I have joined the forum today as I am hoping to become a self-employed book-keeper.
The first item I am going to need is a laptop. I have around £400 - £500 to spend. Can anyone recommend a good quality laptop that will run Excel & other accounting software quickly.
Thanks for any help given Debbie
-- Edited by Debron101 on Tuesday 6th of April 2010 02:30:42 PM
Welcome to the forum, it is very friendly and informative.
I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro, which is a good make, among many others. The main thing to look out for is it's 'spec' ie, how much memory, space and other bits and pieces it has built in (sorry, I'm not a techie person) for the software you want to run on it.
I would look out for one with a numeric keypad rather than having to use the numbers on the top row. Probably avoid Vista, though I haven't tried Windows 7 yet but I hear it is good.
Excel needs RAM as much as processing power to work well.
Get a laptop running either Windows 7 or Windows XP. Don't go for one with Vista as it's an awful operating system.
I find AMD processors better than Intel. A dual core processor is always a wise investment but its always a trade off between processing power and battery life.
Try to get a machine that has at least 2gb of Ram.
Dedicated (not shared) graphics (as otherwise it uses part of the main ram for graphics).
I always buy Toshiba laptops as I've never had a problem with them.
Don't buy Advent or Gateway machines as they seem to spend more time being fixed than in use.
HP screens can be a bit blurry. Unless your almost always going to use an external monitor think seriously before buying one of those.
Dell laptops are good all round machines and I would put them second to Toshiba.
Sure that I've missed loads of important points that I'll remember later but hope that this helps for now,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Great minds and all that on Vista! Seems to be only slightly better regarded on peoples machines than a virus!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Unfortunately my pc has Vista on it and it is definitely a hindrance. I have 5 pcs on my network and all the others are on XP and muggins here gets the duff one!
Only flitting in and out for a while as Ihave actually got to do some work myself!
I have a Dell Inspiron 17", just got it last month and I am very happy with it. It has a numeric keyboard on the side which I really wanted, I only paid £349 for it which seemed very reasonable.
