Laptops are not my forte, so apologies for starting a thread, but I could do with some help on where to start.

I need a laptop. It must have a USB port (ideally two), and cost as little as possible (<£300 would be nice). Obviously screens, keyboards, hard drives, cd-rom drives are required...

Why? Well, we need to be able to play with the ECU and datalogger (and, eventually, onboard camera footage) in our workshop, at race meetings and at dynomometer places.

It doesn't need to play games ('cept Solitaire), it only needs to load Windows (XP ideally), and the relevent software for ECU/Datalogger playing...

Remember this word when giving advice: CHEAPNESS!


Edit: I have no desire for a 2nd hand one that might have been dropped, melted, stolen or whatever...

You don't get a lot for two hundred nicker. £350-ish could get you a mid-range Celeron D with 256Mb or 512Mb RAM on the high street, but I don't think you'd find a new laptop for any less than that.

Quote from thisnameistaken :

You don't get a lot for two hundred nicker. £350-ish could get you a mid-range Celeron D with 256Mb or 512Mb RAM on the high street, but I don't think you'd find a new laptop for any less than that.

You can get some good ones for around £400ish... Ebuyer etc might be your friend!

Quote from jamesrowe :

You can get some good ones for around £400ish... Ebuyer etc might be your friend!

I'm baffled as to why you quoted me in your reply, or why you suggested a more expensive laptop as the ideal solution to my already-too-expensive laptop suggestion.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/886217

not a bad price considering what u get inside.

look at pc world or even dell as i think those are your best bet, also look at tesco the acer lappies are really good as my dad has one, if you are really cash struck £20+p&p for my old but very realiable dell cpi d300 xt with 300mhz p2 and 128 edoram, and yes it will run xp, lol

Quote from FOGlegsy :

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/product/seo/886217

not a bad price considering what u get inside.

got there first, u posted while i typed

Quote from james12s :

got there first, u posted while i typed

depends on what youre after
cheap single cores start at around 350 pound and the cheapest core duo (not core 2) i could find is about 650 euros which is ~430

Thanks to James (Mr. Rowe) for pointing out EBuyer to me - they have an HP laptop for £275+VAT (£323) that would fit the bill. It's not a great computer by any means, and probably has several problems that would normal make me look elsewhere (I don't know - poor battery life, crap graphics, whatever), but for what we need it's okay.

I suspect I'll be getting this, or something very similar soon.

Cheers for your replies!

Tristan, the battery might not last long. Will you have a generator for a charger to run off? If not, I would advise getting a second one.

i wish u guys would live in The US. you can get good pcs for dirt cheap

You can buy my broken laptop for $200 !!!! (used to be my main gaming pc I think it needs a new mainboard)

Quote from duke_toaster :

Tristan, the battery might not last long. Will you have a generator for a charger to run off? If not, I would advise getting a second one.

We can always run it off the Landcruiser if need be, but yes a second battery would be a good idea. I suspected battery life would be a problem in a cheaper laptop - they aren't cheap because they have great batteries.

Tweak, no offence, but you can keep yours and use it as a flyswat

Quote from tristancliffe :

Thanks to James (Mr. Rowe) for pointing out EBuyer to me - they have an HP laptop for £275+VAT (£323) that would fit the bill. It's not a great computer by any means, and probably has several problems that would normal make me look elsewhere (I don't know - poor battery life, crap graphics, whatever), but for what we need it's okay.

I suspect I'll be getting this, or something very similar soon.

Cheers for your replies!

No problem, I almost brought one from there. A bit more money however, in the end I went for a dual core with some bells and whistles... So did not need it for internet use and web programing etc Oh well, I like it sitting on Linux

if you would like taylored specs see dell and if you know anyone with a business get them to buy it from the dell business section and give them the money, then it will be cheaper and vat free

Quote from james12s :

if you would like taylored specs see dell and if you know anyone with a business get them to buy it from the dell business section and give them the money, then it will be cheaper and vat free

Shame ya live so far away i have a HP Celeron 2.0 mobile laptop about three yrs old 512 mb etc runs xp fine i'd a gave it too you as it was gven to me so never cost me nothin

Just into the £300 quid mark (damn you VAT!), this one on Ebuyer looks pretty good for the cash.

Quote from tristancliffe :

Tweak, no offence, but you can keep yours and use it as a flyswat

Blah I wouldn't even give it to you for free

I got the Acer I'm using now from Tesco for £300.

15.4" TFT, 1.6GHz Celeron, 256MB RAM (+£30 for 512MB), GMA 915 128MB.

Runs XP great, Vista Ultimate runs fine, if a bit slow.

i got my £499 acer from laptopsdirect.co.uk.
Dual core 2Ghz processor AMD
2GB of RAM
16" widescreen CrystalBrite LCD screen... with vista...personally my favourite its soo quick aswell!

i am gonna buy an acer ferrari from my neighbour, its 2 month old but still $899

EDIT: HOORAAhhh i got my t-mobile dash