Laptop Recommendations

[Darkseer]

Hey guys, I'm looking to get a laptop before my botched together cheap-ass PC bursts into flames like my last botched together cheap-ass PC did.

I have a £700 budget and I don't want a Mac or a Chrome Book.

Basically I need something that's fast loading, can smoothly run all the Office programs, as well as Photoshop, sound & video editing software.

I'm not looking to game. Just want something quick and future proof.

Cheers
Adam

[Hanners]

To be honest I'd just look around the usual suspects (Dell, Sony et al) for a good deal in your price range - any modern Intel CPU will be pretty nippy handling all of your requirements, and the more memory the better if you're doing heavy-duty image or video editing (at least 4GB, possibly 8GB if you can).

If you want fast loading, an SSD is an absolute must.

[Ross]

I'd suggest a Vaio but your budget won't stretch to the spec you require. The system I picked up was over 2k, but I can tell you SSD makes all the difference. My laptop loads in under 20 seconds, but that still seems like ages when you're used to an iPad

[trismugistus]

I've always quite liked toshiba laptops, but I'm sure nowadays you should be able to get a good spec laptop from most manufacturers for £700.

[SUPERFISH5000]

I've got a Toshiba that I use for work, it's a few years old now and nothing fancy but it's not let me down yet. I'm pretty sure they are reasonably priced too.

I'd personally avoid dell like the plague - every dell in my household has died at least once, and their prices seem to have skyrocketed over the last few yers.

[happosai]

You can significantly decrease the start-up time of a PC or laptop by putting it to sleep or into hibernation rather than shutting it down -- on my ageing, modestly spec'd laptop, I can go from pressing the on switch to having a fully loaded OS and desktop, with all the apps I commonly use up and running and everything as I last left it, in 30s flat, and that's using the slower hibernation mode.

[Happosai]

[Ru8ix]

I'm quite the fan of ASUS, not to be confused with Acer.

You can pretty much find an Asus motherboard in almost every device these days as they are one of the leading manufacturers in Motherboards.. so can't go wrong... I think?

I know this will be out of your range but the ASUS Zenbook is awesome. i7, macbook air-like body, and sexiness all around... they do come in 1k though..

[Providence Ayanami]

I don't suggest hibernation/standby mode, you can be stuck when you're turn your PC on a IDLE state. Thus it will devour alot of RAM. That's not an idea to be honest.

Here in Italy a 60GB SSD cost around 50£, you have to suggest one of those to install your SO as a main unit, then you can buy an HDD for your data/program/utilities. I know, performances it will be slightly slow, but it's a nice chance to change.

Anyway, for what I see recently, laptops are quite slow than Desktop, and desktop replacement ones are so expensive.

And a good i5 Laptop it would be fine, unless you will buy an SSD in the future. Think about it

[happosai]

Originally Posted by Providence Ayanami

I don't suggest hibernation/standby mode, you can be stuck when you're turn your PC on a IDLE state. Thus it will devour alot of RAM. That's not an idea to be honest.

I'm not sure what you mean. Using sleep or hibernation has absolutely no effect on RAM usage. Perhaps you're referring to the amount of hard drive storage required for hibernation, which is (typically) equal to the amount of RAM installed, but unless you have a huge amount of RAM and/or very little HD free space, it isn't usually an issue.

[Happosai]

[Providence Ayanami]

If he want something faster, then he should get a better laptop otherwise, but a SSD based laptop would cost more so it would be more cheaper to get a smaller SSD for the moment.

For the hibernation thing, sometimes it would be get a black screen. You know that Windows 7 it's unpredictable and it would make some mess whenever it want.

Sorry to get the wrong info.
Hope to be helpful.

[Banahesu]

http://www.ebuyer.com/322143-samsung...np-rf511-a01uk

£700

Win7
8GB RAM
I-5 as well, be ok for you I reckon?

[ShinAsura]

Originally Posted by Banahesu

http://www.ebuyer.com/322143-samsung...np-rf511-a01uk

£700

Win7
8GB RAM
I-5 as well, be ok for you I reckon?

I have to agree, should fit your needs nicely. Only downside to that laptop is the graphics chip but as you said it's not for gaming. If it was me buying it I would rather go for a £700 tower instead though. Could put together a pretty decent one for that price.

[Providence Ayanami]

Add 100£ more and he will get something more than "decent", as I would describe by myself "pretty wonderful"

[Banahesu]

Originally Posted by ShinAsura

I have to agree, should fit your needs nicely. Only downside to that laptop is the graphics chip but as you said it's not for gaming. If it was me buying it I would rather go for a £700 tower instead though. Could put together a pretty decent one for that price.

Agreed, I would always go for a tower, I get too lazy using laptops, I end up just slobbing in front of the TV with the laptop refreshing FB once or twice. I get stuff done on my Desktop (mind you, I don't need it for school/work)

[SUPERFISH5000]

I'd recommend a cooling rack if you plan to use it for any length of time, I've had bad experiences with hard drives failing on my last laptop after I let it cook...