Dead laptop

Is_ser_fluffehh

My laptops been dying for a while now, and last night it finally passed away. Managed to back up my work just in time, thank the lord.
So now I need a new laptop. My dad's suggested getting a Microsoft surface, but still looking for what would be best for me.
Don't want to spend over £400 really, something that's small and quick.
Anyone got any good ideas?
Thanks!

xmrchi

Hp is a good standard, Dell these days are shocking, Acer are god but the lower end stuff is slow, Toshiba have truly lost the plot,

If it's going to be a laptop for productivity a surface will be frustrating as long sessions on the keyboard are not good so for me go for a hp

Danny1969

This comes up again and again but it's worth repeating

Branded laptops such as Dell, Toshiba, Acer and HP are built by third part OEM's such as Inventec, Quanta, Compal etc. So often someone will say don't get a Dell get an HP when the same company is building both any way with the same Foxcon parts. 

Some good  corporate HP laptop can be very good indeed but some of the low end high street ones are terrible. So you have to be model specific, recommending something as global as HP is kinda pointless as it  could be built by anyone of the giant Chinese OEM's to all kinds of standards. 

I suppose we kind of have this in the guitar world to a smaller degree, on here we wouldn't just recommend a Fender as that includes USA, Mexican, Chinese etc .... all different standards of parts and quality

digitalscream

The problem you'll have is that you can generally only pick two out of small/fast/cheap (ie anything small and fast won't be cheap, anything cheap and fast won't be small and anything small and cheap won't be fast).

One thing you can do if you know a techie is to get a small/slow-ish laptop - like an Asus - for about £300 and then upgrade the hard drive to a 256GB SSD (probably around the £120 mark). Usually, slow laptops are slow because the manufacturer cheaps-out on the drive and gets one of the slowest ones available.

FX_Munkee

What do you need it to do?
Games? Encoding? Something else CPU/GPU intensive that I can't think of right now?

ESchap

Avoid Dell, 4 new laptops purchased at work in October / November and every one of them has had hardware failures .... 2 got new motherboards.

joeyowen

The surface tablets are great if you like windows 8

If you don't, avoid like the plague

Is_ser_fluffehh

@FX_Munkee I need it to do work mainly, but also need to download the blackstar program so I can connect it to my amp. I also want to be able to watch whatever online, but that's normally a given

maltingsaudio

Just had two laptops die on me a Dell which died in the summer had it repaired by local recycling guys http://www.activeit.org.uk/ their place is amazing if you like scrapyards for computers! Anyway they heated the board to get the joints to re attach and it worked for 3 months after. I bought a recon HP for £70  to get by whilst it was being repaired, (they actually said they would take it back once mine was repaired but I decided to keep it) . Its just had a hiccup I think because the hard disk is full to bursting with recovered files from the Dell.

To get to the point for information, I needed to access the data I'd backed up using microsofts back up program. After a long google the procedure is this . Type Disk management into the search   window in the task bar and launch create and  format hard disk  partitions.

When it opens click on action and from the drop down menu select attach VHD You can then browse for your microsoft back up on the computer and select it. It will then by magic open the back up as a hard drive so you can copy all your files off it.

Thought this might be helpful   

FX_Munkee

Is_ser_fluffehh said:

@FX_Munkee I need it to do work mainly, but also need to download the blackstar program so I can connect it to my amp. I also want to be able to watch whatever online, but that's normally a given

So nothing too taxing then. Which is good. In which case I'd concentrate on the bits that can't be upgraded, Screen and CPU.
You said you wanted small, are you sure? 13" laptops come with a premium because they're considered "corporate". If you stick to 15" there's a much greater choice at better prices. CPU wise, for what your needs are I'd say an i3 processor will be fine.
Edit: something like this would be fine. Exciting? No, but fine.
http://www.ebuyer.com/633691-lenovo-essential-b5400-laptop-mb82juk

boogieman

Asus seem to get decent reviews at the cheaper end. Nobody recommends Acer from what I can see so I'd avoid them.

And yeah Dell. Just don't. I've had bad experiences with them too. The last one we had for my daughter was utter crap: the power supplies always seem to die after exactly 13 months when they're out of warranty. It's a known problem but a Dell refuse to acknowledge it. Some of the keyboard tiles fell off regularly too.

Danny1969

boogieman said:

Asus seem to get decent reviews at the cheaper end. Nobody recommends Acer from what I can see so I'd avoid them.

And yeah Dell. Just don't. I've had bad experiences with them too. The last one we had for my daughter was utter crap: the power supplies always seem to die after exactly 13 months when they're out of warranty. It's a known problem but a Dell refuse to acknowledge it. Some of the keyboard tiles fell off regularly too.

It depends on the model, there's a Dell Inspiron 8200 here still working fine despite being 13 years old. Conversely I've know Inspiron 5030's to need a new board after 13 months. Like I said it has to be model specific, Dell don't manufacture laptops they only prepare them in terms of sticking in drives and bolting on screens

Same with Dell chargers .......... Dell don't make chargers they are manufactured by Liton, Delta Electronics and other OEM's who also make the HP and Toshiba chargers. 

@FX_Munkee The screen and CPU is upgradable on just about all but the smallest sub notebooks, those which tend to have the CPU soldered straight on the board. In 95% of laptops the CPU is in a socket same as a desktop. 

The LVDS system and connector for the screen is also standard on 95% of most models so swapping out a 15.4" WXGA for a WSXGA and such is pretty simple

The only case I can think off where you can blanket recommend any brand is Apple. Yes they are also built by other OEM's but to a consistant standard 

imalone

FX_Munkee said:

Is_ser_fluffehh said:

@FX_Munkee I need it to do work mainly, but also need to download the blackstar program so I can connect it to my amp. I also want to be able to watch whatever online, but that's normally a given

So nothing too taxing then. Which is good. In which case I'd concentrate on the bits that can't be upgraded, Screen and CPU.
You said you wanted small, are you sure? 13" laptops come with a premium because they're considered "corporate". If you stick to 15" there's a much greater choice at better prices.

As someone looking for a new 13" at the minute I can wholeheartedly confirm this, there's also much more choice in 15.6", which is pretty much the standard for people who use a laptop as their main machine.

Is_ser_fluffehh

When I say small, I'm mainly talking about easy to carry around - I was carrying a Samsung to and from college and it was a pain! Along with a massive folder, and 4 massive text books. So lighter more than small. @FX_Munkee @imalone

Thanks so much guys! Will have a look at all suggestions and hopefully will have an up and running laptop again soon

digitalscream

@Is_ser_fluffehh - have you considered just getting a Chromebook for college? They're really small and light, and - more importantly - cheap to replace if you need to. I have a Samsung Series 3 which is pretty slow, but it's light and painless to carry around. I think it cost me about £120 second hand.

Hertz32

I've got a chromebook and it's adequate but tends to get glitchy when I have a buch of tabs open, and wouldn't run the Blackstar Insider software for her amp. 
I wish I had gotten a Windows 7 laptop instead. 

digitalscream

Ah, sorry - didn't explain myself. I meant getting a Chromebook for stuff out of the house, and then a desktop for home stuff (better specs for the same money, and more upgradeable).

John_P

What about something like this -  for £149  (including the cashback deal)  I'm very tempted for pottering with work at home and internet.

http://www.ebuyer.com/665843-lenovo-essential-b50-45-laptop-mcd2guk

No idea if the processor is outdated or slow as I'm out of touch with amd but 4G of ram should help.

FX_Munkee

Or we could go a bit left field and get one of these:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linx-Tablet-Z3735F-storage-Windows/dp/B00O636WPY for £159.
Add a keyboard case and voila a low powered (and spec natch) super lightweight windows PC.
Bugger that's tempting me now....