Buying a Laptop- Input needed.

[tibilicus]

In need of .org assistance badly. Out of the following three, which strikes people as the best value for money and the one most likely to match the qualities I desire?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://www.johnlewis.com/Shopping/Co...PiwBZjvU75NC2p

It's by no means between those three but the idea of which best suits me would give me an indication of where I should be looking. I basically want the following things from the Laptop:

• It will be used to complete asignments ect and will need to be mobile enough to be carried to lectures and other places.
• I want to be able to play some games on it. Most of my gaming now takes place on the 360 so FPS and other high demand games (Bioshock 2 for example) most likely wont be played on it. I'm a massive Civilization junkie so as long as I get speedy turns from that game I'll be happy.
• Preferably something which is as "future proof" as possible. Buying or thinking about computer hardware normally depresses the hell out of me because technology moves so fast you rarely get the worth of what you paid for. I'm hoping it can last between 3/4 years before I have to swap it out for a new one and begin the whole cycle all over again.

That's about it really. Any input would be hugely appreciated but responses along the lines of "they all suck", "buy a desktop", "here's a link to an obscure site where the price is cheaper" are not. The retailer in question is near and I don't mind spending a little more because I trust it as a reputable shop.

Tib

[Fragony]

If you want to spend some extra check out the new macbook, it's basicly a pro with a smaller screen. Powerful enough for last year's games and an excellent battery, 7/8 hours with light usage. Open-office appears to be a bit prone to crashing in OSX though and Apple as a company is of course a constant source of irritation with their guru-bull. Windows runs like a dream on it, wouldn't bother with OSX at all.

[Tellos Athenaios]

No contest really. Get the HP. That Dell and Acer are so deeply flawed you got to wonder why anyone would buy it.

[tibilicus]

Well I ended up going for neither and got a Sony Vaio. It offered the same as the HP pretty much but came with an extra 2GB of RAM and a built in blu-ray player and so seemed like a win win to me.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Guess for that kind of money, it does make sense.

[Xiahou]

My opinion? Trying to spend extra money to buy a "future proof" laptop is a waste. I'd just get the cheapest thing that will meet your needs. Laptops are a major ripoff on the price/performance scale.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Future proofing in general is a waste of money...

[Motep]

NOT ACER

[Beskar]

My opinion? Trying to spend extra money to buy a "future proof" laptop is a waste. I'd just get the cheapest thing that will meet your needs. Laptops are a major ripoff on the price/performance scale.

Problem is, most laptops struggle to run the simplest of games. Though for "future proofing" laptops is definitely not the right area.

However, with good specs, a good computer can last quite a time. I bought a £1000+ desktop two and a half years ago and I am running everygame I have on high/ultra. Makes you wonder how much better is the latest nvadia sli'd, when my GTX8800 is still at high/ultra performance in games.

[Xiahou]

Makes you wonder how much better is the latest nvadia sli'd, when my GTX8800 is still at high/ultra performance in games.

Ugh, SLI is another waste of money....
But I agree, on desktops it's much easier to squeeze more longevity out of them. A well planned desktop can leave room for future upgrades that can keep it performing well for a number of years- there's just not much upgrading to be done on laptops.

[Meneldil]

Well, this thread will come in handy, since my aforementioned laptop officially died in painful circumstances. I'm just gonna grab one that can play EU3/Vicky2 and let the desktop handle the big games.

[Beskar]

My one (£400~) can handle EU3 and Vicky2, though admittedly, a bit on the slow side. Only upgrade I would suggest of that would be for it to have its own graphics card.

[tibilicus]

So, should I be worried I received my first BSOD within two days of having my new machine? Why must computers be such a continuous nightmare? Why?

[Xiahou]

So, should I be worried I received my first BSOD within two days of having my new machine? Why must computers be such a continuous nightmare? Why?

It's certainly not good. But, it depends what's causing it. I've seen antivirus programs that cause BSODs before. If you can host the minidump file somewhere I'll take a look if I get some free time.

[tibilicus]

It's certainly not good. But, it depends what's causing it. I've seen antivirus programs that cause BSODs before. If you can host the minidump file somewhere I'll take a look if I get some free time.

How would I go about doing that?

And, come to think about it. It did occur hours after installing some new AV and Firewall software. The fact the monitor started going "patchy" though made me think it was a graphics problem. Running a diagnostic found nothing however.

[Xiahou]

C:\Windows\Minidump

Microsoft Knowledgebase article
Another thing to try would be a free program called WhoCrashed.

I used WhoCrashed alot, but I eventually installed the Windows debugging tools on my work PC when, for awhile, it seemed like I was constantly troubleshooting BSODs for end users.

[rory_20_uk]

I've tried to "futureproof" one too many times in the past. It's a marketing gimmick to get to squeeze a few extra pounds out now when in the future it'll be a case you could stick a new module in the old case, but since everything else is faster you get new everything anyway.

I currently think that unless money is no object just go for things just behind the cutting edge where there is often c. 80%+ performance and often a 50% price reduction.

Things do wear out, and with constant use a 4 year old laptop is well worn.

[tibilicus]

C:\Windows\Minidump

Microsoft Knowledgebase article
Another thing to try would be a free program called WhoCrashed.

I used WhoCrashed alot, but I eventually installed the Windows debugging tools on my work PC when, for awhile, it seemed like I was constantly troubleshooting BSODs for end users.

I looked in the Minidump folder and no files exist there. I also downloaded WhoCrashed and that didn't find anything either. Running Hardware diagnosis also found no problems so I don't know what else to put the BSOD down to other than a red herring..

[Xiahou]

Well, if you never see it again, I wouldn't worry too much. But you might want to check your memory dump settings so you'll have a file should you crash again.

From the KB article I linked earlier:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Configure the dump type
To configure startup and recovery options to use the small memory dump file, follow these steps.

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.
Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
Double-click System.
Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
In the Write debugging information list, click Small memory dump (64k).

To change the folder location for the small memory dump files, type a new path in the Dump File box (or in the Small dump directory box, depending on your version of Windows).

I believe those instructions are for WindowsXP, but the procedure is very similar under Vista/7.