Which laptop would you go for?

[Nobull]

Ok so got a budget of about £360 which of these two options do you think is better spec for the money

This Compaq CQ60:
AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core QL-65 2.1GHz
4GB DDR2
NVIDIA GeForce 8200M G
160GB 5400rpm SATA
HDMI out
WinVista Premium with free win7 upgrade

Price £350

or this Dell Inspiron
Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200
2 GB Ram
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
250GB HD
No HDMI out (that I can see)
WinVista Premium with free win7 upgrade

Price £330 plus ~£30 for an extra 2GB RAM (if someone knows what type of RAM this one takes and a good place to get it that would be an immense help, I presume its 800mhz)
Total:£360

Option 3: something you guys would recommend at this price point....

Cheers once again people

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Dell has a bigger screen, faster processor and probably better battery life if the battery capacities of both laptops are the same.

However the Compaq has better integrated graphics performance and better HD video acceleration features too.

[nightkhaos]

The Dell has a bigger screen, faster processor and probably better battery life if the battery capacities of both laptops are the same.

However the Compaq has better integrated graphics performance and better HD video acceleration features too.

So on the fence as well? I can't decide either.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

So on the fence as well? I can't decide either.

I would probably go for the Dell as it has a bigger screen and for word processing and watching videos this will be more useful. The X4500 is not the best integrated graphics available but the CPU should be powerful enough to help out IMHO.

[Nobull]

So on the fence as well? I can't decide either.

Glad I'm not the only 1...looking at this benchmark both CPUs are good for this price range, tho the T4200 is undeniably better. Better graphics is quite important but the smaller HD is slightly annoying. Theres always external HD option at a later date of course...decisions decisions...

[Nobull]

I would probably go for the Dell as it has a bigger screen and for word processing and watching videos this will be more useful. The X4500 is not the best integrated graphics available but the CPU should be powerful enough to help out IMHO.

Any idea how I find what speed memory it takes and whether it's an easy upgrade? Never bought dell before and I've heard they're not always easiest to upgrade on your own...

[badger]

Dell are usually okay for upgrading memory, mine is a couple years old but it was painless to swap out memory and hard drive.

[Zhaoman]

i think the decision is simple:

go for the Compaq if you need the oomph from the 8200 (ie light gaming),

in all other cases go for the Dell since it is the better laptop.

I'd lean towards the Dell personally because neither of them have a blu-ray player so the integrated graphics on the Dell aren't such a deal breaker. Uses less power too

[matty-hodgson]

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home...IR&lid=SHP_BK3

considered this?
free upgrade to 4GB RAM
Vista Home Premium (upgrade to W7)

£349 including delivery.

(LED screen for an extra £10 too )

[spoon_]

Dell would get my vote here, very easy like badger said to upgrade HDD/RAM.

[TooNice]

I actually prefer the Compaq. I don't see the smaller screen as being much of a draw back, 15" is fairly versatile if you need to take it with you once in a while. With HDMI, you can also hook it to a large monitor/projector without spending too much on a quality VGA cable.