Buying a laptop in the US

[BombayDuck]

I will be moving to the UK in a few months' time. However, I have relatives in the US who will be arriving in early July. Deals on laptops in the States are better than those here, so I'm asking them to buy me one there that I will carry later to Blighty.

I have two problems here:

1. What laptop to buy.
2. Where to buy one from.

As for the first question, I have narrowed down my choice somewhat.:

It will have to be a brand recognized in both countries (for support's sake). This means HP/Compaq, Dell, Sony, Toshiba or Lenovo. No Mac for me, I need to run windows-only software on it and I really don't want to run OSX and Windows both on Parallels, I will end up never using the former.

I do not want an ultra portable, however I do want something less than 15". The laptops I'm choosing will (unfortunately or otherwise) be pre-loaded with Vista. So I'd like 2 GB RAM; I can survive with 160 GB HDD space though. I run Vista at work in Classic mode anyway (none of those fancy animations for me, thankyouverymuch) so I know it will run well.

I presume 802.11 is now on all laptops, as is a DVD writer and an ethernet port. I don't need a separate graphics card and I don't care much for dedicated multimedia keys and all that tripe. I can't seem to choose between a widescreen though, I don't know pros and cons. Maybe while writing code I will be able to appreciate extra sideways white space? Dunno.

So if you can recommend a laptop that you've liked using, or more so point me to a site where I can enter all my choices in and narrow down the models that I should buy, I'd be really grateful.

As for the second question:

Do I buy from a website or stores such as Circuit City / Best Buy? I'm looking at fourth of July sales and offers to work to my advantage here. if I buy from a site though, it will have to be very soon.

A third question just occurred to me - is Acer a known brand in the UK? Their laptops are quite popular here and good value for money, and they claim to be Europe's fastest-growing brand or some such.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Background Noise]

Acer is well known in UK and equally well regarded. I have one and am (was) well pleased with it. I use a mac mostly now however.

I looked at getting a macbook when over there recently. The (small) cost savings did not seem to make up for little inconveniences like not having a UK plug for the power lead or, more importantly, a UK keyboard layout. Software will cope with country set-ups but having to re-map an unmarked key may get frustrating after a while. Apple generally keeps prices relatively similar across borders although we always seem to get stiffed in UK but even with the strength of the pound I didn't bother. Then just make sure you have a suitable warranty that will work in UK. I know, from experience, that some warranties, even from international firms like Nikon, are US only.

I don't want to push the mac endlessly, but it is worth pointing out that you only need to run parallels when you need to use a windows program. You would probably find that you would fairly quickly get hooked and migrate to mostly mac stuff.

As for pre loaded Vista, you can still buy WinXP home over here for around £50 so if you really wanted to you could bin vista and install XP.

[Saab Dastard]

Buy the one that comes with a proper OS installation CD / DVD.

SD

[BombayDuck]

If Acer is well regarded, that would make a nice last-ditch option for me (i.e. purchase it here - we get excellent deals on them, my father uses one). Also good to know you can still buy XP - 50 pounds is excellent for a product I perceive to be at least on par with Vista (if not better for now) and uses half the resources.

I'll consider the Mac, BN, but I won't make promises :)

SD, thank you for that bit of advice. Never occurred to me that they would not give the disk! How daft is that?!

[Background Noise]

Yes, it's fairly standard. You get the OS pre-installed and usually some sort of recovery disk, which often just invokes a hidden recovery partition on the hard disc (as is the case with my Acer). However, you have the license (we say licence) so all you need is a disc and you can re-install.

[Airborne Aircrew]

Your Vista license, like all Microsoft OS, (Operating System), licenses is "backward compatible". That means that if you really don't like/want Vista you can format the drive and install an equivalent version of XP, (Pro or Home depending upon the version of Vista you are licensed for).

So if you have an XP original system disk you can return the laptop to a functioning OS... :D

[Saab Dastard]

Your Vista license, like all Microsoft OS, (Operating System), licenses is "backward compatible".

Nonsense!

Microsoft does NOT grant downgrade rights to its OEM and retail products (FPP) - with very few exceptions - although it does do so through its Volume Licensing Agreements (Select and Open Programs).

Only Vista Ultimate and Business have the OEM downgrade rights. This is simply not true for all other versions of Vista, including Home Premium, by far the most common. And this doesn't apply at all to retail (FPP) product.

If you are foolish enough to actually pay for Vista, you have no comeback!

If anyone wants to know the details, see here. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4f4b3cfd-7f4e-46cb-8117-8275f7683d3f&DisplayLang=en)

SD

[Airborne Aircrew]

I stand corrected...

I misunderstood my employee who deals with licensing when she stated that the licenses are "backward compatible" and thought that meant all licenses are. My company is licensed through a volume license agreement hence _we_ have the backward compatibility...

Please ignore all after "good morning"... :eek:

[Phil1980's]

I bought a compaq v2000 back in 2006 from online walmart compared to walmart shop as it was better...had it shipped to the airport i was training at...still works fine back home in england...except I need a adapter, infact I seem to only buy electronics outside of the UK...got a Pro Camera from asia too lol :)

[BombayDuck]

Anyone have any experience with HP Pavilion Notebooks? Specifically, the DV2740 / 2840 / 2890 range?

Also, what is the general consensus on Intel v/s AMD processors, and on 32 v/s 64 bit? On the former choice, I have never used an AMD. They Athlons used to run at a higher ambient temperature, so in the Indian environment people had bad experiences with them. But that was some time ago, and my main usage is going to be in the UK anyway.

On 32 v/s 64 bit, is there anything I should know before I choose the latter?

[mutt]

ACERS service in the UK sucks.... I had to dump a travelmate due to the fact that they couldnt replace the bracket that held in the power switch, so the laptop cant be turned on. It spend 3 months in the workshop before they came to that conclusion!

HP Pavilion, I'm running a 4000 with no problems apart from crap battery life after 18 months of use, friend got same model at the same time, he has replaced the keyboard 3 times and the hard disk once!

Mutt

[Pontius Navigator]

Acer also do special discount deals for instance to MOD UK employees. They also give excellent advice.

I asked for a quote for a particular specification. They said they could not match my price point but they then recommended a Medion machine. Curiously it was the very same Medion that I had used for my specification :)

I bought the Medion. I have since upgraded memory a second time and also the HDD.

[seacue]

I have an HP ze4630us (USA model) laptop with an AMD processor. It is about three years old. The HD failed just short of two years old. It was a Toshiba drive which I replaced with an exact duplicate. Then I wondered how I would get the drive configured, XP reloaded, etc. I felt I had nothing to lose by trying the operating system disk that came with the machine. Stuck it in and it said that the HD was empty and then it offered to configure the hard disk and reload XP. Within 90 minutes I had a working laptop. I was very pleasantly surprised.

The laptop has served as my only machine for the past six months after an eMachines desktop failed. BTW, Gateway bought eMachines (to get its low cost techniques) and Acer has bought Gateway.......

All PCs these days seem to use "64-bit" processors, often dual core, though they are likely used in a 32-bit mode by most software. I've used AMD processors exclusively for quite a few years. A friend's daughter was in Architecture grad school and got her Masters last month. She used an AMD-based laptop while many other students use Intel-based laptops. Their design applications were very calculation-intensive. The Intel-based units needed external fan units to avoid overheating, while her AMD unit ran cool enough. I gather that the tables may have been reversed with the very latest processors.

I've heard of application incompatibility problems when using the 64-version of an operating system. Other will have better knowledge of that issue than I.

CQ

[cats_five]

As well as the issues of a non-UK keyboard, you would also need to be sure the warantee was valid in the UK. The US is a long way to send a laptop to get a problem fixed. There might also be issues of charges payable on import - not sure if it being a gift would get round them.

[Fareastdriver]

What you have to watch for when buying an overseas laptop for use in the UK is the DVD playback zoning. Some will only play the zone of the country where they were purchased and some you can change but only a limited number of times. My Acer, bought in China, allows you seven changes before it locks.