Need A New Laptop/netbook

Post by **Class--** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:19 pm

Hi Folks,
Well with me getting back into computers I feel its time I got a decent portable solution before I save and build myself a big rig again

Trouble is I'm so clueless. I need something very portable atm so I thought netbook. Then I started to read about them and how under powered they were. Thats when I came across the Dell M101z which seemed to check all my needs. I couldnt find it and realised it was obsolete already so I phoned Dell to see what they had.
Rashad came up with this... <a href="http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/vostr ... ostro-v131&" target="_blank">The Vostro V131</a> for Â£479 since I asked nicely. Have you any experiences with these laptops? What do you think? worth it?
I basically need something that will handle a bit of multi tasking (thats why i said 4gb ram minimum), have a good battery life as I need it to be portable, it must have some ooph so im not ready to throw it at the wall for being slow, be portable, I have no need for optical drives and be RELIABLE!!!! oh and be portable

So you think I can do better with my Â£400-Â£500 budget? which is not actually mine its kinda works money but thats the budget

No doubt I will watch movies on it and play the odd game but nothing too mad. Is this i5 intel any good at graphics? I said to Rashad that I liked the old M101z as it had a nice graphics card, thats when he went into his schpeel about it being great and I stopped listening as all I could hear was "sandy bullcrap bridge bullcrap great bullcrap graphics bullcrap".
Thanks again guys for any of your thoughts

Class--

Post by **Trig** » Thu Feb 16, 2012 11:30 pm

Depends what you really want to do with it, that V131 aint a bad system especially with the Â£170 discount thats on it.

i5 will be nice enough, even in mobile form.
Graphics wise its the 3000HD series so will do whatever normal windows shit as well as HD output to a TV or whatever, games wise, it wont set your arse hair on fire anytime soon..

If you do decide to goto Dell dont forget to check out dmxdimension.com first as the tend to have the deals on there in a much easier to find format.

Post by **Claw** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:03 pm

This is just my opinion, but I would never buy a laptop with the intention of gaming on it. Even if there was a list of other things I wanted to do on it, gaming would simply not be on that list.

Get a cool Android tablet, with at least a USB port and use that for your filmy, admin'ny, general internety, side of life. After this build yourself a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNEKhxvE ... re=related" target="_blank">Gigantor </a>PC for monstering at everything else. PC World has/had quite a variety of tablets on display if you wanted to get the feel of them. (I'm not suggesting you should buy one from PC World)

Once you've got your PC up and running, enter the tutelage of Master Terry and he will bring you up to date in the art of gaming. Terry is awesome.

Post by **andrew** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 6:37 pm

Slightly related, im getting the wife a laptop for her bday, going for this one <a href="http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-30 ... 7-pdt.html" target="_blank">HERE</a> . usb3 hdmi etc etc.. should go well I hope........ I've not seen any decent deals for a while, got a samsung 17" widescreen for my old man just before xmas Â£369, admittedly not a decent processor etc but 6gb of ram.

Its the shiny screens I hate, sorry detest, and my little samsung netbook doesn't have a shiny screen and this new laptop doesn't either.

Post by **Class--** » Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:10 pm

Yer you can be assured I'm not going to be gaming in the sense you are thinking

When I say gaming I mean the odd game of CS and I literally mean the odd game

When I was at Jases Lan I was on the motorbike so just brought my laptop which actually worked out not bad at all

Unfortunately that laptop is hanging on to dear life atm and is some what lacking for todays uses

Don't worry tho I will hopefully be starting a thread on "Help me spec up a decent gaming rig", unfortunately just not right now as i am worse than Mr El Skinto atm

Andrew, thats quite a nice pc and I'm with you on shiny screens. I opted for better processor and ok'ish ram over screen size. Plus this meant more battery life. Well I hope so as 9Hrs is quoted

Claw its deffinately a laptop I'm after as I need it to do spreadsheets, word and possibly some small work on GIMP.
I'm the kinda person that will be in there with the first people on something new or I wont touch it at all. Tablets are the latter for me. I have absoluetly no need or want for one right now and I'm happy to be a stick in the mud

Today tho I did do a rather large school boy error

I took the quote of Â£479 from the guy as the price forgeting all about VAt grr VAT i hate you!!!

Post by **Claw** » Sat Feb 18, 2012 12:24 am

Class-- wrote: Yer you can be assured I'm not going to be gaming in the sense you are thinking When I say gaming I mean the odd game of CS and I literally mean the odd game When I was at Jases Lan I was on the motorbike so just brought my laptop which actually worked out not bad at all Unfortunately that laptop is hanging on to dear life atm and is some what lacking for todays uses
Don't worry tho I will hopefully be starting a thread on "Help me spec up a decent gaming rig", unfortunately just not right now as i am worse than Mr El Skinto atm

Andrew, thats quite a nice pc and I'm with you on shiny screens. I opted for better processor and ok'ish ram over screen size. Plus this meant more battery life. Well I hope so as 9Hrs is quoted

Claw its deffinately a laptop I'm after as I need it to do spreadsheets, word and possibly some small work on GIMP.
I'm the kinda person that will be in there with the first people on something new or I wont touch it at all. Tablets are the latter for me. I have absoluetly no need or want for one right now and I'm happy to be a stick in the mud

Today tho I did do a rather large school boy error I took the quote of Â£479 from the guy as the price forgeting all about VAt grr VAT i hate you!!!

Yup, ditch the tablet idea then...

I know he's talking about real life work and stuff guys, but that's no reason to close his thread and banish him... this is Class... one of GSV's pillars, my CS mentor, a GSV legend, he can even do those back-to-front smilies.

I dunno, but quoting the Â£479.00 without telling you about the VAT sounds a bit dodgy to me. Or, did you tell him it was for your business purposes? Anyway, nevermind me... I'd definitely be up for a bash of CS one evening or another.

Post by **Class--** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 1:11 am

Well I have been using this Dell Vostro V131 for a week or two now and I'm definitely liking it

I have found that I may have jumped the gun a little by going non optical drive as alot of my stuff is soo old its on cds or dvds but its still livable

It is quite a cool lappy and does run for a good while on battery. Unfortunately I havent measured it precisely yet. The stated 9hrs I know is for barely using the thing so I expected 3-4 hrs proper use out of it and thats what im getting. Well chuffed with that as every other laptop Ive had or used its been plugged into the wall permanently making it more a semi portable device rather than a real portable device where theres no wall sockets

I have been using Linux Mint mostly on it as its running quite nicely. The only thing it doesnt seem to recognise is the fingerprint sensor, that however I can live with

So if anyone is thinking of getting one of these then I wouldn't say no to you.
My specs are:
Intel i5 2430
Win7 pro / Linux Mint 12
4Gb Ram
13.3inch anti-glare screen
500Gb 7200rpm hdd
6 cell battery
Camera
Integrated Wire: Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000 NIC)
Wireless LAN: IntelÂ® 802.11 b/g/n;
Bluetooth: Bluetooth v3.0 + High Speed
Network connector (RJ45)
USB 3.0 (2)
USB 2.0 (1)
Microphone jack
Headphone/speaker out
8-in-1 card reader
HDMI out
VGA out

for Â£479 +vat
Well apart from the VAT its all good

Claw I did say it was for business to the guy, it was just me being an idiot

I'll get the vat back tho so thats nice

Anyway laters guys

Class--

oh almost forgot I would say the speakers are below par at there high volume but decent when not trying to be loud. Very tinny when trying to be loud ie. for watching a film. Also loud isnt very loud but heh its a work laptop not a cinema

Post by **Nellyboy** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:39 am

If you want extended battery life and can live with linux based android then <a href="http://cuppcomputing.com/2011/05/punkth ... computing/" target="_blank">this</a> could be for you.

I guess it turns it into a smartphone without the calls.

Have a readup.

Edit: I see they are having financing difficulties so may be a no go.

Edit Edit:

<a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/hp-pavi ... =mncol;txt" target="_blank">This HP</a> has excellent battery life

Post by **Dangerous Bob** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 2:13 pm

Bought a new battery for my HP DV6700, got one of thos e double sized ones to fit at a not to unreasonable price too.

Post by **andrew** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:40 pm

You could always purchase another standard battery, I use this setup for when im away from the office and need the laptop running. Pain in the arse restarting half way through tests but it serves its purpose well when external power is sketchy. Although you have to remember to recharge the spare whenever possible......
Standard HP cells (forget model) fail quite quickly for us at work, dells seem to last the course a lot longer (charge/discharge....)

Post by **Class--** » Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:29 pm

Now that Punk module is pretty damn cool Nelly. Its like having the best of both worlds. A large screen for browsing and emails with the odd mini game for example as he says on the plane OR a normal fast lappy to run your demanding programs and getting work done. Pretty cool. I hope they do well.

Class--

Post by **Class--** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:27 am

Well the effing thing went boom tonight or rather fizz

Was doing some word processing when the screen suddenly went pink and I thought "oh oh" so I moved the screen back and it was back to normal. Then suddenly it went into spaz mode (read- went pink and then flickered green and pink) and died. Can't get the fecker to switch back on now absoluetly dead

I've had problems kinda like this but not the same and that was due to a stuck/broken lid switch, the one letting the pc know the lid/screen is shut, but I'm not playing with this as it still has 312 days warranty left

well I guess I just got to wait till Monday now