Cheap Laptop

[jont]

In light of http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=30881 and not being able to import v8.5.1 snapshot's into my v8.5.0 does anyone have any recommendations on cheap laptops to run just v8.5?

[Buzby]

PC World are advertising a 72 hour clear out ending tomorrow. Laptops for £299 up.

Kind regards

Jason

[leehack]

I went shopping for a laptop for my brother in law last weekend and until you spend £800 upwards, you won't really get the spec you want for now and more importantly the future. I think it's important when buying a system, to buy one to last you 3 years. Getting a cheap one now to serve as a second system is all well and good, however if your main system falls over, that little puppy is going to become your main system and will need more than what a basic cheap crappy system provides.

Having recently purchased a new desktop and laptop, my advice would be to forget the laptop route unless you are prepared to spend £1k, you are much better off buying a second desktop, if you are looking to spend in the region of £500 or so. For £500 you can have a desktop built that could run NASA, this is undoubtedly the best route IMO, especially as most laptops in stores all have Vista.

[Duncan Rounding]

----must be almost bedtime Lee??

[los_design]

In light of http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=30881 and not being able to import v8.5.1 snapshot's into my v8.5.0 does anyone have any recommendations on cheap laptops to run just v8.5?

Why not advise your clients to upgrade to the latest version and operate with that alone

BOT, When you say 'cheap' what kind of budget you have in mind?

Also, I am willing to get you a clamp to assist with your efforts to get your wallet out... I am aware you suffer with long-pocket short arm syndrome

[leehack]

----must be almost bedtime Lee??

LOL Duncan, i'm on my 2-day stay awake cycle today, so no sleep until tonight. Nice to see some early risers today though.

[leehack]

Also, I am willing to get you a clamp to assist with your efforts to get your wallet out... I am aware you suffer with long-pocket short arm syndrome

Send him one of those UV zappers you see in the chippy, the release of that many moths could be fatal.

[Duncan Rounding]

Is this it:
http://www.productdose.com/article.php?article_id=4534

[jont]

Bunch of cheeky beggars the lot of you

Lee.... needs to be laptop as have no space in the house (the MiL is still onboard grrrr) .. needs to be cheap as only need it to get a few jobs done plus in the process of feeding the needy (getting married) and moving house .... low spec is fine as it can then be used by Jonty Junior rather than have him hitting delete *.*

Ideally a top spec machine would be preferable for the long term investment and I always tend to over-spec any equipment. Sadly this really is only a stop gap to sort a few jobs

Jason : thanks for the heads up on PC World .. will go check them out tomorrow

[leehack]

If you're moving house, Jonty Junior could have his own desktop in his room eventually? So why not just buy a second tower, plus a monitor divert switch, so you can choose which system is set to talk to your monitor?

You only need to house a desktop then and it will be cheaper and higher spec than a laptop for the same money. So better solution all round on the surface. As JJ is going to inherit it eventually, farm him off with your old monitor at the same time and buy yourself a new spanker.

[Jan]

until you spend £800 upwards, you won't really get the spec you want for now and more importantly the future

I spent £500 + VAT on a Toshiba A100-338 in January and it's more than fast enough for software developement - and the program I was working with on it is huge - not one of my little plugins. It was off the shelf from PC world and I'm very pleased with it.

Regards,

[Duncan Rounding]

I bought a low end Dell laptop late last year for under £500 and it's plenty fast enough and certainly up to the job. Most PCs are fine nowadays just add extra RAM, XP Pro and a larger HDD and almost anything should work.

[jont]

onty Junior could have his own desktop in his room eventually?

His room is already like Hamleys!

That's a point .... I could Ebay 95% of his toys... buy a machine powerful enough to crack RSA in under 2 minutes and he would still not be able to see the floor for Star Wars models and Lego with what he has left

[AndrewPK]

If you're moving house, Jonty Junior could have his own desktop in his room eventually? So why not just buy a second tower, plus a monitor divert switch, so you can choose which system is set to talk to your monitor?

You only need to house a desktop then and it will be cheaper and higher spec than a laptop for the same money. So better solution all round on the surface. As JJ is going to inherit it eventually, farm him off with your old monitor at the same time and buy yourself a new spanker.

I'm with Lee on this one, get a decent tower and a KVM switch (which can be had for under £16*)
Using a KVM switch you can use the same keyboard, mouse and monitor you are currently using, you just have to find space for the base unit to live.

This of course assumes that you are currently using a desktop PC and have a 'stand alone' keyboard, mouse & monitor, if you are currently on a laptop those parts will be built in, so much harder to plug into the KVM!

*that link is to a 4 port KVM switch so you could even add more PCs if you need them

AndrewPK

[pinbrook]

If its a 2nd machine for backup purposes and odd bit of dev then the £300-400 price will be fine, although most in this range are 512 ram so youmat want to upgrade that, but having said that I've just replaced my acer 4020 and it ran V8 fine with 512.

my new tosh satellite pro was closee to £1000 but it is my main machine as i need to be portable.

most laptops in PC world are vista, its only when you switch to pcworld business that you get xp as standard.

I've got a dell 256 you could borrow!!