troubleinstore wrote:

Sorry to post something off topic but I hope sincerley that someone can
help.

In the past I have always built my own PC's, but now, I am after a laptop,
well actually 3, my brother and his sonwants one as well, so we thought if
we all had the same we could help each other if things went wrong.

My stream of consciousness to add to the other fine contributions.

The first thing to establish when buying laptops is your budget, because
you can pay 500 to 2000+ and get a huge variation of specs in that
range. Then consider what specifications you need - size/weight, screen
size, processor, memory, disk space, optical drives, ports, and so on. I
presume you want a laptop over a desktop for some kind of
space/portability reason, so bear in mind that if you're lugging it
around a lot, 3.5kg (inc psu) is actually rather heavy. All these
factors will go into a big trade-off calculation where you try to find
what you need for your budget.

Then have a look at the main brands' websites and find reviews. The ones
I've used and had no probs with are (in order of preference) Samsung,
IBM, Sony, Dell, Compaq and Toshiba. Personally I would always pay for a
3 year warranty on a laptop. You almost always can't fix it yourself
and you;re paying a premium over an equivalent desktop so treat it as an
investment.

Almost all laptops are boxed off the shelf products. You might want to
add extra memory, if so check there's going to be a SODIMM slot free and
order your own from crucial, it will be cheaper.

Actually sourcing it will be the least of your worries - use comparison
sites like www.priceguideuk.com and once you've found the cheapest
place, do a quick search on google groups to check they are reputable.

HTH

John


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