I'm thinking of buying a laptop. I've got a desktop PC but I'd like the option of being portable so am thinking of having one to edit and organise images and upload them to a website before storing them on here. I'd be running Elements and Lightroom on it and was wondering if anyone had any ideas on good laptops or ones to stay away from, I'm looking to spend less than £600 which is a bit of a tight budget I think. I've been looking at a HP 6820 and 6620 and I'm going to PC world to play with some tomorrow.

£600 isn't a tight budget to get a decent laptop... I paid £275 for my Acer from Asda and spent another £20 to whack the memory up to 2gb.

It's only got a 1.86ghz Celeron M processor in it but it runs Photoshop CS3 without any major hassles. For the sort of money you're looking to spend, you should get something really slick.

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Si
DCM
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Hi slightlytriangle and welcome.

There are plenty of laptops to choose ranging in price from £300 upto £1,500 or more. A few years ago the cheapest was around £1,200 so for £600 or less you should be able to pick a great machine. The only things I would suggest is dual core and 2gb of memory. Hard drives are quite good now with the average been about 120gb, but even this shouldn't be a problem, as external hard disks are very cheap now, and plug into the USB ports. See this website Here which gives a good selection form Dabs, who have given me great service in the past.

Just a word of warning if you go to PC world, make sure it's a new machine and not one returned by someone else, and ignore the pressure to take extended warranty as it's a waste of money.

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SK
The Best Photographer in the world 4th November - 5th November 2006 & 17th-18 November 2007
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I can recommend Dabs. I get all my hardware from them. Great service.

Have a look at Dell's website too. Their machines are good, its their customer service thats naff.
You can get a sweet system put together for a good price.

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Thank you everyone! I'll add the dual core and 2GB to my list of things I'd like it to have, most of the ones I've been looking at have been better than this PC for hard drive and memory so that should be fine. I'll let you know how I get on, I might return with a list of 'Ooh I like this one but I'm not sure' laptops tomorrow night!

My first laptop was a AST with 8mb memory plus 8mb free, 850mb hard drive and a Pentium 100Mhz processor and cost £1,649. Since then I've had a IBM Thinkpad, Toshiba and a ultra small Asus.

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SK
The Best Photographer in the world 4th November - 5th November 2006 & 17th-18 November 2007
Oldboy’s Gallery

Acer dual core laptop from Comet about £400.

I'm on my second Toshiba - great value and the screen is superb [watch most of my TV on it] - ditched my desktop [or rather took it to work] so much easier with a laptop.

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Thanks again :D I'll have a look at the Acers and Toshibas too, I'm aiming to go to PC World, Currys and Comet so I should have a fair few to look at :)

slightlytriangle:

Thanks again :D I'll have a look at the Acers and Toshibas too, I'm aiming to go to PC World, Currys and Comet so I should have a fair few to look at :)

Toshiba are one of only a very few companies who only make laptops, and have been doing so for years.

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SK
The Best Photographer in the world 4th November - 5th November 2006 & 17th-18 November 2007
Oldboy’s Gallery

Aha that's interesting, I did use a Toshiba for a while back at school and it was nice. I sense this decision is going to take a long time!

http://www.cheap-it.com/Pages/refurbished-toshiba-laptops.asp

I've bought 2 from these people - totally as new - I'd buy again from them.

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Spiritflier:

...and spent another £20 to whack the memory up to 2gb.

Can I ask where you got your memory from at that price?  I've been holding off buying 2GB for my HP as I'm not sure how much life is left in the old thing, but for that price I'd be happy to upgrade.

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Hi Martin,

Look here: - http://www.crucial.com/uk/

Stick in your machine details etc and see what price comes up.  They are very competitive and make a load of the RAM in circulation anyway.  In other words you are buying direct rather than with the Hp/Dell/Sony etc premium.  The delivery service is excellent as well.

When going from 1GB to 2GB just make sure you don't have 2 slots both with 512Mb in, else you will need 2x1GB modules rather than just a 1GB module if that makes any sense.

Cheers,
Steve

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I get all my Computer hardware etc from these people ; http://www.cclonline.com/laptops

My last purchase an icy box was among the cheapest & arrived very quickly.

Pc Pro Magazine rated them as their best online retailer for the last 2 years (07 & 06), so they've got to be worth a look.

A lot of people reckon Dell are the biz, & they often have really good offers on, of the 3 i've used (IBM, NEC & Toshiba) I'd say the Toshiba "just" shaded it.  Sony VAIO are also very good & also work a look.

The gadget show's web site is helpful, this is their price finder for lap tops http://gadgetshow.five.tv/jsp/5gsmain.jsp?lnk=310&profile=computingUK&type=Laptops

Good luck.