best current laptop for around the £300 mark

[white phantom]

hiya

sorry if this is in the wrong section not been on in a while and didnt think it would be suitable in the system builders section so please move it if its wrong

basically whats roughly the best laptop available for around 300 pounds? it MUST be a laptop e.g. have an optical drive and not a netbook (atall) /ultrabook (unless the ultrabook has an optical drive)

it wont be used for gaming or really anything stressful its for my mum who goes on ebay and thats about it lol but obviously whatever is the most powerful for the money (or cheaper) would be purchased.

i shall go have a look around myself aswell but more brains are better than one

cheers

 

[Kaynar]

15"
dual core i3 or i5 or at this price AMD APUs may do better.
4-8gb ram
no gpu (cpu HD4000)
thats about what you can get with £300.

For 330: http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B00AZV1MP6/?tag=tec053-21
for £370 there is even 17": http://www.amazon.co_uk/dp/B009HQ6UZM/?tag=tec053-21

 

[white phantom]

15"
dual core i3 or i5 or at this price AMD APUs may do better.
4-8gb ram
no gpu (cpu HD4000)
thats about what you can get with £300.

yeah shes not after anything majorly fast anyways, i was thinking along the lines of an i3 or at a push i5, her current machines an amd and to be honest im a bit of an intel fanboy plus it just doesn't seem to run as smooth as the intel machines, just hit a major snag with it all being windows bloody 8 and this metro malarky. its terrible and i know she wont like it either :/ the 15" is fine its not myself thats paying for it so only have 300 to play with

plus just discovered her current machines crashing constantly with bsod bccode 109, had a reformat from the recovery drive so now thinking the rams went kaput as when i ran memtest it crashed the laptop. mind you it did crash anyways

 

[white phantom]

what about any of these two seems decent im more swayed to the hp though

Fujitsu AH512 Lifebook - Laptops | Ebuyer.com

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-650-La...t=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item43ba2adac4

 

[Geekoid]

Best for under £300

Yes, you won't get a gaming laptop unless you spend at least three times that amount. So, for the super low-end budget laptop range you have quite a large amount of choice! As you're basically looking for something can run a web browser (and have an optical drive, for whatever reason) then you won't need anything powerful at all.

The HP 655 Laptop boasts for following for £260:

- AMD E2-1800 1.7GHz
- 4GB RAM + 320GB HDD
- 15.6" HD + AMD HD7340
- SuperMulti DL Drive
- Webcam + Bluetooth
- Windows 8 64bit

HP 655 Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com

That will browse a decent amount of web, and still leave money for the anti-virus software.

For raw power, however, you can do a lot worse than this baby:

Zoostorm laptop:

- Intel Pentium DC B980 2.4GHz
- 8GB RAM + 500GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam
- Intel HD graphics
- DVD

Zoostorm Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com

As you can see, compared to the HP, you get a much faster CPU, more disk capacity and twice the RAM... all for just £270.

If you want to go super cheap (and second hand) then this little chap packs a mini punch:

Acer Aspire 5741
- Core i3
- 320 GB HDD
- 2 GB RAM
- DVD
- 15.6" screen

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/3308...ixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla&crdt=0

At just £165 you can't go wrong - that is about 50% under budget!

 

[white phantom]

Yes, you won't get a gaming laptop unless you spend at least three times that amount. So, for the super low-end budget laptop range you have quite a large amount of choice! As you're basically looking for something can run a web browser (and have an optical drive, for whatever reason) then you won't need anything powerful at all.

The HP 655 Laptop boasts for following for £260:

- AMD E2-1800 1.7GHz
- 4GB RAM + 320GB HDD
- 15.6" HD + AMD HD7340
- SuperMulti DL Drive
- Webcam + Bluetooth
- Windows 8 64bit

HP 655 Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com

That will browse a decent amount of web, and still leave money for the anti-virus software.

For raw power, however, you can do a lot worse than this baby:

Zoostorm laptop:

- Intel Pentium DC B980 2.4GHz
- 8GB RAM + 500GB HDD
- 15.6" HD LED
- Webcam
- Intel HD graphics
- DVD

Zoostorm Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com

As you can see, compared to the HP, you get a much faster CPU, more disk capacity and twice the RAM... all for just £270.

If you want to go super cheap (and second hand) then this little chap packs a mini punch:

Acer Aspire 5741
- Core i3
- 320 GB HDD
- 2 GB RAM
- DVD
- 15.6" screen

http://compare.ebay.co.uk/like/3308...ixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar&adtype=pla&crdt=0

At just £165 you can't go wrong - that is about 50% under budget!

hi mate cheers

yeah its not for a gaming machine as its my mother who uses it and is not very computer literate or use it to full power, the optical drive is because she purchases alot of dvds from the web and finds it easier to fire them in the laptop to check and confirm they work rather than the telly along with picture backups to disc.

that zoostorm looks pretty decent unitl i read there was no operating system installed. i was more looking towards the i3's? is there that much of a difference between the pentium dc and an i3? i know desktop but mobile is just confusing

 

[Geekoid]

Cheap doesn't matter

For the Zoostorm you can always bung your own operating system on, assuming you've ever installed one (its pretty much just put the DVD in and wait 30 mins).

To be honest, at the super low end of the range you aren't going to notice any difference at all between processors. Heck, a 1.4 GHz Pentium 4 from 12 years ago could play a DVD just fine, and things have moved on a bit since then. So you can be assured that anything you select won't be lacking in power for the requirements given and will last a good few years.

If you want to compare the CPUs numerically, take a look over here:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html

Bear in mind that the difference between something that scores 1750 and something that scores 2000 when you're using a web browser or watching a DVD just won't be noticeable at all.

If it was me, I'd just get the cheapest laptop I could find with a DVD drive and spend the rest of the cash on a slap-up meal or some beers

 

[Fourstaff]

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_V5-571_1266036.html

I personally think that you will find much more "complete" machines around the £330 mark, if you can stretch a bit more you will get a lot more bang for buck. Another alternative is to wait for a good deal to come by (Hotukdeals is a good place to start), and then get it.

 

[Geekoid]

If you can go up to £380, then you can get an i5 with a nice screen:

Acer Aspire E1 Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com

There is a staggering choice once you go above £300, but it mostly boils down to:

- how much RAM you want (2GB is fine for browsing)
- disk space (160GB is fine for an OS and 4 different browsers and dvd software)
- battery life
- weight
- style
- plastic / durable case
- screen size & resolution

 

[white phantom]

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_V5-571_1266036.html

I personally think that you will find much more "complete" machines around the £330 mark, if you can stretch a bit more you will get a lot more bang for buck. Another alternative is to wait for a good deal to come by (Hotukdeals is a good place to start), and then get it.

possibly be able to stretch mate tbh i think im just gonna buy an amd dual core was simply trying to get something with a bit of grunt since shes new to windows 8 and may well add the apps from the market lol

For the Zoostorm you can always bung your own operating system on, assuming you've ever installed one (its pretty much just put the DVD in and wait 30 mins).

To be honest, at the super low end of the range you aren't going to notice any difference at all between processors. Heck, a 1.4 GHz Pentium 4 from 12 years ago could play a DVD just fine, and things have moved on a bit since then. So you can be assured that anything you select won't be lacking in power for the requirements given and will last a good few years.

If you want to compare the CPUs numerically, take a look over here:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html

Bear in mind that the difference between something that scores 1750 and something that scores 2000 when you're using a web browser or watching a DVD just won't be noticeable at all.

If it was me, I'd just get the cheapest laptop I could find with a DVD drive and spend the rest of the cash on a slap-up meal or some beers

yeah mate installed loads done a hnd in tech support however the extra for a legitimate license is out of the question and a cracked copy im not comfy with on a family members device as they will probs get caught lol

If you can go up to £380, then you can get an i5 with a nice screen:

Acer Aspire E1 Laptop - Laptops | Ebuyer.com

There is a staggering choice once you go above £300, but it mostly boils down to:

- how much RAM you want (2GB is fine for browsing)
- disk space (160GB is fine for an OS and 4 different browsers and dvd software)
- battery life
- weight
- style
- plastic / durable case
- screen size & resolution

nah sorry mate 380's way out cheers for the input though

 

[Geekoid]

yeah mate installed loads done a hnd in tech support however the extra for a legitimate license is out of the question and a cracked copy im not comfy with on a family members device as they will probs get caught lol

Yeah, I wouldn't go with any cracked copies of anything! Thats the joy of getting Retail Boxed copy over OEM too - you can just install on your new hardware Also plenty off free operating systems out there though - and without that mess that is Windows 8 >.< My mum faced the same issue - I went with the Zoostorm and installed Ubuntu 12 for her. She may be in her 60s and utterly computer illiterate, but that didn't stop her installing extra things like Skype and whatnot. I was actually slightly impressed with her. Shame she still hasn't quite got the hang of email attachments on gmail... I think my only gripe was it was slightly too plasticy case.

 

[Fourstaff]

possibly be able to stretch mate tbh i think im just gonna buy an amd dual core was simply trying to get something with a bit of grunt since shes new to windows 8 and may well add the apps from the market lol

You can try the AMD A4 3xxxx chips, they should be decent

 

[remixedcat]

Plenty of decent Toshibas or Lenovos in that price range.

 

[white phantom]

thanks for all the help guys

she ended up with a hp compaq i3 sandy bridge, 4gb, 320gb hard drive (she wont use any of that)

320 down from 450 take home from pc world which she would prefer being the easter weekend so thats it settled

cheers again

 

[vawrvawerawe]

300 pounds is 456.42 US Dollars.

for $450 you'll be hard-pressed to find a decent laptop with anything but the very basic, bare minimum.

Not only that, but I think that Europe prices for electronics are higher than US prices.

My advice is if that's all you have, then:

1. Save some money first then buy $600+ [USD] when you can afford it, or
2. Buy a used laptop. It won't be cutting-edge but you'll get a lot more bang for your buck with only $450

 

[white phantom]

300 pounds is 456.42 US Dollars.

for $450 you'll be hard-pressed to find a decent laptop with anything but the very basic, bare minimum.

Not only that, but I think that Europe prices for electronics are higher than US prices.

My advice is if that's all you have, then:

1. Save some money first then buy $600+ [USD] when you can afford it, or
2. Buy a used laptop. It won't be cutting-edge but you'll get a lot more bang for your buck with only $450

we got one yesterday mate its not a performance machine she was after, but we got one with a little i3 processor so plenty of power for what she needs