonna say yes , but he woulnt drop the shipping