Best laptop for £350

[cptwhite_uk]

Can people give me suggestions. Its for the parents and my knolwedge of the best deal laptops in this price range is non-existant. I'm browing the reviews on ebuyer but dont really know which I should be looking at purchasing.

Anyone with any thoughts?

Really want a nice wide-screen. Pixel density not important, parents dont use native res anyway.
Hard drive size isn't so important -80Gb is ample
Intel dual core / core2duo, would consider AMD Turion X2
Nice quality casing and keyboard
Integrated graphics is fine, but if I can get dedicated that'd be good so I can steal it for LAN parties (older games only).
Ideally 2Gb RAM
CD/DVD Drive, writers not necessary.

Just links with benefits would be sufficient. I can read specs and weight up the pros/cons myself

Thanks for any advice

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

There have been a few threads about notebooks in this price range recently so it is worth checking them out!!

Staples have the Asus X50GL for £350 instore.

It has the following spec:

2ghz Intel T3200
3gb RAM
15.4 inch screen
160gb hard disk
DVD rewriter
Nvidia 8200 integrated graphics
integrated camera
1 year Worldwide warranty

The Nvidia 8200 has good video acceleration features built in and would be good for watching any HD content on the notebook.

The Nvidia 8200 should be OK for older games:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/12...78s/index.html

[cptwhite_uk]

What do people think of this?
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152233...w_order_by=RUF

I know it's a bit over budget, but is it worth the extra over the Staples offering?

[Bluecube]

I saw a nice Lenovo on eBuyer for just a shade under £350. Quite a similar spec to that Asus noted above but Lenovo (ex IBM) have a good reputation for build quality so I would choose it over many others at this price range. Soz, but I can't get a link to it just now.

[cptwhite_uk]

I saw that one Bluecube, but looks like they've removed it since this afternoon. Still the integrated graphics card (Intel X4500) was only about 60% the performance of the ATI HD3200 in this.

HP 6735s (£389) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152233 - - discussed here
Acer Aspire 5535 (£379) http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149936 - discussed here

Are my current picks of the crop from what I've seen.

[Behemoth]

The one you speak of can be found here, it's what I shall be ordering myself this week to replace the Advent that I had and hated

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/v...e=version&PID=

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

If you intend to play any games do not go for Intel integrated graphics!! The drivers suck and the performance is poor!! The previous X3100 and GMA3100 had major issues even with games like COD2!!

The best integrated graphics cards for notebooks at the moment are the ATI HD3200/HD3300 and the Nvidia 8200/8300 and 9300.

[cptwhite_uk]

Hence why I've ordered the HP with 4Gb RAM, Dual core 2.1Ghz AMD Turion and HD 3200

To be fair COD2 is a fairly decent looking engine, even if it is a few years old now. I'd be very happy if the HD3200 was capable of playing COD2 @ 1280x800 with medium settings.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

According to the following reviews COD4 will run at around 25fps at 1074x768 and at 37fps at 800x600 on low settings:

http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardw...t-review.ars/4

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14261/8

[cptwhite_uk]

So the integrated HD3200 is actually a 780G chipset?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The 780G has the HD3200 graphics core.