Is this any good

[SOD'EM]

Hi all, I will be celebrating my 40th Birthday on Christmas Day and have asked the family to chip in and get me a new laptop. That's for both Christmas and Birthday put together. I am allowed about £600 and have been trawling the web for weeks now for the highest specs I can get for that money.

 

My old lappy is over 5 years old now and I need much more memory for what I need to do. (the one I have is only 60gb but has served me well).

 

Anyway, I have narrowed it down to the one below. Can anyone with suggestions please leave links for me to look at. Or is this one worth the money.

 

ps. I play games and do anything else you can do with lappy's:p.

 

Thanks Guys

 

 

 

HP HDX18t - At A Glance - Reviews by PC Magazine

 

 

The cheapest I have found it for is £643 but I will have to pay another £100 postage.

[locutus]

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo T9600

Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz

RAM: 4 GB

Weight: 8.5 lb

Screen Size: 18.4 inches Screen Size Type: widescreen

Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce 8600M GT

Storage Capacity: 480 GB

Networking Options: 802.11n

Primary Optical Drive: DVD+/-RW DL with Blu-Ray

 

That is a nice laptop! Now I'm sure you'll get it with Windows 7, make sure it's 64bit as 32bit only finds 2.75 - 3.25 gig memory (depending on the chipset) the screen is huge for a laptop, and as you play games the graphics card is very nice! The thing you sacrifice to have a POWER laptop is the battery power doesn't last long!

 

I've recently been using one online shop and have found they have a large quantity of returned stock that they discount quite well! You still get a guarentee (shorter than new I believe) but I thaught I'd throw that idea at ya.

 

Oh, and if you do get it, remember to put my name in your Will for after bookie gets ya!

[SOD'EM]

 

Oh, and if you do get it, remember to put my name in your Will for after bookie gets ya!

 

 

 

Done

[baconbuttyman]

try the dell 1737, you can add up to 4 gb ram, can add a blu-ray player and takes two hdd, i bought the base model with dvd rw and 2 gb ram, i upgraded the hdd to 1tb and the ram is 4 gb and installed a blu-ray, also have installed a back lit keyboard, i fgot is from tesco for 419.00

take a look

[SOD'EM]

try the dell 1737, you can add up to 4 gb ram, can add a blu-ray player and takes two hdd, i bought the base model with dvd rw and 2 gb ram, i upgraded the hdd to 1tb and the ram is 4 gb and installed a blu-ray, also have installed a back lit keyboard, i fgot is from tesco for 419.00

take a look

 

 

Can you post a link please?

[baconbuttyman]

Can you post a link please?

 

Dell Studio 17 Laptop Details | Dell United Kingdom

 

tesco dont seem to stock it any more, but her is the link to dell, was same price at the time,

[Conniff]

try the dell 1737, you can add up to 4 gb ram, can add a blu-ray player and takes two hdd, i bought the base model with dvd rw and 2 gb ram, i upgraded the hdd to 1tb and the ram is 4 gb and installed a blu-ray, also have installed a back lit keyboard, i fgot is from tesco for 419.00

take a look

 

You could have bought a 'real' computer for that sort of money.

[locutus]

I seem to remember you posted somewhere about the 18" monitor being a big feature and you want the power of a desktop... I paid £650 ish for a 22" desktop with loads of bells and whistles, then I paid an extra £60 for windows 7 ultimate 64 bit (student deal ). I built the system up myself and have to say it's the envy of all my friends... if portability is not needed, I'd sugest you look at buying a powerful desktop or build one up for yourself.

[SOD'EM]

Portability is a must I'm afraid.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Don't overlook Acer; they're the world's third largest computer manufacturer for a reason, and produce some excellent laptops / netbooks for those who want functionality and portability without needing powerful gaming machines.

 

Alternatively, a selection of laptops from a variety of manufacturers can be found at Misco, who are a good company when it comes to buying prebuilt machines, and an excellent one when it comes to buying component parts for self-builds.

 

As others have said, it depends largely on your needs, which you'll want to weigh up against battery time.

Gaming and DVD watching will raise your costs and suck your power quickest. If you don't want to do either gaming or watching DVDs, have you considered a netbook isntead? They're cheaper, smaller, lighter, and much more portable. They also tend to have a better battery time than full laptops.

 

As Connif has already said, however, I'd personally steer well clear of Dell.

Dell are to computers as Ikea is to the world of furniture. Cheap, nasty, shoddily put together and cut as many corners as possible. They are the world's second biggest computer manufacturer purely by virtue of quantity, not quality.

 

If you must use Windows, either stick with Windows XP or make the leap to Windows 7. I wouldn't go anywhere near Vista, if I were you.

[Tezcatlipoca]

then I paid an extra £60 for windows 7 ultimate 64 bit (student deal ).

 

You paid for an operating system? Novel concept...

[SOD'EM]

To be honest, I just sit on the couch with my laptop whilst I'm watching the TV. I take it upstairs to print things. I'm not worried about the battery life as there is nearly always a power supply wherever I am. I do want it for programs and storage, but it will also be used for gaming and DVD's. I may be waiting longer than I expected because I have just found out that to get the item cheaper, you have to buy it from USA. But our customs charge you excess duty at this end for items like that. This is one of the myriad of reasons that this country sucks a**e big time. I can't find a cheap enough retailer in this country for what I want/need.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Well, with regards to gaming, it really becomes a little more complicated than a simple "Will It? / Won't It?".

Essentially, the type of game you want to play is the overwhelmingly important factor, with 3D FPS (First Person Shooter) games needing the most power and resources. Do you want to play online? That will take even more oompf in your machine.

To play the latest FPS games, at high resolutions with full texture options and graphical capabilities, you are looking at at least a grand, and, to be honest, when you're talking about that kind of money, you can self-build a comparable gaming desktop for around half that price.

 

For gaming, can you give an indication as to the sort of games you intend to be playing on it? Once we know the games you want, we know the required system specs for smooth operation, and thus can give you links to products which might suit.

 

For DVD watching, you'll want a physically decent sized screen, but also one which permits as high a resolution as possible and as wide a variety of aspect rations as possible.

 

That said, take a look at these two machines. Both are within your £600 limit, VAT inclusive, both more than powerful enough to carry out most tasks, and both good enough to run some of the latest games at a reasonable pace. The Sony is slightly more powerful when it comes to graphics and sounds, as evidenced by the slightly higher price, but either should more than suit your needs.

Edited November 25, 2009 by Tezcatlipoca

[SOD'EM]

Thanks for your help Tez.

 

I will be playing games like GTA and the likes. But I like to stream movies and stuff too. I will also be connecting it to my main TV for watching films and football so I think that is my main aim. I have posted a link in my first post on this thread which is the one I have been looking at more than others. I have my heart set on an 18.4 inch screen and a Blu-Ray drive.

[Tezcatlipoca]

If you can afford to tip slightly over your £600 limit, this laptop will allow you to watch any DVDs you need, is a powerful enough gaming machine to run GTA and supports Blue Ray discs.

 

The only downsides are that the monitor is 2" less than the one you really, really, really need in your life (), and that the operating system is the abortion Vista.

 

If you can't find anything else, however, and can deal with these two setbacks, you'll be pushed to find a new laptop with Blue-Ray and game playing capability for cheaper.

[SOD'EM]

This is the cheapest I can find, but the specs are higher.

 

NEW HP HDX18T laptop notebook P8700 blu-ray 512 Vid on eBay (end time 02-Nov-09 00:49:22 GMT)

 

 

I know this item has finished but there are lots more at roughly the same price. I would have ordered it by now if it wasn't for UK custom duty.

[SOD'EM]

Well, Percy The Devil farts in my face again:mad:. An unexpected bill has totally made my new laptop plans go T**s up. It has to be paid so my laptop cash has to be sacrificed:(.

 

BAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH HUMBUG, and an even happier 40th birthday.