Im probably looking to get a laptop next year and was wondering whether the Alienwares are what they are made out to be. Im not a big gamer so a reasonably fast CPU will do. Will mainly use it for entertainment and development. Battery life is probably one of my priorities and something that lasts 2-3hrs would be great (dont know how likely that is). Ive seen a nice Sony at my local Costco for about Ã,£650.

ignore the Alienware.  They look cool, but you can get same performance cheaper.

edit: also in my experience Sony are a bit fragile.  

Costco is hands down the best place to get a computer. If it goes titsup, you just bring it back, no questions asked. They tend to stock middlin quality on up, with no cheapies.

Check out http://www.europc.co.uk

They offer a line of reconditioned Dell Latitudes with full manufacturer warranties. Theyre selling D610s for about Ã,£550 with a three year warranty.

My colleague at work got a Dell through the company but it just goes through a freezing stage each day where the system idle process uses like 99% even when Im not doing anything so thats put me off a Dell. Theres 1gb ram in it too and the cpu isnt bad either.

Quote from: FuMaNMy colleague at work got a Dell through the company but it just goes through a freezing stage each day where the system idle process uses like 99% even when Im not doing anything so thats put me off a Dell. Theres 1gb ram in it too and the cpu isnt bad either.

thats supposed to happen, it because they help keep th system cool.  Most likely the Dell proprietory software is screwed, or the drive needs a defrag.  Defrag on a laptop is far more important than on a desktop.

Quote from: NorphyCheck out http://www.europc.co.uk

They offer a line of reconditioned Dell Latitudes with full manufacturer warranties. Theyre selling D610s for about Ã,£550 with a three year warranty.

I got mine from there ---> was a very good deal!

I can heartily recommend ibm thinkpads... though these days they are more lenovo than anything else.

Also a bit on the pricey side.

Lots of good tech in them though

http://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Aspire_5672WLMi_Intel_Core_Duo_LX.AA705.166/version-1.asp is what ive just bought

Quote from: Chaostimehttp://www.acernotebooks.co.uk/Aspire_5672WLMi_Intel_Core_Duo_LX.AA705.166/version-1.asp is what ive just bought

Thats value for money, very good spec. Whats the battery life like?

id guess around 3 hours maybe? ive not had it off mains long enough to check to be honest

Can someone tell me the performance difference with a Core Duo over the older Pentium M.

The Core 2 Duo is faster than the Pentium M because of the extra cache and wider execution units. They also have x64 extensions if that sort of thing is important to you. However I dont think theyre available for laptops just yet. The Core Duo is more or less the same speed clock for clock as the P-M for single threaded applications and faster for multithreaded ones.

Just been doing some reading and as the Core Quattro is going to be released in a few months Ill hold back on a purchase until then. Gives me the chance to save up as Im looking for something to last a few years.