�500 to spend on a laptop any ideas?

[lauriethom]

Hi well i have �500 to spend on a decent laptop.
At the moment i have an Advent 7021 which is useless it takes about 15 mins to load up and eventually get on the net. Its so slow it really frustrates me. So im looking for one that works faster and one that gives me quite a bit of room to store pic's etc.
So far i've been recommended the Acer Aspire 5710.
I dont really hav e anyone else to ask and i'd really appreciate any advice
thank you
Laura

[Myriad2112]

I you get the right store PC world are quite helpful, but pay there and then as the credit terms are a rip off!

[Ethel]

I love my Acer - over 2 years old and no trouble at all.

How old is your Advent? It might just need sorting out, rather than replacing. For example - have you got too many programs in Start Up? That will slow things down when you boot up.
Have you got too many unnecessary processes running?
Have you defragged your hard drives?
Do you run anti-spyware programs regularly?

Does it need more RAM? This is easy to install and a lot cheaper than it was.

An external hard drive is very cheap too.

[Confab]

It might be worth a good clean out or even a reformat and reinstall but looking at the spec below I would think it's probably time for a new one

CPU Intel Pentium 75MHz in ZIF Socket 7
Motherboard S156P AVIO
BIOS AWARD Modular BIOS v 4.50PG
Memory 8MB (2 X 4MB) 70 ns fast page RAM in Banks 1 & 2 expandable to 128MB
Cache Internal: 16KB, External: 256KB (Upgradeable to 1MB)
Hard Drive FUJITSU Model M1614TAU 2114 cyls, 16 heads, 63 sect. 1091MB
CD Drive DELTA ODC 6101 (4x Speed)
Video Card SIS 6205 2MB
Sound Card OPTi 924 3D
Speakers 2W passive speakers powered by on mainboard amplifier
Modem PC Comms DataFlex 14,400
Keyboard Windows Enhanced Keyboard
Mouse 2 Button 9 pin on COM1
Interfaces 1 x 9 pin RS 232C set as COM1 on 3F8, IRQ 4
1 x 25 pin RS 232C set as COM2 on 2F8, IRQ3
1 x 25 pin parallel LPT port set on 278, IRQ5
1 x Games Port (on sound card)
1 x Standard DIN 5 pin socket for Keyboard
1 x Video connector
Expansion 3 PCI slots and 4 ISA 16 bit Slots