Laptops - Do you risk it?

richard · 9th April 2007

When it comes to purchasing laptops I have firmly believed to stick with the big brands/stores

I wouldn't normal recommend PCWorld (DSG) but I usually buy from them simply for piece of mind, or at a push I'd go for Dell

Desktop PC's are different in my mind though, although Dell is cheap and tempting I would still custom build a PC over buying a stock PC; and I wouldn't by a stock Desktop PC from PCWorld

Weird eh?

Joe · 9th April 2007

Desktops - Built by myself, although recently tempted by a Dell as it would cost less both in kit and labour;
Laptops - PCWorld, purely because of the insurance which covers against nearly anything if you can blag it.

Been buying laptops from PCWorld for... 6 years or so..

ligaya · 9th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe

Desktops - Built by myself, although recently tempted by a Dell as it would cost less both in kit and labour;
Laptops - PCWorld, purely because of the insurance which covers against nearly anything if you can blag it.

Been buying laptops from PCWorld for... 6 years or so..

Yeah but you pay a huge premium on that DSG "cover" insurance plan.

Last time I was in the market they were looking for £250~ for 3 years warrenty on a £600~ Lappytop and when I read the small print the actual "insurance" - like you dropped it or something - was only for the first year.

For all options - check your credit card policy

- half the time your purchases will be covered "insurance wise for the purchase" and some even offer a years insurance and extended warrenty.

Ian

aguk · 9th April 2007

Or get third party cover.

We have £5k of out of office cover for portable equipment for theft, damage (inc accidental) for 42p per month

Joe · 9th April 2007

I pay £13.99/mo for the vaio I bought last year, and £11.99/mo for the one I bought on Friday, spilt beer on the older, much nicer one on Thursday, they're coming to fetch it and send me out a new one next week - can't go wrong at all!

danfoster · 10th April 2007

From numerous sources who have worked at DSG, the 'done thing' is, towards the end of the policy, to close the lid of the laptop with a pen in it. Prize every time.

Jon-NC · 10th April 2007

I've got accidental damage on my house insurance. That will cover me for most suituations.

Karl · 10th April 2007

Yeah, but claiming on that nukes your no claims and/or puts your premium up.

Dell Laptops - Plasticy horrible things, don't feel sturdy at all.

Personally I've got an Acer P4M 1.8Ghz, been very reliable, dropped several times and still works, 3 years worldwide accidental was £99 on that.

I've also just bought a 2nd hand (Although it's pretty much brand new) Macbook Pro, which is v. v. nice, sturdy build quality.

dazmanultra · 10th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karl

Yeah, but claiming on that nukes your no claims and/or puts your premium up.

Exactly.

If you think it's likely that you'll need to claim (perhaps you're particularly clumsy

) then the extra insurance on something like a laptop isn't always a bad idea. When things go wrong on a laptop they aren't easy to fix, and it's all too easy to trip over wires and pull a laptop off a table and send it flying across a room. Plus you add in outside the home theft cover, it's not a bad deal all-in-all.

That said, if you're just using a laptop as a desktop replacement then you might be better off just spending the cash on a better specified machine.

For high-end desktops you'll generally want to build yourself if you have some knowledge of PC hardware. You can choose higher quality components and ensure you have a balanced specification for your needs (you'll find it difficult to get anything with a decent graphics card for example - you can get something with onboard or some outdated POS, or you can get the latest and greatest top of the range model, but nothing in-between).

That said, if I were ever select a desktop machine for somebody else (like I have done in the past) I would simply recommend they pay extra and go for a Dell or similar simply so you have one point of call should anything go wrong.

[inx]Olly · 10th April 2007

THIS USER HAS BEEN GAGGED BY THE FORUM HOSTS FOR SPAM OR BREAKING THE RULES...
User will be ungaged in around 78 hours from this post.

aguk · 10th April 2007

I;ve got an ASUS laptop at the moment Cost me £350 new (AMD Sempron 3400+ 1GB Ram) Works perfect and is extremely sturdy. Paying for insurance on that at some of the figures quoted seems absurd.

Do nto see the point in a high performance laptop unless it is a desktop replacement.

markcastle · 10th April 2007

Got a Sony TX3... wouldn't swap it for the world. Well... except perhaps for the newer model they have just released. Bought a few from PCworld in the end as quite surprisingly they matched the better online quotes we had.

JamieBeeston · 10th April 2007

Dell XPS1710,

Ultimate in gaming performance (4Gb Ram, DualCore 2.33Ghz, 17" 1920x1200, 7200rpm hdd, 512mb 7950 GeForce.. only thing I dont have is the new BlueRay player for it... yet!), and sits nicely on my lap whilst on the roof (only 4kilos!)

Don't have a desktop, this does all I need.

Don't have insurance, I'm just not clumsy / careless..

Have been exclusively on laptops since 2001, get a new one every 18 mths, and have never broke one yet (tho my Vaio did go back to Sony 3x before I sold it... never again Sony!)

domtaylor · 12th April 2007

Macbook Pro - travels the world with me and hasn't broken yet

Craig · 12th April 2007

Quote:

Originally Posted by JamieBeeston

and sits nicely on my lap whilst on the roof (only 4kilos!)

4k! Cripes, suprised you don't fall through the roof with that. I go for portability over anything else. Have a Sony TR 1MP and SZ2XP/C. Can't fault either nor Sony for laptops

Craig