Need advice on buying a new Laptop!

Hi all, I am currently using a 7 year old Dell dimension 9150 but next year I will be going to University so would like to get a laptop. Im not a tech geek however I am not computer illiterate.

I have been looking around the shops (mainly John lewis-a UK shop) and have come to the conclusion I really have no clue what to buy!

My parents have agreed to subsidise the laptop up to around £600 (birthday/christmas present) and anything on top of that I must pay myself.

I am not a massive gamer but I would much prefer the laptop to have a DVD drive on it.

I was thinking about getting a Macbook Pro, which would set me back £999, but with a discount at a shop as parent works for them I could get it for £880.

Could anybody give me some help/advice about which laptop to buy?

Thanks very much

 

As a UK buyer myself, I would personally recommend Misco for online purchasing. I've bought two laptops from them in the past, both of which functioned perfectly and came with great warranty policies. If you could elaborate further on what you would like from the laptop you wish to purchase, I would be happy to pick one out for you.

1. Do you have any preference regarding Windows 7 or Windows 8?
2. What kind of gaming are we talking about, RuneScape or something more intensive?
3. Will you require more than 500GB of storage?

 

Will have a look later, but just a warning with laptops you really do get what you pay for. They tend to break easy and if one part breaks it's a pain in the ass to get them fixed so get one with a good build quality.

 

Thanks for the response.

Next year I intend to study maths at university and the laptop would be completely replacing my desktop. I enjoy entertainment such as watching dvds, I have lots of music, about 20GB on iTunes along with about 50GB of movies. I am not a massive gamer, I have an xbox but if I went to university I would leave it at home, so maybe my gaming habits could change slightly.

I used to play runescape, but have recently sold up everything I have to do with the game. But in the past I never could do anything on my computer because it is just so bad (DVD drive is broken).

I am currently using windows xp(yeah that old) so have no current preferences of windows 7 or 8, but if windows 8 is the new thing I would assume I would want that.

In regards to memory, I honestly have no clue!

One of my parents works at John Lewis so I could take advantage of a 12% discount on everything in the store that is electrical and 25% on non electricals. That is the main reason I have been looking just at John Lewis, and also as they come with a good warranty.

I have been thinking recently about going for a Macbook pro, either the i5(£1000) or the i7(£1250). I do want this laptop to last hence I dont mind spending more money on it.

Thanks very much

 

Whenever I bought a laptop, I'd use slickdeals.net. It aggregates deals from over the web, laptops included. It's based in the US, so I''m not sure about the shipping overseas, but it includes deals from Lenovo, Dell, and such from time to time.
Go to the site and just search 'laptop' for a list of laptop deals. Some older deals may be expired, so look for the more recent ones for better success.

Here's an example of a laptop found from slickdeals:
http://www.buydig.com/shop/product.aspx?sdtid=5949322&sku=ASUX31AR5102FRB&ref=cj
It might not fill you need per se with only 128 GB SSD, but you can swap with a larger but slower HDD. $624 USD should be well below your budget.

Not saying you have to buy this laptop, but if you're patient, you can save a lot of money on a decent laptop.

 

Toshiba

 

Never buy a AMD processor computers. You have no idea how many times i had to replace a AMD processors. I would recomment you to get Intel processor because they are much stronger, and for the past two months windows 8 been treating me with care. At first it took me sometime to get use to, but everything is now safe.