Cheap Lab tops for college

[darkangel]

Hi, I need a reccemendation on a cheap lab-top for college, looking tospend around ?200-?500

What about those apple lab-tops which came out a while ago? They were those colourful ones...

Many thanks

[marcus]

Whats a lab-top?

[darkangel]

http://www.benthorn.net/images/Products/Lab-top.jpg

[marcus]

Forgive the stupid question, but what makes that a 'lab-top' than what would normally be a 'laptop'?

[Super Stu]

Laptops generally cost a mint. However, I believe PCworld have/did have a sale on for G3 iBooks or something, check offtopic or PC forum over the last couple of days.

I think they were about ?425. Outdated model, apparently.

[marcus]

So a lab-top is the same thing as a laptop then basically?

We learn something new every day

[darkangel]

oh! only just spotted the spelling mistake

Yeah I saw that too, but is it good for college work?

Thanks

[Ginza]

Pure brilliance. I love this place.

Well where else could you find out about labtops?

Marcus in answer to your question a lab top is something which is used in a lab which is short for laboratory. A laptop you use while its on your lap. See there's more differences than you thought

[marcus]

Well I never

[darkangel]

[Super Stu]

If college work extends to typing, surfing and maybe a fart arseing about with images, then yes, it'll be more than adequate.

And no, anything in your price bracket won't have the faintest hope of running current PC games. Just to clarify in advance.

[marcus]

What not even Doom 3?

[Super Stu]

an iBook wouldn't even run the doom3 installer

[darkangel]

Ah, well it sounds good for college stuff but not for games... Surely you can just buy a new graphics cards and stick it that?

what laptops would you reaccamend?

A while back apple released those nice colourful ones, but I havent seen any since... apple books or something?

[Super Stu]

Laptops are barely upgradable, if not at all. You could wire up an external usb soundcard, pop some stuff in the pcmcia slot (network cards and the like), swap the hdd, add ram etc. If you're lucky, you'll be able to swap the processor. It's immensely unlikely you'll be able to swap the graphics card though, as they're normally surfaced mounted to the motherboard.

Laptops aren't the kind of thing you buy with upgrades in mind. You buy a particular spec for twice the price of a desktop and watch in agony as it goes pear shaped over time.

Still, as you're only using it for collage stuff, this is of no concern to you.

apple.com/uk or similar for their line up of iBooks. You'll pay more for Apples generally, that other one mentioned was so cheap because it was a replaced model.

tbh, I'd have a look on www.dell.co.uk and see what their deals are like. If that's too rich for your blood, you may want to search for outlets offering refurbished 2nd hand laptops (from corporate upgrades etc).