Aero-M Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Our desktop is now 7 years old and running very slowly. My wife wants to change to a laptop, I know very little about computers other than turning it on and searching for things on the internet. We use the computer for storing photos, making dvd's from our camcorder and of course the internet. I have found the Hp from currys and thought it seems quite good, but I have now seen this other one from Comet that seems to have less storage but a better processor I3 370 instead od I3 350. Any advice about these 2 or something else would be very appreciated: http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/hp-g62-b50sa-red-laptop-07908246-pdt.html http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Laptops/buy-ACER-ASPIRE-5742-I3-Laptop/688410 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wantthatone Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 we have the acer, same as you, photos email etc its perfect! for the money cant go wrong... but im no expert on this subject! hope it helps to some degree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 My Dad just bought my Mum a silver G62 for Christmas and I have an Acer Ferrari 4000 series from 5 years ago, still going strong and excellent quality all round. It was £1200 though. You can't really go wrong these days so it's just down to speed and style preferences. The HP G62 has no touchpad side borders though and it's easy to touch it with another finger and stop it working. I didn't find it very nice to use tbh. I don't like the battery clip method either. Very fiddly but you might never change it. Also the HP is not locked shut with a clip and is difficult to open, due to the rounded case edge. The Dvd tray is also opened with a very thin push button and is the type where you see the guts of it pop out, so have to be careful not to get dust on the lens. The Acer has a similar pop out tray. My Acer has a slot, like a car head unit so you can't damage it. Much faster too but more money. The screen on the G62 was only 1366x768 as well and glossy, so you get a lot of reflections, Edit, so has the Acer but specs can vary in the same model number. You can get 1680x1050 in a 15" screen but maybe not for the money. Can't say I liked the G62 keyboard either. Don't get me wrong, it's a good machine but I'd buy an Acer again without hesitation, just a more expensive one. Changing to a laptop for home use isn't really an upgrade unless it's faster by a way as they're much more expensive for the equivalent specification. You're paying for miniturisation and portability, which is the only real advantage. You could probably upgrade the P.C. quite cheaply if it's a few years old. If that's still an option, I'll gladly advise on the best way to go about it, as will others. Ok, just checked out the Acer and would advise the HP G62 on balance. The quality seems better which should come as no surprise from HP. I remembered it has Altec Lansing speakers which are very, very good, for a laptop and reason enough to choose it over the Acer. Try in-store and then buy online if it's cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aero-M Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 my current desktop is a Packard bell, AMD athlon 64 processor 3400+, 2.19ghz, 896 mb ram. It is very slow to turn on, and very slow to load up the internet initially, we have virgin media 10mb internet. When we brought it 7 years ago it was one of the better ones they had in pc world, I think it cost us about £700. As for a laptop being an upgrade I just assumed with ours being so old a laptop would be better spec'd, and also the portability and space saving is something that we are keen on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Think laptop is the way forward, desktop sales have dropped big time due to processing power being on par with desktop machines. While I was working for Deloitte non of the users had desktops they all had laptops. Out of the 2 I'd most likely go with the HP, although Acer is a good machine the HP will have a better finished quality as mentioned above. Plus the components of HP are generally good, we used to be with them until they messed us around on parts and we switched the whole company to Lenovo. If you want a larger hard disk (though less memory) and cheaper machine: Here is another Acer to consider... Clicky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aero-M Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 Hard disk isn't a problem the one we have now is 160 and we haven't used much of that in all the years we have had it. Isn't the processor in the 2 I linked better than the Acer from Argos as per your link? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Hard disk isn't a problem the one we have now is 160 and we haven't used much of that in all the years we have had it. Isn't the processor in the 2 I linked better than the Acer from Argos as per your link? It is, but very slightly, you wouldn't even notice the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 my current desktop is a Packard bell, AMD athlon 64 processor 3400+, 2.19ghz, 896 mb ram. It is very slow to turn on, and very slow to load up the internet initially, we have virgin media 10mb internet. When we brought it 7 years ago it was one of the better ones they had in pc world, I think it cost us about £700. As for a laptop being an upgrade I just assumed with ours being so old a laptop would be better spec'd, and also the portability and space saving is something that we are keen on. Ok, these laptops probably won't be any faster. You generally pay more for less speed with a laptop. The ones you're looking at are the same speed, practically. Sounds like it needs a registry clean or defragging. It really helps to clean the desktop of unused icons and limit the amount of programs that load at startup, especially if they stay resident in the taskbar, bottom right. There's a lot you can do to speed it up for free, if you know how. 896MB ram is your problem I think. Trust me, doubling that will make a huge difference and it should be quite cheap and easy. Will need specific model number of P.C. or mainboard though. If not, open the case (left hand side on a tower) and it will be printed on the mainboard. If you're extremely impatient with it like me and it's speed you want and money isn't such an object, a solid state drive is worth it but I mention it only incase it appeals to you as we're talking £270 for 'only' 120GB which is silly money. I loaded Vista onto my OCZ Vertex II SSD and it starts in about 5 seconds to desktop and shuts down in about 2 seconds! I believe you can get about 11 secs to boot from a standard drive though, if you really know your stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snake Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 There is a really good spec lenova on play.com [Z560] for £579.99 one of my relatives has just bought one today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.