Buying Guide - Dell Vostro Laptop

Choosing a laptop

Trying to decide which laptop to buy is always a hard decision; do you go down to PC world where you can see and touch the machines or do you take a risk and buy online based on other peoples reviews?

For me it was an easy decision, I had a distinct set of requirements for my new laptop which retail shops just couldn't satisfy.

Step 1: Make a list of what you want

One of the first things to do when buying a laptop is first decide exactly what you want. For me this was easy as I've had many many laptops over the years and I also have a fair bit of experience with computers so I made up my list of requirements.

Posted by Daniel: 11:20, Thu 30th Aug 2007

Mobile Data Contracts - Making the web affordable

It's quite surprising in our society of modern high speed mobile phone protocols that a simple task such as using your mobile phone as a web browser, or perhaps more practically using your phone as a modem for your laptop is so expensive in the UK?

With protocols like 3G's HSDPA offering huge broadband like data rates sometimes even up to 14.4Mbit/s it seems only natural that it should be integrated into laptops or at the very least offered on mobile phone contracts for a less than back breaking price.

So what are the providers offering and is the dream of always on Internet access for our laptops realisable?

Posted by Daniel: 19:50, Sun 19th Aug 2007

Hardware Review - Dell Vostro 200 Desktop - Whats inside

I the past Dell have occasionally had a bit of a reputation for monkeying around with hardware. I've seen motherboards that have had the ATX connector omitted so you would have to buy a higher end model to play games (even though the print was on the board). There has even been some talk of Dell swapping around wires in the PSU so you couldn't replace it with an off the shelf model if it broke. Because of all this I have been particularly interested in the new Dell Vostro series and what improvements and changes Dell have made.

Posted by Daniel: 20:50, Thu 16th Aug 2007

Budget PC's - To build or not to build?

It never ceases to amaze me how cheap PC's are getting these days and how less and less it becomes worth building one yourself (unless you want something special). After being asked to spec up a PC for a customer whom I provide IT support for I went on to see how cheap I could possibly make a reasonably decent PC.

Posted by Daniel: 12:07, Thu 16th Aug 2007