Which laptop do I require

[morganria]

I don't know if I am in the correct section or not but here goes. My son 11 years is wanting a laptop for Christmas and I know NOTHING about them. He will just be doing the usual bebo, music, msm. I have been looking and don't know what I am looking for. I have seen memory 1gb, 2gb, 3gb and hard drive 120gb, 160gb, etc. What sort of memory etc will he be needing. Thanks for any help

[blueivy]

I don't know if I am in the correct section or not but here goes. My son 11 years is wanting a laptop for Christmas and I know NOTHING about them. He will just be doing the usual bebo, music, msm. I have been looking and don't know what I am looking for. I have seen memory 1gb, 2gb, 3gb and hard drive 120gb, 160gb, etc. What sort of memory etc will he be needing. Thanks for any help

Hi Morganria,

You're probably looking at the Vista Operating System (the Operating System is what makes it all work and is the graphics, windows and menus you see on the TV, magazines, websites etc.) as this is the newest one avalilable.

Because you are looking at this I would go with 1GB of memory at the very least. If you can afford it I'd actually get 2GB of memory. Hard drive size depends on what your son will be using it for. You did mention music which can take up a lot of space if he is downloading it, so again I'd got the biggest you can afford. 120GB should be sufficient, but 160GB may be better depending on how much he will be downloading.

What may be a good idea is if you point us to where you were looking at laptops (maybe the Dell website or another supplier) and the ones you were looking at we can give you a good recommendation on what might be best for your son.

One other thing to suggest as he is only 11 is to get some security software that allows you to monitor his activities (so you can see that what he is chatting about or that he is surfing pages that are suitable) and / or block harmful sites. Vista has some of this built-in but it's not great.

[morganria]

Thanks for your quick reply. On the Dell website I was looking at the Inspiron 1525 £369. There was also Tesco website EMachine 510 £339 Acer Aspire 5720 £349, Acer Aspire 5715 £359. If you could look at any of these to see what you think that would be great. That is the sort of price range that I was thinking about. Also what are your views on a built in webcam - is it just something else that can go wrong, bad idea for children.

Thanks again at least you have narrowed my search down

[blueivy]

Thanks for your quick reply. On the Dell website I was looking at the Inspiron 1525 £369. There was also Tesco website EMachine 510 £339 Acer Aspire 5720 £349, Acer Aspire 5715 £359. If you could look at any of these to see what you think that would be great. That is the sort of price range that I was thinking about. Also what are your views on a built in webcam - is it just something else that can go wrong, bad idea for children.

Thanks again at least you have narrowed my search down

Hi Morganria,

The Dell laptop is fine - 2GB memory, 160GB hard drive and DVD Rewriter.
The Acer Aspire 5720 isn't as much disk space as the Dell.
The Acer Aspire 5715 is low on disk space too.
The EMachines is good but the processor lacks.

A built in webcam is fine. It just saves you buying an external one. If it's not any good or breaks you can just buy an external one and use that instead so it's not a case of built-in or external, you can have both. The problem with the built-in ones is that you can't angle them ... as they are built-in! :D

If it were me, out of those ones I'd go for the Dell (although I hate to admit it as I'm not a fan of Dell). It's a good price, has plenty of disk space, power and memory. The price also includes delivery whereas the others ones may not so by the time you add it their price might be the same anyway!

[morganria]

We are going to go for the dell one. Thanks for all your help Blueivy:)

[Mother Bear]

Hi, Just took delivery of the Inspiron 1525 this week, [arrived a day earlier than they said it would] Haven't had an awful lot of time to spend on it as yet, but so far so good. Very pleased with it and the Dell service. Paid extra to have the Ruby Red Satin finish...prob not high on your son's priority list, but it's lovely!

[Fran]

some lovely new small laptops in Tesco tonight, they look really smart, and are cheap too.

[blueivy]

some lovely new small laptops in Tesco tonight, they look really smart, and are cheap too.

If those are the little Acer ones that sit at the end of the electrical isle then be aware they run Linux and not Windows. They also only have an 8 or 12GB solid state hard drive and are really designed for 'online' use (hence the small hard drive).

Acer do do a Windows version, but Tesco didn't have them last time I looked and are about £50ish more expensive and, bar one model, have a 'normal' hard drive.

They look like great little machines but just be aware of what you're buying!

[morganria]

I did have a look at the little laptops that Fran was on about but my son isn't wanting something that little (he knows what he wants and their is no changing it) so definately getting the one from Dell

[daviddd]

the 1525 is a nice machine; I'm sure you'll enjoy it!