Pagey isn't looking for a gaming rig, just a new PC to run 7 and browse the internet. You won't beat a Dell for that i am afraid.

+1. My whole point.

Again for a laptop the dell outlet will win. Just make sure you get a core i model and avoid celeron or pentium or amd as these will kill the battery quicker.

For £300 you should be able to get an I3 15inch off the outlet. I have probably bought around 15 over the last couple of years off there and never had a problem. They are 99% cancelled orders and as new.

You don't need a graphics card on them as they're built into the motherboard.

Just to clarify, are you saying that the i3/5/7 have the graphics card onboard (built into the motherboard) so the Acer on Amazon is some good ****?

The i3/5/7 range have built in gfx, although it is not very good; some lappy makers disable it and add an AMD Radeon Mobility gfx system.

Just to clarify, are you saying that the i3/5/7 have the graphics card onboard (built into the motherboard) so the Acer on Amazon is some good ****?

Any PC or laptop will have graphics built in and is more than adequate for anything unless you are a gamer.

Only if it specifies a graphics card will it be a 'discrete' one.

Excellent, just spoken with swmbo and we both agree that a laptop would be more benefical. Will have a look on the outlet now.

EDIT: So, do I go for the new one with 15" screen and 3GB of memory >>> :S<<< or the refurbished one with the 17" screen and 4GB of memory >>> :S<<<

EDIT2: Or go for the 17" new and get 640GB storage for an extra 80 quid??? linky

I would go for the one off the outlet:

If you want the 17:

•Inspiron 17R - N7110 Laptop

•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

•Processor: Intel Core i3-2310M (3M Cache, 2.10 GHz)

•Hard Drive : 500GB Serial ATA (5400RPM)

•4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (1 DIMMs)

•8X DVD+/-RW Drive

•17.3 inch High Definition+ (1600 x 900) LED Display with TrueLife

•1 GB nVidia GeForce GT 525M - Dual Core Graphics Card

•6 Cell Primary Battery, 48W

•LCD Back Cover: Diamond Black Exchangeable Lid (WLAN)

•Wireless: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 (1x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo Card)

•English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)

•Back Up Media Not Included

£403 inv vat and del

15 inch one i would go for:

•Inspiron 15 - N5040

•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

•One Intel Core i3-380M (2.53Ghz,3M,Dual Core)

•320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)

•3 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (3 DIMMs)

•8X DVD+/- RW Drive

•Display: 15.6in High Definition (1366X768) WLED LCD Panel

•Graphics: Intel HD Graphics

•6 Cell Primary Battery, 48W

•LCD Back Cover : Obsidian Black

•Wireless : Dell Wireless 802.11g/n

•English Genuine Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium (64Bit OS)

•Back Up Media Not Included

£304.82 inc vat and delivery.

That aver had on board graphics, HD at that!!

In all but gaming you could not tell the difference.

Moot point anyhoo now.

Have a look at toshiba and acer direct as well.

IMO a 17" is a big monster. Go feel one at pc world, just feel don't buy as you'll do better online.

I'll have a looksie later.

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I would probably recommend a 15 inch over 17. Unless you buy a nice slim, minimalist 17" laptop (e.g. MacBook Pro), you are going to notice the lack of portability quite quickly. To put this into perspective back in Feb I bought a 17 inch XPS off the outlet and while performance wise it was fantastic, it was more suited to be a desktop replacement. It was heavy, large/bulky and the battery protruded out the bottom of the chassis which made it awkward and uncomfortable to use on your lap. It also ran bloody hot and the battery life wasn't overly fantastic either. Just something to think about regarding portability!

Also another thing to look at is the screen resolution. Take no notice of Dell claiming "HD screens"... IMO this is rubbish.. it goes by resolution, and 1366x768 is frankly a terrible resolution. 1600x900 isn't much better either for a 17inch panel. Try and look for something that is 1920x1080 - at least then you know you are getting a nice, crisp resolution that is actually 1080p (true HD). Another thing to bear in mind is that a lot of the Dell TFT panels in laptops although "WLED" the screens are actually quite pants. Back to my XPS 17, the screen was very bad. The contrast ratio wasn't great and the viewing angle was awful.

My advice is to read some reviews on the model you are looking at, and trust what other people said. I noticed reviewers saying the screen wasn't great but thought "nah it can't be THAT bad!" at the time... I wish I had paid attention to them!

I would also steer away from Acer, personally. The powers that be insisted on ordering them in a previous job for all staff... very stupid idea. I personally don't rate them at all, and that is from professional experience. Acers seem more suited for 13 year old girls as "media laptops" but not for other uses. Business grade Dells (Latitude), Toshibas and HPs (Elite Book) are much, much better.

A good Dell to look out for, if you can pick them up on the outlet, would be the L702X. That's the "enhanced" version of the XPS 17 I had. It has better CPU (Sandybridge i7), newer GPU (GT555M), back lit keyboard and much better 1920x1080 TFT screen. The screen on that unit is fantastic, after seeing one in the flesh.

Best of luck

Edited 25 October, 201114 yr by George512

+1 i would go for a 15inch and avoid an Acer (Acer desktops aren't too bad though). 17's tend to be top heavy. I have a RG+B 1080P screen on my XPS15 (a £180 option if i hadn't bought from the outlet!) and it is amazing.

Acers are solid. They're the biggest seller of laptops in the uk and Europe.

Dell laptops are better built these days.

Lonovo are also good laptops.

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Acers are solid. They're the biggest seller of laptops in the uk and Europe.

Doesn't mean they are any good. I know of no Acer laptop that has lasted past the warranty (i have seen hundreds of them).

Dell are the most reliable followed by HP then Lenovo......then bottom of the depths of hell is Acer.

This is with school kids using them so a good test for reliability

Doesn't mean they are any good. I know of no Acer laptop that has lasted past the warranty (i have seen hundreds of them).

Yeah exactly... just because they sell a lot, doesn't mean they are any good!

•Back Up Media Not Included

Dont forget to pay the extra for a physical copy of windows; unless you are a fan of torrent sites.

If they were as bad as you say then they simply wouldn't sell.

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Dont forget to pay the extra for a physical copy of windows; unless you are a fan of torrent sites.

Why, you have a recovery partition on the hard drive or you can phone dell and they will send you a copy of 7. Failing that I have plenty of dell discs of all favours of 7.

IMHO a laptop is better as a second computer.

In my experience they don't last as long as desktops and they are much harder to fix. If you're not handy in the guts of a pc a laptop is much more expensive to fix.

Ergonomically they can be terrible too, encouraging you to slouch on the sofa with it not sit at a desk. SWMBO can testify to it after recently having 6 weeks of physio to fix her back after doing just that for too long.

Warnings made....

Just about any i3 or i5 laptop will suit. Recently I bought a laptop for my parents and got an Acer AMD quad core on offer from Comet for about £330. Not much cop on battery life and it doesn't have the latest and greatest chipset or screen but it was absolutely blinding for the price. Fast and light but no looker.

Dell outlet also had some very good deals on i3 laptops at about the £300 bracket.

Have a look about and don't jump in. There will be a different deal ever week.

Edited 26 October, 201114 yr by Aspman

Go for the Dell. I've had 2 budget dell desktops in the past 11 years. The current one I've had for 7 years and has worked faultlessly and the 1st one is still owned by a friend. Currently waiting for my new XPS17 laptop to be delivered as a desktop replacement too.

Bizarre how the experiences of us all show differing results.

I've seen a lot of acers and no problems, seen a lot of dells that have been troublesome from the off.

Must be the air down here lol

Some cracking advice being dished out, as usual Briskoda comes up trumps. My mum has a 15" Advent and it is a good size, I was just thinking like a normal man that bigger is better....... :p

I will stick my nose in Comet, Currys or PC World and have a quick feel, so to speak.

Thanks again.

Just checked the Dell outlet and the Inspiron 15 - N5040 is not on there.... :'(

But images I've found show it doesn't have a seperate number pad which I would like, perhaps a silly question but are all the Dell laptops wifi?

Found this one.

Can't link to outlet i'm afraid:

But it is on there

>Dell Outlet

>Home Home Office

>Check Availability & Pricing for all Laptops

>Order by price

•Inspiron 15R - N5010

•LCD Back Cover : Tomato Red

•One Intel Core i3-380M (2.53Ghz,3M,Dual Core)

•320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)

•3 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)

•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

•Display 15.6in HD (1366X768) WLED with TrueLife

£302

Actually this one is better for an extra £20

•Inspiron 15R - N5110

•Black

•Processor: Intel Core i3-2310M (3M Cache, 2.10 GHz)

•320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)

•3 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)

•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

•Display: 15.6in High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife

Newer processor and newer model.

and if the hard drive fails out of warranty???

One question, I was surprised by part of your response; if they will send you a free copy of the OS, why do they charge extra for the Recovery Disk??

All 17's will have a separate number keypad.

Some smaller widescreens will too but they'll compromise on normal keyboard size.

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Actually this one is better for an extra £20

•Inspiron 15R - N5110

•Black

•Processor: Intel Core i3-2310M (3M Cache, 2.10 GHz)

•320 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)

•3 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)

•Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)

•Display: 15.6in High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife

Newer processor and newer model.

That is the one in my link, I did see the red one, but it is not refurbished, it was in the section scratch and dent! Is this one wifi?