OMO nearly new laptop

[SV650rules]

I have been in the habit now for many years of taking a full image of computer drives on an external drive using Acronis true image and / or R-Driveimage every couple of weeks as well as normal 'rolling' backups of data. It has saved me a few times and if ever you ever had a hard disc fail or want to fit another hard drive it is easy peasy, just pop in the new hard drive and load the image - all your programs and settings go with it. It is one thing to have data backups, but nothing worse than having to try and find all the system discs and stuff to reload all your programs etc. SSD do have a problem that they have a limited number of write cycles, but for the average user this is not likely to be a problem and software is available to help that keeps an eye on where stuff is written and to even out the memory usage. Solid state drives do not like to be defragged regularly as this eats up their cycle life, but not sure if they suffer from fragmentation to same extent as magnetic platter discs anyway. There are hybrid SSD / HDD drives available that are a compromise between speed of access and storage space, using the SSD to boot and HDD for longer term storage but slower access.

[Craigg]

Originally Posted by johnnyrod

Plus 20% tax but yes in the right range! Thanks everyone for your help, a mate also said go for i5 as i3 is underpowered, and go for SSD as it makes a big difference - I've never used SSD. Craigg what do you reckon of the ebay ones? I'd rather see something in the flesh (if possible but goes without saying) but are they likely to be trouble free?

i have had probably 7 or 8 laptops from ebay resellers all bought for various family/friends without issue. my own one i bought on Ebay from the USA through their global shipping program, and is perfect.

as long as you pay attention to the seller (ie is it a business or some random) and check their feedback.

those 2 i linked have decent feedback, and seem to deal in new/nearly new laptops/computers. so should be a safe bet.

as has also been said, Ebay/Paypal buyer protection is excellent, and will 99% of the time side with buyers should something go amiss. if you are returning something, just make sure it is well packaged, and use a proper courier with full tracking/insurance (paypal offer free returns these days also, so will reimburse you return shipping should you need to send something back)


unfortunately you wont be able to get "hands on" with a Latitude/Vostro type laptop, as they are aimed at the business market, so you wont see them in a shop. but rest assured they are built to a higher standard than high street models.