Thread: Laptops - Do you risk it?

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?

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..

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

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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Generally it takes me about 12 months to sit on my laptop, have someone else stand on it, get food and drink in the keys and it be unusable, or other .

And generally every 12 months I get a newer model :P

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.

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.

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!)

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

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