[Closed] Where do we buy our laptops from now?

You seem to know pretty much what spec you want do I'll just throw in 2 retailers for comparison purposes, scan and CCL computers.

You mentioned i5 and i7.. Might also be worth looking at the equivalent AMD ryzen chips, if he's doing engineering requiring specific specialist applications, it might be worth looking into what cpu may be most suitable.
Some applications prefer more cpu cores, some are better pm fewer cores running at a higher speed.

Same with ram 8gb is pretty much standard/required these days, if he's using specialist engineering applications you might want to aim for 16gb+

Again it's worth checking out what the engineering specific apps are he'll be using and what thier recommended hardware requirements are.

Unless he can remotely connect to a university computer to do heavy number crunching, in which case its not so important.

Watching this thread as well. RT needs a laptop as well for the usual stuff plus graphic work.

And for power gaming.... Atari ST Emulators 🙂 Just move into the late 80's 90's.

Laptops Direct are very good and often have A grade refurbs at good prices. I’ve used them plenty and visited their showroom and have no hesitation in suggesting them.

£750 is a little in the skinny side for the spec you’re looking at (particularly the discrete graphics card) but just about achievable. Any reason for wanting a dedicated graphics card?

I’d definitely look at a good spec i5 over an i7 - Unless you’re running programs that require really serious grunt you’ll not notice a difference.

The Ryzen desktop chips are brilliant so it’s a good shout to investigate the mobile offerings. AMD’s on-chip graphics are excellent and may do away with the need for a separate one.

I’d also seriously consider 16gb ram of the extra isn’t too much. Make a big difference to music and photo editing as well as any engineering software.

If it comes to it that there'll be a need for specific computing abilities I'd hope the uni (which ever it may be) would be able to assist.

Sorry, should have mentioned that equivalent Ryzen 5's 7's are in the bracket too.

I'll have a look at Scan and CCL too, cheers.

Whatever fits your spec from John Lewis, 256GB SSD being the only must have component.

Dedicated graphics for a couple of things he likes which are better with that.

John Lewis returns/reduced section every time.

Personally I'd be looking in the flesh, because I'd like to check feel, build quality, screen quality and ergonomics to my preference. Basically that's all there is to choose between them these days.

On the university having machines I'm sure that's the case but at the same time they're probably very popular so being able to do stuff on personal machine could be helpful. I'm 20 years out of date mind but I can remember having to book time to run specific applications. Don't know if universities are yet at the point of providing virtual machines?

Bought an Amazon certified refurbished a few months ago for my sister. i5, 16gb memory, 512gb ssd running windows 10 for £295. Excellent value and warranty for 1 year. Would buy another if I every required my own.

From my experience any demanding engineering software will command a hefty license fee, these packages will be gifted to unis for teaching but they’ll be restricted to internal uni machines. So unless you’re downloading crack copies your unlikely to do anything more demanding on your own machine than spreadsheets/word processing.

I've generally used CCL for every new computer purchase, since they were round the corner from me in Bradford selling on certain days a week as a side line to the main factories business.

Can get cheaper but I've never had a problem with their service or support, which is worth a few quid when needed (not that it's needed often)

Having said that, this laptop that I use as my main interweb machine I bought second hand 6 years ago. Replaced the HD for a hybrid and put windows 10 on. Still going strong and never lags or throws a wobbly.

My son's nearly finished at university doing engineering. He has a pretty basic (£300) laptop for note taking and a desktop at home. He runs 3D CAD on the desktop. If you're planning on using a laptop for both uses you'll end up with a pretty heavy machine that will last a few hours on its battery and weigh a lot. Depending on what engineering software he'll use, there may be specific graphic card requirements.

I'd wait and see what he actually needs.

Utopia Computing, Kilmarnock - see what decent Thinkpads they have in stock. Good guys to deal with every time.

Dell have an outlet shop thats worth a look. It's had some good deals on refurbed laptops when ive looked in the past.

https://www.tier1online.com/

Go for a Grade A laptop with 2 yr warranty.

I bought a Dell 12.1" Ultrabook off of them about a year ago and it has been amazing (i7, 8GB RAM, SSD) paid around £400 if memory serves me.

Runs Solid Edge 3D CAD no problem.

If he needs to run any engineering specific apps, then a 256gb ssd may be very limiting (windows 10, office & visual studio alone would fill it). I'd go for at least 500gb of disc space, preferably with a 2nd disc for downloads, movies, music, etc.

Thanks all, the hunt continues.

The budget really does stretch things a bit. I found a few nice deals, but on further inspection, ie reading reviews, realised why those certain ones were going out cheap.

He’s a bit Fussy when it comes to things like this and is eschewing certain models of CPU’s (I never knew that there where so many different i7’s, did you?).

We’ll probably get the drive and RAM upgraded as and when cash comes in.