help choosing new laptop.

Ever consider having one built for you?

My son had a desk top computer made to his specifications which was, apparently, much cheaper than an off the peg model with similar capabilities. The firm he used (pcspecialist) will build you a lap-top. Will reckons doing it this way means you don't pay for what you don't want e.g.: if you use a separate hard-drive then you probably don't need large internal storage.

Just a thought.

I think it's going a bit off-topic with Desktop PC's and big screens, the OP is asking about a laptop up to a £500 budget!

Regards processing, a decent laptop will process images every bit as well as a desktop, it all depends on the PC specification. You could also have a laptop used with its own flip up screen for most usage, but if you have a desk at home where a large monitor can sit, you could just hook up to this as and when required and get a wireless keyboard / mouse setup. You have the best of both words with this.

Regards
David

If one goes retail, one will end up basically paying an extra one hundred that goes to the store and/or to the salesperson. There are also plenty of horror stories about a number of retailers.

Case in point... I've indirectly witnessed retailers not selling and/or even offering back up disks that were already supposed to be coming with the computer already. Who knows where these disks ended up; disks such as the operating system reboot disk, full versions of Office Professional, security software, other OEM software on disc, even bundled software, (darn) even bloatware disks.

What the stores do is keep and/or resell the original disks, then typically try to resell it - after doing a clean boot and then using items such as a license for an operating system. It would be interesting to see what happens if that person would ever need to do a reboot.


As for computer specs outside of operating systems... First let me suggest the option of doing a two boot portioned system - if possible. If one does not know how to do it directly, there are plenty of resources available to help out on that one.

Go with as much RAM as one can afford, but preferably 8gb. Not only will this help with routine tasks, but also if one likes to edit on programs such as Adobe Creative Suite,

One of the more important options that is overlooked... Try to get a built in wireless card such as 802.11AC.

As for disks... One could technically still go with platters, but -even with the best of platters they still need frequent defrags. Try to go with SSD, preferably with the largest one that one can afford. A major consideration if one has the room and budget for it - it saves on a lot of headaches...

For non computer game players go with strictly mirrored RAID dual drives. If the computer and ones budget has the room for it; go for RAID10 - which unfortunately takes four identical drives.

For graphics cards, try not to go with the most expensive options unless one really needs it. Could someone have a genuine need for a laptop with a 4k screen, or the need for a computer with several thousand dollars worth of graphics cards that could almost heat half of a house through the winter? One major consideration for graphics cards (in laptops) is to purchase a device with a power saving (switchable) graphics card.


One final note... Give EuroCom a look for computers, especially their prices - covering nearly every single option for budgets. The best item about EuroCom is that almost all of their devices are completely upgradeable. MOST other computer companies (even desktops) now sell their devices with proprietary hardware which is both not repairable or upgradeable

Not sure the police would be happy with me editing whilst driving and please explain - what is a 'quiet time at work'

Carl

Driver-less cars will be here very soon - enjoy!

If you came to our house you would see that all DAY at work is far quieter.

Hi,

I went down the laptop route about a year ago with the same budget as you and have no regrets. I had to make some compromises screen and ram wise but managed to get:

ASUS N series
Full HD 17" matt screen - wide viewing angle but not the IPS I would have liked.
Duel graphics card (Intel on board & Nvidia GT 635m)
Core i5
6GB RAM (wanted 8GB ideally but I can upgrade)
750GB HDD

The machine was refurbished I got it from Xsonly and mine was in mint condition. The only catch with it being refurbished was the short 3 month warranty and the fact it has a USA layout keyboard (not a major problem for me). If you look at refurbished you need to check the specifications as well as t&c's carefully. I have had quite a bit of refurbished IT kit in the past and have not had any major issues...

The advantage of the larger screen on the machine I got is that I can add a second hdd, I will be getting a second SSD soon and rebuild windows 10 on it.

I am currently running windows 10 and I like it better than 8.1, it still has a few issues, (slow startup on my machine - I think a rebuild would help) but it looks promising.

Thanks for all the replies, some excellent advice there.
Though i would like a desktop, i dont really have the room to leave one permanently set up, hence the laptop route.
Thanks to all your advice i feel i am in a much better position to make an informed choice to suit my needs.
Looks like i need...intel i5 or i7, 8gb min ram, full hd matt screen, nice to have would be dedicated graphics card, ips screen, ssd.
One of my sons is quite tech savvy (software developer), so i will pass this onto him to have a search.....he likes that type of thing!
Once again, thanks for all the detailed replies, and for taking the time to help.
Much appreciated, and kind regards,
Simon.

Most laptops are the same nowadays made from similar branded components. I always look for aftercare and my past experiences.

Dell have always been excellent sending a courier with a pedi case, drop the laptop in and arrived back four days later.

Toshiba wanted me to pack my laptop in a stronger box than the original box at my expense and post it again at my expense using RMSD at a cost of around £25 due to value.

Samsung support was truly dreadful, support consisted of user forums where answers where guessed by other fellow users, no phone support or email support.

Currys / PC World sctratched my laptop case and screen under repair that they eventually replaced it with a brand new one after threatening legal action.

Latest Lightroom 6 now uses graphics cards so I would check which cards are compatible and within which laptops they are available in.

I just purchased this one ... £550 on Amazons lightening deal. On for another couple of hours.

Looks well specified for the money.

Nine out of the top ten selling laptops (2014 stats for selling laptops) use proprietary parts. Companies such as Dell/Alienware, HP, Lenovo, even Apple/Mac. Proprietary meaning, one cannot purchase these parts anyplace except for where one purchased the laptop>

But it gets worse... Typically in Apple/Mac releases quite a number of parts are simply not available (even) with six months of initial product release. Even desktop (all-in-one) Macs have a large number of parts which are not replaceable at all; once certain parts go on the device, it's simply beyond repair.

Also to be quite specific, there are only some six laptops names ever produced today that have user replaceable parts, in case of failure of wanting to upgrade

My 2008 Macbook just got a new SSD and RAM so that is user upgradeable. My 2012 MacBook Pro can have everything replaced with the right screwdriver and patience (which I don't have.......!). See, people want portable to actually mean portable and even my 13" Macbook is on the edge of acceptability for that hence the newer designs putting efficiency and compactness first it seems. I was recently looking for a new machine as a portable solution (before I just spent a lot less transforming my old one into something really fast and good!) this miniaturisation along with much more complex and difficult to work on designs seems to be the pattern for laptops, you are not going to be able to upgrade them yourselves easily. In the Mac world there are specialists that provide parts and from what I've read Apple still isn't quite as propriety yet as many fear. Apple are quite good at replacing and solving problems though. For any manufacturer though if certain parts fail that is a write off anyway? Most laptops aren't worth repairing really anyway. Every desktop I have ever had has melted within 2-3 years, the laptops have been much more reliable....

Since about 2000 since I went to Uni with my own machine I think I have upgraded parts maybe twice? Once the other week (and that was largely as I can't afford something new) and maybe about 9 or 10 years ago (and that was RAM into a desktop)? I think I'm fairly typical so user upgradability I think is not so important definately these days when I have an 8 year old Acer running WIndows 7 nicely and a 7 year old Macbook now running the latest OS faster than a Quad Core i7 only three years old. Anything fairly modern will run most things fine. If you're not a gamer or using really heavy professional programs I don't think you need half of what is on the spec sheets these days (then again what I think Apple get right is the overall experience of usage). I think gaming causes most of the spec angst that trickles down............... My experiences looking at some computer forums recently as well suggest that those who are shouting about their tinkering are really in a minority as I know no-one who gets that into a tizz over a few RAM chips....... I don't care about gaming so I'm fine!

You get what you pay for and I would go for a slightly older but originally more expensive computer over a budget box.

Which makes my point about support and warranty even more pertinent. My current MacBook cannot be upgraded as all the components are soldered to the board except I believe the ssd which I never intend to upgrade anyhow.

Only a for a limited amount of functions. Sadly.

@scarr1: I recently bought my partner a Dell laptop which may well suit your needs and is just a little above your budget:

Dell Inspiron 15 5558

BTW someone above mentioned PC Specialist, who built my excellent and powerful desktop pc. I looked at the bespoke laptops on their site before looking elsewhere but, frankly, they worked out quite a bit more money when compared like-for-like with the Dell. The 5558 provides a very good specification for the price, and image quality on screen is great. I dumped the installed Windows 8.1 for her in favour of a free Windows 10 upgrade. So far Win 10 seems a definite improvement on 8/8.1 but that's subjective.

My two-bob's worth.

Jim