Recommend a laptop?

[george1979]

Hi,

One of my friends has asked me to recommend a laptop for her for around £400 but I'm a bit out of the loop at the moment when it comes to lappies (also I'm a little hungover so I'm too lazy right now).

She is a DJ who is switching over to digital so will be using it with software like Ableton (not sure exactly which software so used this as an example). As she may use it for gigging reliability is paramount.

Ideally she would spend more for a better spec for this kind of software but as she is starting out and isn't very tech savvy its better for her to start small.

I know Dell is usually a decent bet for laptops but thought I'd check in with you guys to see if you have any better suggestions or have seen any good deals.

Anyway any help you can give would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

[usxhe190]

With that amount, your focus should be less on the brand but a laptop with the right features. You need 64bit Windows 7 and lots of ram. At least 4Gb ram.

Toshiba T230 is ok. But this is only 13.3 inch and so it might be hard to work with.

HP has better speakers. Also try to get a video care and dual core processor...not sure on that price though.

Also, check if she wants a 15.6 inch laptop.

[george1979]

With that amount, your focus should be less on the brand but a laptop with the right features. You need 64bit Windows 7 and lots of ram. At least 4Gb ram.

Toshiba T230 is ok. But this is only 13.3 inch and so it might be hard to work with.

HP has better speakers. Also try to get a video care and dual core processor...not sure on that price though.

Also, check if she wants a 15.6 inch laptop.

Thanks. My mate got an HP with i3 processor last year which he using for Ableton and it seems to serve him well. I think his was about £440 though.
The speakers aren't an issue as she will never really use them.

I should have mentioned battery life also isn't much of an issue as she will connect to the mains.
The i3 330UM processor may be a little underpowered.

I like the look of the Samsung models and they seem to have a good rep. I found this on Comet with free delivery:

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy...K|cat:_Laptops

Decent clock speed, plenty of ram and a large HDD. For £370 quid its seems like a good deal. What do you think?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

You can get a laptop with a Core i3 370M for around £429:

http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...codes-coupons/

TopCashBack also does cashback on purchases from Dell:

http://www.topcashback.co.uk/dell/

[george1979]

Thanks CAT - I don't think she wants to go over £400 but with cashback its only £410 so I will try to persuade her.

Also found this:

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelap...erience=direct

It has the 350M but I found this discount code - MVCMAR10. Which will bring the cost down to only £360!
For that money she can't go far wrong. My mate has pretty much the same laptop and it cost him £70 more.

[usxhe190]

Thanks CAT - I don't think she wants to go over £400 but with cashback its only £410 so I will try to persuade her.

Also found this:

http://h40059.www4.hp.com/uk/homelap...erience=direct

It has the 350M but I found this discount code - MVCMAR10. Which will bring the cost down to only £360!
For that money she can't go far wrong. My mate has pretty much the same laptop and it cost him £70 more.

That looks pretty good.

Some others:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Noteboo...9445989&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Noteboo...9445989&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-note...445989&sr=1-12