Can't decide on a laptop, ARGH!

Hey all,

I'm looking for a new (well, first ever) laptop for uni this year. I am an art student so will be using it mainly for graphics software, image editing, and the normal music listening etc. Power to run games well would also be a plus. So I guess it's mainly a multimedia laptop. I don't want to be spending any more that 400/450 pounds to be honest.

I have my eyes mainly on http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126329/rb/0 and http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126338

The second seems to have slightly better specs for a slightly more expensive price, but it's not dual core, which is disappointing. Maybe another laptop on Ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/store/5/category/Laptops would suit me more.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

You see that's what confuses me. I've been told by some that games will run fine on these laptops, and by you and others there will be little opportunity for gaming. Obviously that won't be my primary need, it'll mainly be for graphic stuff (multimedia in general I guess), but it'll be useful none the less.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I'll pass on the mac, sorry. I just feel more comfortable with a Windows laptop. I'd be more comfortable if I could actually decide on one though.

Additional Spam:
I'm very unlikely to stick with Vista. What do you think of this one - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128979/rb/0

Additional Spam:
Ooh, very nice. The Vostro 1700 http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...dt1&l=en&s=bsd has excellent specs by the looks of things, for the same price as the others I linked too. Surely there's a cache? I'll need some people's opinions on Dell please. Does this seem like a good deal?

Additional Spam:
More spam, screw Dell. 200 something pounds VAT and shipping. Back to being indecisive.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

OK, i'm pretty much decided on the HP one http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128979/rb/0
Are the graphics OK though?

I've heard HP are good, although not the best for multimedia, as in image editing, movies and especially gaming (yes I know, no laptops are for the latter, but i'd probably want to play something like Guild Wars reasonably well). Is this true?

Additional Spam:
I think its going to be out of the HP one http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/128979 and the Acer http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/126338

Any last minute advice would be very helpful.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I am taking in all the advice. Just because I don't reply very often it dosn't mean i'm not reading everything.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I went ahead and bought the HP laptop. First thing I did was reformat it to get rid of all the crap on it. Because it didn't come with an XP cd I had to download one that I found didn't have all the hacks, tweaks and whatnot included with it, because I want it to all be legal considering I have a valid key etc. During the installation of XP however it is asking me for a 'volume license' key, which I have no idea what one is. Can anyone give me some advice here? It's XP Pro SP2 by the way.

Additional Spam:
Got it sorted, although for what I thought was a good laptop, i'm getting very poor results in 3dmark of 800 or so. Most other laptop users are getting at least 2k+

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

It would get very annoying constantly loading new photos etc onto the stick. It would also be useful for presentations, and using MSN when no one is watching.

An update, just tried Half Life 2, it seems to get an average of 25-30fps or so on all high details (models, etc) full HDR, no v-sync and no AA. With AA it drops when I look past the large tower in City 17 at the start of the game however, to around 15-20 average. In my opinion, thats not too bad for a laptop, considering i'd rarely game on it anyway.

FELIPE NO