Question:
Hi
Im wanting to buy a laptop for my son for xmas, but i have absolutely no idea what to get or what is good. If any of you could help it would be greatly appreciated.
He is wanting to play games on it and our computer at home wont play the some of the games he's got, i guess its not powerful enough. Ive pasted the games spec below so you have an idea of what the laptop needs -
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP (Windows 2000 with Service Pack 3, Windows XP with Service Pack 1 or later)
Celeron 1.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz
256 MB RAM
2 GB free hard disk space
DirectX 8.1 compatible audio support
Minimum graphics card: nVidia GeForce 2 (MX 200/400 not supported) with 32 MB or ATI Radeon 8500 with 64 MB, with Microsoft DirectX 9 driver installed
Recommended graphics card: nVidia GeForce 4 Ti (not MX) with 128 MB, ATI Radeon 9500 with 128 MB, with Microsoft DirectX 9 driver installed
Obviously i want to spend as little as possible, does anybody have any idea of what I should be looking at?
Thanks
Chris
Answers:
is a desktop a no no (better for games, and cheaper/easier to upgrade).
what is your ideal, and max budget?
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He says he wants a laptop, Im not really sure what I want to spend, as long as it matches those games specs then the cheapest, thats what ive been told!!
Chris
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Difficult to advise, the specs you pasted are not particularly high, but with laptops you get what you pay for and they can't really be upgraded. I recently bought a toshiba laptop for just under 500 quid, i assume that would be too expensive. You could go for a less well known brand, but you really need to be careful with graphics card specs etc. Personally, I wouldn't touch a laptop which costs less than 350 quid and at that price I would have to be very sure of what I was getting. Laptops don't tend to be used for games, though of course they can be.
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how old is he?
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PC world will be doing a laptop for £199 this xmas - I think this is going to be in the sale which starts Boxing Day. The spec will be fairly minimal at that price point, 256Mb RAM and 14" screen most likely. It will be fine for basic stuff and internet, though.
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How do you know about the pcworld sale laptop?
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I also have a son who wants one for Christmas and we had a look around PC World yesterday. The member of staff I spoke to said, for games to be played on it, it would be advisable to spend no less than £350. However, I have always used Dell in the past and would prefer to use them again. I am willing to spend £500 and my son would pay any extra required (from his paper-round savings) to get a good system. Can anyone make any recommendations?
(Apologies for butting in on this - but it seemed a bit silly to start a new thread.)
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It's the recommended 128MB graphics card which will send the price of this laptop soaring, I'm afraid. Good gaming laptops are hugely expensive, and unless you're prepared to spend £500+ it's unlikely you'll get one which could cope with the latest games.
If you gave us more of an idea about your likely budget, I'm sure we could come up with some decent recommendations.
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It's the recommended 128MB graphics card which will send the price of this laptop soaring, I'm afraid. Good gaming laptops are hugely expensive, and unless you're prepared to spend £500+ it's unlikely you'll get one which could cope with the latest games.
If you gave us more of an idea about your likely budget, I'm sure we could come up with some decent recommendations.
We run a pc shop and we dont recommend leptops for people who game, they arnt designed for gaming.
A desktop/tower system woudl be much better. Laptops are the big thing for kids this xmas, I dont know why! They are difficult and costly to upgrade. However and Tesco have the best deals at the moment.
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this in Dell £510 if you drop the service to 90 day collect and return (still 12 months warranty) and upgrade the battery to 8 cell
Components
Accessories
Services & Software
Also Includes
Internal Keyboard - (QWERTY) - UK/Ireland
List N11157- DHS 1501 (3)
Inspiron Order - UK
System Documentation
English - Adobe Reader 8.5.8
65W AC Adapter
56.6k V.92 Capable Internal Modem & Adapter
Collect & Return, 90 Days Service only
Save £30 inc VAT
Dell Internet Order.
Memory Upgrade from 512MB to 1024MB
Resource CD- Contains Diagnostics and Drivers
Answers:
Well now is the right time (as well as january sales) because everybody is selling laptops. As advised above PCworld and most others (comet, curry's etc) are selling good spec's and I'm guessing good enough for your son's needs. I don't think you'll go far wrong by taking a visit for PCworld, comet and ask then to meet your spec and then play then off each other if you want a discount. Or of course by online with codes and cash back sites.
Most I've seen better your spec for about £350/450 and even less.
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Id like to keep the price to around £400, but obviously the most important thing for me is to buy the right one. I dont want to get him one that wont play his games, cos this is definately a present that wont be put in a draw and not used!!!
Chris
Answers:
Well now is the right time (as well as january sales) because everybody is selling laptops. As advised above PCworld and most others (comet, curry's etc) are selling good spec's and I'm guessing good enough for your son's needs. I don't think you'll go far wrong by taking a visit for PCworld, comet and ask then to meet your spec and then play then off each other if you want a discount. Or of course by online with codes and cash back sites.
Most I've seen better your spec for about £350/450 and even less.
If you can find one with a better spec than above for £350, please share with us all and tell me where to buy it....I have been looking for a while and cannot find one better spec,d for that money
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Bumping this up to see if DavidB can let me know where i can get a laptop with those specs for £350
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what games does your son want to play? As other posters have said you'd need mucho dosh for a 'gaming' laptop
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what games does your son want to play? As other posters have said you'd need mucho dosh for a 'gaming' laptop
Hubby has made serious cash by having to upgrading peoples pc's so they can run Simms 2 !!
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If it's for recent PC games it'll have to have a really good graphics (ATI or nVidia) card with a large amount of RAM to run them....and if it's for very recent popular big-time PC games, they will require that the graphics cards have T&L (Transform & Lighting) capability.
You'll also need to update to DirectX 9.0c if it comes with anything less.
Lappies aren't the best machine for games, though, unless it's Sudoku or something similar .
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have any of you looked in Aldi recently, went in there today and it looks like there having a laptop in for £499.99. just wondered what you all think? the processor is a intel core solo though and i'm not sure what there like as i keep hearing about the intel core duo.
the laptop doesnt seam to be online though yet.
hope this helps
also they have a decent looking ipod nano type mp3 player 2gb for £49
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i think you could find a better spec else where than that aldi one. To OP just found sadly not duo unless you want to pay for
My wifes managed to ween me off gaming (haven't told her theres a 360 on its way ) so I'm a bit out of touch with gfx standards at the mo.
You could also try the dell ebay