[retired_kishnata]

Originally posted by Tony Robertson:
<BLOCKQUOTE>Oh, and would you be looking at an actual laptop, (I.e mobility, going to carry it with you a lot) or more of a "desktop replacement"? (i.e will be mostly stationary, so size/weight matters little, but of course has the advantage that it *can* be moved). What "high end" is would vary drastically, a £1300 13" laptop would have much worse specs than a £1300 20" desktop replacement

More of a desktop replacement. I'm increaingly finding myself working from home of late. So quite powerful and to have the ability to sit where I want in the house, without having to to say sat in the same place.

I'm willing to wait till the right time, if there is one.

I quite like the look of Lenovos, and also the XPS by Dell. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry about that, i'm using the excuse that I'm feeling incredibly ill this weekend.

[retired_Siwash]

Acer are very hit and miss it seems. For most people they work just fine, others have constant problems. But then they are cheaper than most other manufacturers, up to you whether to take the risk or not.

I have to say though that I haven't looked much at the bigger computers, and not in the £1300 range (Mine was ~£800 and that was as far as I wanted to go), so can't help you much there.

The Lenovos are, from what I've heard, very well built. I know nothing of the bigger XPS models, just the M1330 which isn't what you're after.

You should go for 3 or 4gb ram (32 bit operating systems can only handle 3 IIRC, so don't go for 4 if you can't use it all), 2.2ghz + dual core processor. Again, I'm not very clued up on graphics either (Tbf I'm no guru in other aspects either), but this site could give you a decent idea of what's good or not.

The Dell Inspirons aren't very flashy, but would be decent value for money. Brands like Sony, Alienware etc. are very high quality and really cool, but you pay a lot for that extra quality. HP/Compaq are priced rather well too, but my personal experience of them isn't the best (Doesn't say much though, just one laptop bought 3½ years ago). Other than that I can't help you much with brands.

I'm sure some more useful people will come in here soon

[retired_Fit]

I have Dell Desktop but Acer Laptop, had it for ages, i mostly use it to watch MP3 stuff on, rarely online with it so not a big deal but i heard alot of people slagging them off. I do use it wireless at home to go online, never had any problems, far from impressive specs but does a good job

[retired_kishnata]

Originally posted by BBB:
tony

www.acernotebooks.co.uk

had an acer for 2 years, great quality.

I've just got a desktop myself as far far cheaper

Interesting. I liked the look of the 7720 Gemstone, so googled it for reviews etc.

I noticed that Tesco online are selling it as well. That Acer website sell it for £899, Tesco sell it for £749. Plus my mum works for them, so I might be able to get a 10% discount through her. Tempting. But as I said i'm in no rush, so I need to research.

[retired_kishnata]

I've been looking around and think I've decided on one of these two.

HP Pavilion vs Sony VAIO

Not as much as I thought I'd spend which is good. So out of these two, which would you go for? Or neither.

I guess it would also be worth buying some extra memory and expanding to 3 or 4 gig? Seems quite cheap nowadays.

Cheers.