Whats available?

[Shep]

Need to buy a new PC/Laptop to help manage my new boat fit out, it will need to be operated on a mobile network, 3g etc as we have no landline but it will be based in the project boat and used for browsing and keeping the accounts and keeping a blog diary. It would be handy to have a built in power supply but having used laptops in the past (dell inspiron that was slow & a sony vaio that was unreliable) & i'm not that impressed by them.

PC's are a pain due to the portion of spaggetti hanging out the back making them.
so perhaps a self contained unit would be better

what is there about that might fit the bill?

 

[DollyRocket]

What is your budget - If you want long battery life and a good solid machine, I bought an Apple Mac last month and I am so impressed - 6hrs battery without any issues - lightening fast too. Bought VMWare and run all my pc programs too. Paid about £750 in John Lewis (price matched PCWorld/Apple store and extra years warranty for free).

You can get cheap net-books from ebuyer etc for about £250 which would have similar battery life but not very fast - Pays your money - takes your choice i suppose.

 

[ovenpaa]

We run an Lenovo Ideapad, 10" screen 160Gb HD and gives a working days running on a battery, runs XP and does all you could ask for with the added bonus that it is small enough to take on holiday.

We have the S10-2 and it was GBP223.23 delivered.

 

[Shep]

What is your budget - If you want long battery life and a good solid machine, I bought an Apple Mac last month and I am so impressed - 6hrs battery without any issues - lightening fast too. Bought VMWare and run all my pc programs too. Paid about £750 in John Lewis (price matched PCWorld/Apple store and extra years warranty for free).

You can get cheap net-books from ebuyer etc for about £250 which would have similar battery life but not very fast - Pays your money - takes your choice i suppose.

Was that the all in the screen type with cordless keyboard and mouse or a laptop?

 

[Deleted Member I]

What about something like this Shep?

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

Just got this on Monday - an emergency buy as I had a wine/keyboard moment on my old laptop which subsequently died

Battery seems to last half a day.

Anyway, for a rushed buy I'm actually rather chuffed with it, £399 reduced from £599

HP G61-110sa 15.6" widescreen laptop

Andres

 

[Deleted Member I]

Just got this on Monday - an emergency buy as I had a wine/keyboard moment on my old laptop which subsequently died

Battery seems to last half a day.

Anyway, for a rushed buy I'm actually rather chuffed with it, £399 reduced from £599

HP G61-110sa 15.6" widescreen laptop

Andres

That's pretty good. £100 less than the dell I put up.

Difference seem to be 320 vs 500GB hard disk
AND
Higher spec graphics card on the dell

hmm .. I might make the treacherous journey to Slough estates to see that

 

[Deleted Member I]

Another one at the £399 price point just came up from ebuyer. Similar specification etc

Got an email flyer this morning

 

[shugie]

Why not build it into the new boat, then any wires would be hidden. You could use a standard motherboard and case, but bury it all, leaving enough ventilation for cooling.

 

[Shep]

Why not build it into the new boat, then any wires would be hidden. You could use a standard motherboard and case, but bury it all, leaving enough ventilation for cooling.

I was looking for something to use whilst fitting out the boat, I rarely use the pc away from work so have no need at home really, but research and purchasing is better done online at the boat.
Having had poor performance from laptops in the past i'm reluctant to buy another a single unit pc with an option of power supply from a car battery (perhaps a small inverter) a laptop would be ideal if i could only start to trust one for extended use. The laptops i've had in the past have been terrible performers compared to the equivilent priced PC's and suffered from overheating and also poor battery performance after the first few months.

I was thinking that the Apple might be the way to go perhaps.

Shep

 

[abrasion]

If you do go with the mac do you know any nice helpfull uni students.
Buy it through them and you can get a nice little discount.

 

[shugie]

I was looking for something to use whilst fitting out the boat, I rarely use the pc away from work so have no need at home really, but research and purchasing is better done online at the boat.
Having had poor performance from laptops in the past i'm reluctant to buy another a single unit pc with an option of power supply from a car battery (perhaps a small inverter) a laptop would be ideal if i could only start to trust one for extended use. The laptops i've had in the past have been terrible performers compared to the equivilent priced PC's and suffered from overheating and also poor battery performance after the first few months.

I was thinking that the Apple might be the way to go perhaps.

Shep

An Apple is certainly a very neat all in one unit, and the 3G dongles I've seen being sold imply they work with Apple kit.

I've had a few laptops, and they are all still working to some extent, including a Samsung bought when I worked for them in the early 90s. Woefully slow by present standards though. All the batteries are dead though, not an issue for me as I mostly used laptops on the mains, or car adapters, anyway.

To get equivalent performance I reckon you need to spend nearly twice as much for a laptop as a desktop. I would only buy a brand name laptop, they are more in need of decent design for cooling than a desktop, and some of the cheapo ones are not well designed. But what sort of money do you have in mind?

 

[GunZenBomZ]

Get yourself a 3g dongle & then an outside high-gain antenna from www.mobilefun.co.uk

Got 2 antenna's from them, solid 3 bars (live in countryside) so its good for most things. Even FPS arma2 online/css etc

 

[DollyRocket]

shep, my machine is a macbook pro. Apple were doing a promo on them just before Christmas hence why I took the plunge. Great machine - honestly better than the dell pc I have. I use my three broadband dongle and can do everything i need.

Get yerself down to the apple store and try one out. As I said, got mine from John Lewis with the extra years warranty. If you're close to Basingstoke u can come over and have a play with mine (laptop that is....)

 

[Shep]

shep, my machine is a macbook pro. Apple were doing a promo on them just before Christmas hence why I took the plunge. Great machine - honestly better than the dell pc I have. I use my three broadband dongle and can do everything i need.

Get yerself down to the apple store and try one out. As I said, got mine from John Lewis with the extra years warranty. If you're close to Basingstoke u can come over and have a play with mine (laptop that is....)

Yes I work in Basingstoke, and living at the moment near Aldermaston so I may take you up on your offer, i need to have a think.

Cheers

Shep

 

[ExpatinIstanbul]

I'm using a Dell XPS M1330 at the moment, a replacement for the 1220 that got stolen. Battery life with the 6-cell aint great, but the 9-cell is much better. Great little laptop that I don't envisage changing for a good few years.