Laptop question

[fatshrimp]

Help please.

I gather there are some IT types on here and any help / assistance would be greatly appreciated.

I'm thinking of buying my wife a Laptop to replace her old PC. I know very very little about computers and, as I've recently changed jobs, I don't know the guys in our helpdesk that well yet. Asking the people in the computer shops is as helpful as asking a Martian.

I've seen a very keenly priced Laptop with 120gb memory and 1024 ram. It's Windows Vista but doesn't have Office (Word is the thing she needs mainly). When I spoke to AOL about loading my internet on to the laptop they advised me that I couldn't load the same AOL disk on the new laptop as it isn't compatible with Vista. I was told that I would have to download the new Vista compatible one on line.

My questions:
If my new laptop doesn't have any internet browser, how can I download the new versionit? I'm confused!
Is 120gb and 1024ram sufficient for home use? (don't know what the other one is, but it's very slow and about 4 years old and makes a lot of noise)
Can anyone recommend where I might be able to get a copy of Office or Word / Excel for sensible money?
How do I transfer my existing Itunes music and photos I have saved on the other machine?
Am I the only person who knows nothing about computers?

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer.

 

[EastStandBlue]

What you could do is download the Vista friendly version on to your home PC already, burn it onto a Disk and simply transfer it.

In terms of getting Office cheap, Plump for the Student package. You get all 4 Microsoft Office programs (Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint) for as little as £100, With Student Term Time fast approaching there are deals to be had. Or of course you can get it from that Dodgy lad called Del boy on that estate in Peckham.

As for transferring Itunes music/photos, you can do this in many ways. Burn CD's, Use an External Hard Drive and do it manually. The faster way is to set up a LAN, but that's probably too advanced (no offence).

 

[TrueBlue]

1. it WILL come with Internet Explorer

2. Yes it will be fine for home use

3. I can sort you out a copy of any Software you want no questions asked.

4. link up cable between the two or via router/home network or burn to DVD or USB Hard Drive

 

[Bob Cratchitt]

Is 120gb and 1024ram sufficient for home use? (don't know what the other one is, but it's very slow and about 4 years old and makes a lot of noise)

That should be plenty especially if it is only going to be used for Office products and not any hardcore gaming.

The beauty of PCs is that over time they all belong sluggish as every time you load a program on it, they leave a cluster bomb effect DLLs and other such files.

One way to speed up an old machine is backup the personal files on to disk and that you have all the software and license keys for the software you wish to reload. Then format the hard drive and re-install the OS and all the programs you now require. you will be surprised how faster your machine becomes especially during startup

What sort of price have you seen and what is the make?

I am seriously considering getting a Mac, as everyone I have spoken to who own one raves about them and also the number of viruses on Macs is extremely low, Also the Mac Office style suite only costs £55 to buy which is better than MS Office on the Mac.

 

[Mad Cyril]

Get as much memory as you can afford.

My advice is unless you need a laptop don't buy one. You get more for your money with a desktop.

If you do need a laptop keep an eye on the Dell outlet store. They have the occasional bargain.

To hijack the thread does anone here run Linux or Solaris 10 on a laptop? If so what spec machine are you running it on?

Cheers.

 

[TrueBlue]

That should be plenty especially if it is only going to be used for Office products and not any hardcore gaming.

The beauty of PCs is that over time they all belong sluggish as every time you load a program on it, they leave a cluster bomb effect DLLs and other such files.

One way to speed up an old machine is backup the personal files on to disk and that you have all the software and license keys for the software you wish to reload. Then format the hard drive and re-install the OS and all the programs you now require. you will be surprised how faster your machine becomes especially during startup

What sort of price have you seen and what is the make?

I am seriously considering getting a Mac, as everyone I have spoken to who own one raves about them and also the number of viruses on Macs is extremely low, Also the Mac Office style suite only costs £55 to buy which is better than MS Office on the Mac.

Bob my mates got a 24 inch Imac and now that its intel too it runs XP faster then any PC also he has set up so he can switch between Mac OS and XP just as you would flicking through tabs on Firefox, also the build quality on Macs (although can be pricey) are very sexy!

 

[TrueBlue]

Get as much memory as you can afford.

My advice is unless you need a laptop don't buy one.

If you do need a laptop keep an eye on the Dell outlet store. They have the occasional bargain.

To hijack the thread does anone here run Linux or Solaris 10 on a laptop? If so what spec machine are you running it on?

Cheers.

Ahhhh Red Hat they were the days!

 

[fatshrimp]

Thanks for the advice so far.

Bob Cratchitt
What sort of price have you seen and what is the make?
It's from Currys, £399 Advent 8211 I think, although it's not on the site today.

East Stand Blue
(no offence).
None taken. You're right to assume I know little or nothing.

TBTV
Sounds like copying stuff to disk and transferring might be the easier option.

Thanks guys.

 

[jstallan]

Get as much memory as you can afford.

My advice is unless you need a laptop don't buy one. You get more for your money with a desktop.

If you do need a laptop keep an eye on the Dell outlet store. They have the occasional bargain.

To hijack the thread does anone here run Linux or Solaris 10 on a laptop? If so what spec machine are you running it on?

Cheers.

Cyril - the Dell Outlet Store has had some changes made to it. Until recently, many people ran automated scripts against the outlet, generally collecting all the bargains and then flogging them on Ebay. Now Dell use 'Captcha' which means after opting to add an item to your basket you have to enter a sequence of letters/numbers generated via a randomly generated image inorder to actually get the item in your basket. Although it is possible to automate this as well, it's only about 50% successful and very expensive.

This means there more bargains for others ;-)

 

[jstallan]

[/QUOTE]
What sort of price have you seen and what is the make?
It's from Currys, £399 Advent 8211 I think, although it's not on the site today.
[/QUOTE]

Stick to brands such as Dell, Toshiba, IBM, Compaq. My choice would be an IBM Thinkpad (now Lenovo) or a Dell Latitude. Dell have recently released the Vostro Laptop (and Desktop) range which seem to generate decent deals..

www.dmxdimension.co.uk tends to sumarrise the best Dell deals.

 

[Vange Shrimper]

My old flatmate had a Toshiba and was very slow to load and seemed a bit rubbish.

I have an Acer and i've had no problem with it whatsoever. It has Vista on it, but cant remember how much memory etc it has. But it's very quick and very reliable.