My inclination is also to get something made by Samsung
This one seems surprisingly cheap:
www.onestoppcshop.co.uk/products.asp?partno=NP-R72...K
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...and a bit cheaper here:
www.dewgraze.com/deals/shop.cfm?Manufacturer=Samsu...K
although I haven't looked at p&p
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Sorry- just noticed that they are both out of stock, and if it's an obsolete product then it might not be coming back.
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Looks like this is the current cheapest Samsung model - given that it's brand new and has Win7, personally I'd pay the extra if I could:
www.ebuyer.com/product/191530
EDIT: and it's a nice colour
Edited by Focus {P} on 23/01/2010 at 15:41
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17" laptop some time this year, but am not in a hurry >>
Some consumer forum contributers say that this one is a good one:
www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/2827_12760.htm
but you will have to join the queue first thing tomorrow morning!
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>> 17" laptop some time this year but am not in a hurry >>
Well spotted jbif - probably best to wait until you actually need it, if you want to get the most for your money. In 6 months time Morgan might be selling refurbished R730s for the price of that HP.
Medion looks good as well.
FWIW we bought a cheap (£380) 17" HP laptop for my wife to do her homework on about a year and a half ago. It's got a relatively slow (Dual Core not Core 2 Duo) CPU and is running Vista with 2Gb RAM, but it's fine for running Office and web browsing etc.
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YOu will have a long wait for SP1 for 7. Rumour has it that windows 7 wont have a SP for 18 months. Thats mainly because 7 is remakably bug free and stable.
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YOu will have a long wait for SP1 for 7. Rumour has it that windows 7 wont have a SP for 18 months. Thats mainly because 7 is remakably bug free and stable.
I think you may have been reading too much MS Propaganda that has also affected your spelling!
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I think you may have been reading too much MS Propaganda
Nope, I am not a Microshirt evangelist, but in this case its true. MS are aware of the corporate intentions not to deploy a new OS until SP1 appears, so usually they are working hard on getting it ready. In this case however, its been some 7 years since an OS has been rolled out in corporates, and they are keen to refresh workstations.
Vista was widely ignored because it was a can of worms, but 7 has been well received in test deployments, MS coporate licences are pretty cheap at the mo, so the land of commerce is working on rolling out 7.
which means that MS is not pushed to release a SP.
that has also affectedyour spelling!
Blame it on dis-Linux-ia.
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My thoughts on a 17" laptop.
If screen size is important, might it not be better to buy a desktop box, monitor and keyboard.
I don't think a 17" laptop is particularly portable, and they always seem more fragile than a smaller screened laptop.
Some of the desktop boxes are fairly small these days.
Saw one somewhere that hangs off the back of the monitor.
Add a wireless keyboard and mouse and you have a neat set-up.
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... long wait for SP1 for 7. Rumour has it that windows 7 wont have a SP for 18 months. Thats mainly because 7 is remakably bug free and stable. >>
;-) I wonder if Altea is responsible for frightening Tyro off from buying a new OS.
IIRC, your advice in the past has been to stay clear until SP1 is issued for new Windows releases.
I agree with you though that Win7 is remarkably bug free and stable - isn't it really something like VistaXP-SE mark IV?
Edited by jbif on 23/01/2010 at 16:54
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Wow! Some quick and helpful answers there.
1. The Aldi one looks very tempting. The 3 year warranty is particularly appealing, and I gather they are pretty good for customer service. However, I'm not going to be anywhere near a branch of Aldi in the next week, let alone tomorrow.
2. The Samsung R730 looks pretty good. It may well be the way to go.
3. "YOu will have a long wait for SP1 for 7. Rumour has it that windows 7 wont have a SP for 18 months. Thats mainly because 7 is remakably bug free and stable. "
AE, does that mean that you would be inclined to relax the advice that you gave at tinyurl.com/yfbd22z ? Or is it a matter of either going with Vista or settling for a long wait? (jbif, I see that you are a mind-reader!)
4. I hadn't thought of that, ifithelps - but worth thinking about, especially in light of your interesting comment: "they always seem more fragile than a smaller screened laptop."
Edited by tyro on 23/01/2010 at 16:59
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..."they always seem more fragile than a smaller screened laptop."...
Just my thoughts, but when I close my 14" laptop the screen flexes a bit too much for comfort and a bigger screen is bound to be worse.
I managed to knack the motherboard on my last laptop with a soft drink spillage, barely a mouthful, but it was a write off.
Now, had I had a separate screen/desktop box, that would have been a tenner for a new keyboard, not £450 for a new laptop.
Obviously, that applies to all sizes of laptops, but I will be seriously considering the greater flexibility offered by a desktop next time, because my portable needs are covered by my little Eee PC.
My 14" laptop spends nearly all its time sat open on the kitchen table - awaiting a fatal dose of Coca-Cola.
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Well based on my experience of installing Win 7, and the way its behaved in corporate test then yes.
I have to say, for this version of windows, then waiting for SP1 is not required in this instance. It is after all, Vista Mk2.
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Ta very much for that, AE. You have set my mind at rest.
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We have run two 17" laptops in the past three years.
The first one a Toshiba Qosmio has very good components and good screen. Downsides are they forgot about the cooling when putting it all together and it's quite 'chunky'.
We also have an Acer Aspire which is lighter for travelling with but the screen is not as good though the card is of a higher spec than the Toshiba.
Check the model you want as not all 17" screens are the same size funnily enough.
Re: Vista, I don't know what people on here are running on it for it to be so bad.
We have both 32 and 64 bit versions of Home Premium running, connecting Printers, SatNavs, Gaming Steering Wheel, Digital Camera etc... with no problems.
The only thing that does annoy is the 64bit version has a bug in the Sidebar whereby the gadgets appear randomly at each logon. Fix is to use the 32bit Sidebar and all is OK.
I've had more trouble with XP than I've seen with Vista and I thought XP quite stable.
If you can get Win7 go for it but don't be put off by Vista.
Edited by gmac on 23/01/2010 at 18:06
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We bought an Acer Aspire, 7540 17.3" screen, AMD dual core, 3MB RAM, 360GB HD, with HDMI connection, 4USB ports, card reader, NO separate video card memory, but a dedicated chunk of normal RAM,web cam etc, etc, at Currys over our Christmas visit to the UK. Runs Windows 7 Home Premium.
Cost then was GBP429, but it's gone up a little since then.
All good so far. (Oh and the lid is a tasteful dark blue!)
Edited by malteser on 23/01/2010 at 21:34
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