Need a new Laptop, any suggestions for make/model?

[philinux]

Need a lappy for general office type use. Don't want expensive stuff but fairly good build quality. Don't want to pay more than 500.
Thanks.

SOLVED Got this.

Acer 1410 (http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/productv.do?LanguageISOCtxParam=en&kcond61e.c2att101=63748&sp=page16e&ctx2.c2att1=17&link=ln438e&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&ctx1g.c2att92=122&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=1810849994)

[kaldor]

Linux or Windows?

[philinux]

Linux or Windows?

Ah. Forgot to say will be puttin lucid on it. If it comes with win on it I will shrink to as small as it can go just for warranty purposes or I suppose could try get a refund if I remove it.

[KiwiNZ]

Avoid anything from the HP consumer range period. The Acer ,Toshiba notebooks have some good offerings as does the Dell low end.

The HP Business Notebooks are good though and reliable just a little plain looking. But for performance and reliability for what you want I would go for Thinkpad.

[LowSky]

Phil I'm a big fan of Lenovo Thinkpads. They are the best machines for the office. Somewhat rugged, decent battery life, and last for a really long time. My T60 is 3 years old and going strong. I can't recommend them enough.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/gbweb/LenovoPortal/en_GB/catalog.workflow:expandcategory?issBase=ProductsCa tegory&issCategory=/Notebooks/ThinkPad%20notebooks

[MindSz]

My Toshiba Satellite came out pretty good. 3 years running with no problems.

[philinux]

Thanks for the info. One other thing I would prefer nVidia graphics if poss.

[LowSky]

Thanks for the info. One other thing I would prefer nVidia graphics if poss.

Not for 500. Unless your ok with a netbook with Nvidia ION.

[philinux]

Not for 500. Unless your ok with a netbook with Nvidia ION.

Ah ok. Or Intel just not ati I reckon.

[samalex]

Need a lappy for general office type use. Don't want expensive stuff but fairly good build quality. Don't want to pay more than 500.
Thanks.

If you can somehow get them to ship to the UK, I'd recommend System76.

Sam

[darrenn]

It's too bad you couldn't wait a year or so. Laptops with this new Pixel Qi technology are coming. It's like having a e reader and regular screen built into one. I was going to buy a new laptop but im going to wait until I can buy a screen with pixel qi.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/pixel-qi-lcd-screen-display,10601.html

[Slug71]

Asus, Acer, Toshiba or Lenovo. :)

[philinux]

Asus, Acer, Toshiba or Lenovo. :)

How would you rate those in order of preference?

[sxmaxchine]

i like toshiba laptops however i have read that some toshiba laptops have problems with the optical drive when using linux.

this would be good (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Dell-Latitude-D620-Laptop-Core-Duo-1-66GHz-2GB-160GB_W0QQitemZ120578134649QQcategoryZ177QQcmdZVie wItem) for basic office use however you could get a lot better for your money if you look more.

[Sam Fallow]

I'm running a Clevo, purchased at a good price and with 4Gb Ram from eBuyer. Came with no operating system and it suits Ubuntu pretty well. Everything works though it does have the intel GPu.

A good build quality and no issues in the first year. Certainly worth a look.

[philinux]

I'm running a Clevo, purchased at a good price and with 4Gb Ram from eBuyer. Came with no operating system and it suits Ubuntu pretty well. Everything works though it does have the intel GPu.

A good build quality and no issues in the first year. Certainly worth a look.

Dont think they do those in the UK.

[Dixon Bainbridge]

I'd avoid Dell completely, but thats just me.

[philinux]

Anyone else got a suggestion?

[Breambutt]

Anything but Acer.

Seriously.

Unless you want to roast pork on it and don't mind a side flavor of liquid plastic.

And that's only as far as hardware goes.

I'm not really a laptop person but I'd probably try a Fujitsu-Siemens if any. Either way I'd never purchase a laptop without checking it out first - physically. The general impression of the build quality alone says a lot, most are nothing but cheap plastic toys and the abuse-withstanding models are made for army intel and cost a big buck.

[humbug01]

I bought a used Lenovo T-61 and swapped out the hdd for a faster one (got a usb case and use old one as external backup) and ram to 4GB. It's a great machine--especially the keyboard (more recent Lenovos apparently changed the keyboard so check out reviews). I'm running Lucid on it now with no problems so far. Lenovo outlet often has refurbished T series notebooks for sale....

I have a Dell laptop at work and it just got Lucid on it too but I prefer the Lenovo T-61 by far. The Dell memory module broke after a year which is strange....

Just my experience,

Steve

[RiceMonster]

I've had good experiences with Asus and Toshiba. I would personally avoid Dell and HP, which seem to be very break happy. Dell is good with warrenties and getting your laptop fixed, but I like to think I'd prefer bad customer service that I never have to call than good customer service that I have to call all the time.

[PsychoDevon]

I absolutely LOVE Gateway laptops. They're cheap and have INCREDIBLE specs, all because you're buying THE COMPUTER, not THE BRAND. I hate Dell-you're always buying the Dell brand name when you buy a Dell.

[gillza]

Asus. They put their own mobos in those laptops. Get an Asus. Avoid Dell, HP.

[philinux]

This making my head spin. There's such a range even within one manufacturer.

So far this what you guys have said.


Acer 0
Asus +3
Dell -3
FujSie +1
Gateway +1
Lenovo +3
Tosh +4

[conundrumx]

Get a Thinkpad.

Pros:
Nvidia GPU (Intel is a waste of money, and you don't like ATI)
Well built. Like, beat a guy over the head with it, then fire off an email about what you just did well built.
Popular amongst Linux users (for the sake of compatibility, not fitting in)
Very easy to upgrade/work on. Lots of standard parts that span generations of Thinkpads.

Cons:
More expensive than bargain bin
Can be bulky/heavy

[gillza]

This making my head spin. There's such a range even within one manufacturer.

So far this what you guys have said.


Acer +2
Asus +3
Dell -3
FujSie +1
Gateway +1
Lenovo +3
Tosh +4


If you google something like: Asus vs Toshiba or asus vs lenovo you will get your answer.

I personally love Fujitsu, but they are really expensive (but last long and much better built) my next laptop will be Asus.

[baloo56]

Before I went looking for a new laptop a couple of months ago I came across this article on Laptop reliability and repair history.
Page six of the PDF document lists various brands of Laptops and Netbooks and their malfunction record. makes for good reading. The company that provided the report, SquareTrade, apparently provides insurance on electronic goods. For example if you went into Future Shop, bought a Laptop and they ask you "would you like to buy an extended warranty (insurance) on it". I believe that is what Square Trade does. So they would definitely have the statistics.
The results of the report may surprise you...or not. Hope it helps.

http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

[philinux]

Get a Thinkpad.

Pros:
Nvidia GPU (Intel is a waste of money, and you don't like ATI)
Well built. Like, beat a guy over the head with it, then fire off an email about what you just did well built.
Popular amongst Linux users (for the sake of compatibility, not fitting in)
Very easy to upgrade/work on. Lots of standard parts that span generations of Thinkpads.

Cons:
More expensive than bargain bin
Can be bulky/heavy

Had a search and a lot of the new thinkpads have ATI. :(

[philinux]

Asus. They put their own mobos in those laptops. Get an Asus. Avoid Dell, HP.

This don't look like a bad deal.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-x5dij-sx313v-04287986-pdt.html
Intel GMA 4500M

[gillza]

Had a search and a lot of the new thinkpads have ATI. :(


http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9441440

:)

[philinux]

Before I went looking for a new laptop a couple of months ago I came across this article on Laptop reliability and repair history.
Page six of the PDF document lists various brands of Laptops and Netbooks and their malfunction record. makes for good reading. The company that provided the report, SquareTrade, apparently provides insurance on electronic goods. For example if you went into Future Shop, bought a Laptop and they ask you "would you like to buy an extended warranty (insurance) on it". I believe that is what Square Trade does. So they would definitely have the statistics.
The results of the report may surprise you...or not. Hope it helps.

http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf

Wow, cheers.
Although girlfriend's lappy failed after 3 years it was because she accidentally knelt on it. I put a new lcd in which cost £75 2 weeks ago.

[cb951303]

thinkpad +1

[conundrumx]

Had a search and a lot of the new thinkpads have ATI. :(

Check out the T410's. They're (a lot) more than $500, but probably pretty close to 500 GBP :p

[philinux]

Check out the T410's. They're (a lot) more than $500, but probably pretty close to 500 GBP :p

Way over my budget in the UK. £650^^^^

[cb951303]

how about netbooks? did you see thinkpad x100e?
pretty cool machine.

[philinux]

how about netbooks? did you see thinkpad x100e?
pretty cool machine.

Graphics Controller: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3200 :(

[nikhilbhardwaj]

i've recently got myself an acer 5542g linux edition
see if its available in your area

its great value for money
and i've had no problems running 64 bit kubuntu lucid on it

[konqueror7]

i have had relatively good experience with MSI using linux; dell, acer, and toshiba have i seen on my friends with no problem. oh, one thing good about MSI is, that they have very good value notebooks coming with nvidia cards...

[philinux]

i've recently got myself an acer 5542g linux edition
see if its available in your area

its great value for money
and i've had no problems running 64 bit kubuntu lucid on it

After reading the pdf in post #27.

Asus and Tosh are out in front on reliability.

[cariboo]

Despite what KiwiNZ said about HP, I have two, an older 5400z and a Mini 110, the Laptop has served me well, and has run any Ubuntu version I installed on it. The Mini 110, Ubuntu worked out of the box, all the hardware is supported, and is currently dual booting Lucid and Maverick. My netbook came with XP installed, that lasted about as long as it took to use the Backup utility to create a backup set that is on an extra laptop hard drive sitting in my filing cabinet. I've booted from the Live CD on several HP laptops, the hardware seemed to work on all of them with no problem.

[buddyd16]

Not sure if newegg ships to the UK but this laptop seems to fit what you are looking for, $829 US (approx. £564)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220732

just checked newegg does not ship outside the US. If you have any friends relatives in the US you could possibly have it shipped to them and then have them ship it to you. I am not sure what the international shipping costs would be though.

found a UK seller however currently out of stock

http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=K52JC-EX089V

[cpmman]

Fellow Lancastrian - small private pension - ordered one of these (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/185894) today.

New product - no reliability record - BUT - no OS and ten days to load a lot and thrash it before long-distance selling rules runs out.

Currently on eight year-old Acer Travelmate Lupu & SeaMonkey - works fine so a behemoth as above should do anything with Linux.

[98cwitr]

Lenovo SL410

[Stancel]

I would avoid Acer.

[philinux]

I would avoid Acer.

How come acer seems to be one to avoid?

[philinux]

Lenovo SL410

Over my budget I'm afraid.

[Breambutt]

How come acer seems to be one to avoid?
They have a lot of specific issues depending on the model and make, but one thing they have in common: low build quality. Unless the LCD joint doesn't crack and eventually break the entire cover, the area around the keyboard is bound to melt sooner or later. That is, if the battery doesn't explode before that.

The sheer amount of defective spare parts we... I mean... uh... Acer used to get from the supplier was evidence enough, not that I ever held their products in a different light. Their dark green tinted desktops in the 90's were pretty cool though.

Oh yeah, the localized service sucks too. Good thing we could always ship the broken crap across Europe to Germany and get it back to the customer before our own technicians managed to fix them. I'm probably not supposed to go into details, but the customers are rather insane too. One couple wanted to sue Microsoft because there was something wrong with their Windows and one sued us for stomping the cardboard box they shipped their laptop in for repairs. Oh, the amount of threats of physical violence...

Basically it's a badly run madhouse. On a positive side we did have a tech support guy who listened to Anal ****. I suppose the Travelmates were "okay", but Aspires were nothing but trouble. Don't know which of the new models could be "okay" but I'm sure it's only a few in contrast to the loads of crap.

I like to think that broken computers bring out the worst in people. Otherwise this world is even more retarded than I thought, and that would be just a little bit sad.

[philinux]

This is starting to look attractive.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-x5dij-sx313v-04287986-pdt.html

I'll have to try to get a look at one in the flesh. This is a web exclusive.
Probably means they having a clear out. :lolflag:

[Странник]

My Acer Aspire 5537Z runs beautifully

[98cwitr]

How come acer seems to be one to avoid?

b/c acer is cheap and unreliable

[rewyllys]

I've been a fan of IBM ThinkPads for the last 12 years or so, and am currently running Lucid on a T42 that's over 3 years old. When Ubuntu re-awakened my interest in Linux about a year ago, I installed Jaunty dual-booting with Windows; but now I have only Lucid on the machine.

I've owned three ThinkPads altogether, so I've averaged something over 4 years of use for each, upgrading only when the difference in operating speeds became irresistible. I've owned no other brand of laptop, because of the high quality of the equipment and because ThinkPad keyboards have been distinctly superior IMHO to those on any other brand of laptop.

ThinkPad support has been admirable. Each of my three machines has had a problem at some point in its life; and in every case, a phone call to IBM Support has resulted in delivery of a shipping carton by UPS or FedEx that day, then pickup the same day (if the timing permitted, or else the next day), and return of the repaired machine on the second day after pickup from me--e.g., pickup on Tuesday, machine returned on Thursday--all at NO cost to me.

Though I have no experience in dealing directly with Lenovo, who bought the IBM laptop and desktop line, I've heard only good things about it.

Nowadays, however, I no longer have any interest in a Windows-based machine, so my next laptop (whenever I decide to acquire my 4th such machine) will almost certainly be one that comes with Ubuntu. An earlier response in this thread mentioned System76, which doesn't ship outside the US and Canada, but I'd like to suggest ZaReason, which does ship internationally.

BTW, I recently learned how to work around the problem of a vendor not shipping to one's country of residence. Anyone can set up a standing Remote Pickup arrangement with FedEx, who will pick up a package in any country in which they operate and deliver it to your home or office. I've used this capability twice so far, once with a vendor in Germany and once with a vendor in Canada, neither of which would ship to the US (for some obscure reason or other). Setting up the Remote Pickup arrangement is easy, and once it is in place, all one has to do is make a phone call to a FedEx office in one's own country. Very nice!

[philinux]

@ rwyllys

I'm afraid I can't go with lenovo purely because they seem to come with ATI graphics. At least at my budget and the models I've looked at. If I'm shelling out good money I want the graphics card supported.
http://www.dabs.com/products/lenovo-x100e-amd-neo-2gb-250gb-w7-pro-6KZF.html

[llawwehttam]

I would highly recommend novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech) for laptops. They have brilliant customer service and very good specs for prices.

I have a laptop from them and it had been fantastic.

My recommendation: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/x16nvpro.html

I think the specs fit your needs:

CPU: Intel T6600 Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz
Ram: 2 x 2Gb 200Pin DDR2 800Mhz
Hdd: 500gb 2.5" Hard Drive

Optical: 8x SATA DVD Writer

Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 310m Graphics
15.6" HD 1366 x 768 LED Screen

@ £459.99 Inc VAT so you have money to spare.

and it comes without an OS so no M$ tax lol.

[philinux]

I would highly recommend novatech (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech) for laptops. They have brilliant customer service and very good specs for prices.

I have a laptop from them and it had been fantastic.

My recommendation: http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/x16nvpro.html

I think the specs fit your needs:

CPU: Intel T6600 Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz
Ram: 2 x 2Gb 200Pin DDR2 800Mhz
Hdd: 500gb 2.5" Hard Drive

Optical: 8x SATA DVD Writer

Graphics: Nvidia Geforce 310m Graphics
15.6" HD 1366 x 768 LED Screen

@ £459.99 Inc VAT so you have money to spare.

and it comes without an OS so no M$ tax lol.

Who actually makes these? Not bad spec at all. The 310m is fairly new. There have been threads about problems with it.

[llawwehttam]

Who actually makes these? Not bad spec at all. The 310m is fairly new. There have been threads about problems with it.
The manufacturer appears to be clevo.

I bought one of their older models, called the x65Pro and it has a geforce 130m 512mb and works almost flawlessly in ubuntu. (there is a slight problem with microphones)

The clevo chassis are usually very sturdy.

EDIT: I have seen a few threads myself but they don't seem to be limited to the 310m, pretty much any nvidia card but mostly in sony laptops. I had a similar problem and it was an easy fix, disable hybrid hotswap in the BIOS so the nvidia card is the only one in use, so no intel hybrid mode, and after installing the latest drivers off the nvidia site it works flawlessly. At the time the latest nvidia drivers were 190.53 (as I use 64-bit)

[philinux]

The manufacturer appears to be clevo.

I bought one of their older models, called the x65Pro and it has a geforce 130m 512mb and works almost flawlessly in ubuntu. (there is a slight problem with microphones)

The clevo chassis are usually very sturdy.

EDIT: I have seen a few threads myself but they don't seem to be limited to the 310m, pretty much any nvidia card but mostly in sony laptops. I had a similar problem and it was an easy fix, disable hybrid hotswap in the BIOS so the nvidia card is the only one in use, so no intel hybrid mode, and after installing the latest drivers off the nvidia site it works flawlessly. At the time the latest nvidia drivers were 190.53 (as I use 64-bit)

Clevo, yes a guy previously mentioned they were good.
I could downgrade the cpu and memory and get it for <£400. How do think your recommendation compares to this from pcworld?
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/asus-x5dij-sx313v-04287986-pdt.html

[llawwehttam]

Novatech vs Pc world

Intel T6600 Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz------------------------ vs--------------------- Intel T4400- 2.2 GHz
2Mb------------------------------------------------------- vs ---------------------1 MB L2 cache
2 x 2Gb 200Pin DDR2 800Mhz (4gb)------------------- vs -------------------- 3 GB
500gb 2.5" Hard Drive----------------------------------- vs-------------------- 320GB SATA
Nvidia Geforce 310m Graphics-------------------------- vs-------------------- Intel GMA 4500M

15.6" HD 1366 x 768 LED Screen----------------------- vs--------------------- 1366 x 768 Screen size 15.6"



It really comes down to your budget. The one from novatech is superior in every way except for the price and that can be modified by downgrading a few bits if you really need to.



However the support and customer service from novatech is amazing wheras I have heard more than a few horror stories from PC-World.

[philinux]

@llawwehttam, many thanks for that.
Processor downgrade goes to T4200 which I thinks is slower than the pcw machine which is a shame. Memory wise I'm not sure I would need 4gig although I do play around with Virtualbox.

[llawwehttam]

One other thing. The pc world laptop has a high gloss finish wheras the novatech one is matt (or mostly matt).

My sister got a dell inspiron for christmas this year and it is glossy and it is scratched horribly all over, wheras the novatech job I got at the same time (in matt) is fine.

[mr.farenheit]

i've always been lucky running ubuntu on acers. lenovos are cool but some of the decent ones for general use seem spendy.

[philinux]

@llawwehttam

This looks interesting too.

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/v144100.html

[llawwehttam]

That must be quite new, haven't seen it before. Looks good though. Sort of like a macbook air (or an attempt in that direction).

[philinux]

After much deliberating I got one of these.

Acer 1410 (http://www.acer.co.uk/acer/productv.do?LanguageISOCtxParam=en&kcond61e.c2att101=63748&sp=page16e&ctx2.c2att1=17&link=ln438e&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&ctx1g.c2att92=122&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=1810849994)

Has 64 bit home premium and 2gig memory.

Ubuntu is going on it as dual boot if I can shrink the win 7 partition.

[brokenromeo]

Acer is sort of like Kia, they have a reputation that persists that is based on products from years ago...they make some great budget laptops these days...I have purchased some for friends, my wife and kids, run ubuntu on them with no problems...and they are all still running just fine. If you want to spend more money, fine, but Acer makes some great bang for the buck stuff.

[philinux]

Acer is sort of like Kia, they have a reputation that persists that is based on products from years ago...they make some great budget laptops these days...I have purchased some for friends, my wife and kids, run ubuntu on them with no problems...and they are all still running just fine. If you want to spend more money, fine, but Acer makes some great bang for the buck stuff.

Yes, I was put off acer by some negative comments. But the spec on this was brill. The build quality is excellent. Battery life 5 hours and it is very cool, no temperature problems at all. I'm very pleased with it.