FAO Shaniannie: Re PC Advisor from your H2B

MrsCW

Hiya Ann.

I've finally got my head around doing this thread.

Right, I'm in need of advice and direction on a new lappy.

What I have at present is:-
ADVENT 7080
Spec

Intel Pentium M 750 1.86GHZ

17" Widerscreen TFT (1440x900)

1034 MB DDR II RAM

Intel 915PM (Alviso)+ICH6-M

NVDIA GeForce Go 6800 graphics with 256MB external memory

Integrated Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer

80GB HDD

DVD+/-RW

4xUSB 2.-, 1x IEEE1394

Express Card slot, 4 in 1 Card Reader, TV Out, VGA port

Line-one (for headphones)

7.1 channel surround sound compatible

Mic-in

Hotkeys

I got way more than I needed with this (cost me £1500ish) and don't want to make the mistake with the next one.

Out of the above, these are a must/preference for me:-

17" Widerscreen TFT (1440x900)

1034 MB DDR II RAM

NVDIA GeForce Go 6800 graphics with 256MB external memory

Integrated Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer

DVD+/-RW

4xUSB 2.-, 1x IEEE1394

4 in 1 Card Reader

Hotkeys

I DON'T want ADVENT or a PC World model as they're a mare for parts etc.
Obviously need a very good processor (I do play PC games on the machine but not high graphics like a PS2 type of thing). And a very decent size HDD (I use a external HDD too).

I also use MS Office packages HEAPS.... I have a "ahem" version of Microsoft Enterprise, which includes:-

Access 2007

Communicator 2007

Excel 2007

Groove 2007

InfoPath 2007

OneNote 2007

Outlook 2007

PowerPoint 2007

Publisher 2007

Word 2007
The guy, when we bought hubby's new lappy last month, stated that any previous versions of MS Office would not work on Vista (my lappy is 3 years old btw) so hubby would have to buy the new version. We didn't btw. What's the score with this?

Anyway, any guidance or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you - in advance!

_________________

shaniannie · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:11 am Post subject:

I'll get Paul to take a look at that list tonight and see what he has to say

I know the first question he'll ask will be what's your budget

TBH, from what I know, most lappys (other than the bottom of the range models) will be an upgrade from what you have. It's a 1.8gz cpu, 1mb ram and 80gb hdd that you've got, so I'm guessing to get a decent grahpics card in it, the other specs should be much higher...

So, do you want to buy another office package, or would you use the enterprise one you have if it still works?

By "ahem" do you mean it's ummm.... not legit?

Well, I can say with 99% certainty that any programs should work with vista, provided they're installed properly. The only problem with Vista is that it's reasonably high security, especially with MS products, so if something were't legit it'd be hard to run it without microsoft finding out.

Anyway, like I said, I'll get him to take a look tonight (and tell him to come out of salesman mode - he's awful for that!)

ETA* Just to check, you are after a windows machine, and not a MAC, yeah?
_________________
Me: Ann ~~~~ H2B: Paul

DS1: 8
DD: 4
DS2: 2

MrsCW · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:23 am Post subject:

shaniannie · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 9:08 am Post subject:

MrsCW · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 10:55 am Post subject:

[quote="shaniannie"]

shaniannie · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:13 pm Post subject:

Stacey, can I ask a favour? Once this thread's done, can you delete it? Paul's worried that someone from work (he's so paranoid!) may see it and he'll get a bollocking lol

I had to almost argue with him to get him out of salesman mode

Anyway, you have office 2007. There are NO compatibility issues with 2007 and Vista. When Vista first came out there were issues with some versions of office 2003.

Was the advice you were given from someone at PC World? (what you've been told is apparently what they're told to tell people!)

Also, "they" all tell people that they see about 6 people a week coming in with their computers locked by Microsoft, after using cracked programs. In reality, Paul's said he's seen 4 or 5 people coming in since Vista has been launched. What Microsoft does is lock your computer so you can basically only visit MS sites. If you load your prog onto a new lappy there *IS* a risk that you'll be found out. It's up to you whether you want to take that risk, but there will be no compatibility issues.

Are you planning to buy from PC World? He said, if you are, to ask them how much of a discount they'll give you if you take out PCP (pc performance) which is the cover for the lappy. That way it'll cost you less as you get a discount from them, and then about a week or so later phone them up and cancel

(it's a month-by-month installment thing, you'll pay the first month installment, then cancel it easily over the phone, no contract at all).

Right, he's pointed out 2 laptops.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/.../184067#productInformationSection

This is the cheapest of the 2, at 699. Given the choice, he'd go for this one as it has blu ray. You'd be tripling your RAM and HDD size, and it has a core 2 duo processor, so much better than the one you have.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/...s&page=Product&sku=642901

The 2nd. A HP. Basically, a "nice" laptop. It's nice to use and looks good. Specs are about the same as the one above, but is £50 more expensive, because it's a HP, and it looks a little nicer.

He doesn't know off the top of his head the graphics performance on them, but they are better than what you have now.

If you did want to push the boat out, this would be the one he'd go for (you could see his eyes smiling at this one lol) :

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/...&sku=354080&category_oid=

Any questions, just fire away

_________________
Me: Ann ~~~~ H2B: Paul

DS1: 8
DD: 4
DS2: 2

shaniannie · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject:

He's just pointed out another one,

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/...&sku=956235&category_oid=

It's not as high spec as the other 2, but is £500. It's again, at least doubling everything you already have. His comment was "that's a REALLY nice looking machine, and Toshibas are good"

_________________
Me: Ann ~~~~ H2B: Paul

DS1: 8
DD: 4
DS2: 2

MrsRaggle · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 4:35 pm Post subject:

Putting in Mike's thoughts, if you have a £1k budget and don't mind not having blu ray he'd suggest a Dell XPS: http://configure.euro.dell.com/de...7X7101&rbc=N07X7101&s=dhs

Oh and you can use previous versions of office on Vista. You can't register a fake version of Windows, but there's no issue with Office.
_________________
-Rachey-

BFP 17 Aug | Anomaly Scan 8 Dec 09 | Midwife 30 Dec | EDD 24 Apr 10

shaniannie · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:15 pm Post subject:

No offence Raggle, but I wouldn't touch Dell with a barge pole

They're cheaper than their competitors for a reason

Their customer service is pretty much non existant, and a foreigner at the end of the phone with a script

_________________
Me: Ann ~~~~ H2B: Paul

DS1: 8
DD: 4
DS2: 2

MrsCW · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 5:49 pm Post subject: