I've now pretty much decided which one I'm going to go for. Since then someone has just told me about this one in Currys which is pretty much the same as the other one I was looking at. However this one from currys is reconditioned. Is that a bad thing? Or a bit risky?

Currys laptop - £330
Reconditioned
Dual Core processor (1.6)
60GB Hard Drive

http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@1763481576.117914931 2@@@@&BV_EngineID=cccladdkmdihgjfcflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=840719&category_oid=

Other choice - £350
Brand new
1.7 processor but isnt Dual Core
80GB Hard Drive

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_A100-622_PSAAPE-00F005EN/version-1.asp

I'm not entirely convinced that Curry's and reconditioned are the best combination you can have. I wouldn't buy it. Out of those two I'd say go for the Toshiba, though the size of the HDD isn't great. You can get an external HDD for not very much though. Remember you won't be getting the full 60GB HDD; it, I imagine, will be partitioned for the recovery drive. Still, it's plenty of space to be going on with for now.

What about this (http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/124974) one? 1GB RAM, 80GB HDD, Radeon Xpress 1150 graphics card, 7 in-one card reader and XP Pro. It's a 1.8GHz AMD Sempron processor, but for basic usage this should do you fine. If you buy this, use Google Checkout to get £10 off.

:)

Thanks I thought as much. My minds pretty set on this one:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_A100-622_PSAAPE-00F005EN/version-1.asp

Will the 1.7 processor be enough for general tasks such as msn, internet, word processing etc.

I would say so, yes; it should be perfectly fine for those sort of tasks. There's 1GB RAM anyway, so that'll help a lot.

Bear in mind though that Vista Home Basic doesn't include Aero or Flip 3D- all the nice eye candy, in other words! ;)

As long as you're happy with it, go for it- and let us know how you get on with it.

Best of luck in your laptop quest.

:)

Thanks alot. I was planning on getting rid of Vista and running it on XP so Im hoping that should save some space etc

Give Vista a try first to see if you like it; (if you've not already tried it) you may as well seeing as it's already installed on the machine. Don't be put off by the Vista bashers; it's really not the all-out evil it's made out to be.

:)

Will the 1.7 processor be enough for general tasks such as msn, internet, word processing etc.
You'd be hard pushed to find any computer made in the last 5 years that's cannot cope with that. Though any computer will be a little bit zippier with new kit, esp. Dual Core as that copes better with several applications running together.
Though if Vista is the OS, then that's a different matter! Very resorce hungry, needs lots of feeding! Not that that you need Vista for your requirements. XP works just fine.