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Free laptop with Orange Broadband


Guest Tam o' Shantie

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Guest Tam o' Shantie

Don't really have time to check this out but this could be a pretty good deal:

PC World UK Computer Superstore - Buy cheap computers, laptops, desktop PCs, printers, LCD TVs, sat nav, digital cameras and more..

The basic free one is pretty shitty spec, but fork out 20 quid and you should have a usable machine. There are various others up to 200 quid with over 300 big ones off as part of the deal, that look pretty damn good, would need to have a good read through the terms before assessing how much of a steal it really is though!

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Guest Tam o' Shantie

from what i can see the main catches are the 2gb monthly limit and questionable speed, though your article says that you can opt for a 20 quid a month 8gb connection instead (no mention of a usage limit on this). other than that, a minimum 24 month contract is maybe a bit dodgy. but is all that a small price to pay for a brand new laptop?

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I've been with Orange broadband since about November and have nothing but good things to say about it so far. I was really sceptical because all of the online reviews I saw were terrible, but I was getting it free with my phone and I had been paying a extortionate 34 a month to Pipex beforehand. The setup and changeover were smooth and given that it's hardly ever turned off it hasn't dropped the connection once. I don't even think they pay attention to their fair use policy.

If you are in need of a laptop it sounds like a pretty good deal, because the broadband you get would be up to par.

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Guest Tam o' Shantie

by the way, an update for orange mobile customers - if you're paying over 30 quid a month like i am, you can get 8mb unlimited broadband for an extra fiver a month AND this deal applies. now we're fucking talking!

It's been a while since a bought a new machine, and i'm well out of touch with processor technology, but how are they justifying the 50 quid jump between the 150 pound one and the 200 quid one? from what i can see the performance is near identical, except the more expensive one is made by a company i've never heard of and it also has a firewire port :S

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The main difference seems to be the processors, the cheaper one has a Pentium Dual Core chip while the Advent (probably a better make than Packard Bell btw) has a Centrino Core 2 Duo. I'm not too sure what the difference is, they both seem to be multi core chips running at around 1.7 Ghz. I suspect the Pentium chip may be a budget version of Intel's multi-core chips, possibly someone who knows more about hardware will be able to clear that up.

The other difference is that the cheaper one has an ATI Xpress 200 graphics card while the Advent has an integrated graphics chip.

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The main difference seems to be the processors, the cheaper one has a Pentium Dual Core chip while the Advent (probably a better make than Packard Bell btw) has a Centrino Core 2 Duo. I'm not too sure what the difference is, they both seem to be multi core chips running at around 1.7 Ghz. I suspect the Pentium chip may be a budget version of Intel's multi-core chips, possibly someone who knows more about hardware will be able to clear that up.

X-bit labs - News around the Web - Core 2 Duo vs. Core Duo Investigation

In summary, there isn't much difference between the two. The Core 2 Duo is about 15% faster.

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Guest Tam o' Shantie

cheers for that, the impression i got from a couple of other sites was just that intel had got rid of the pentium part of the name to help shift units! worth spending the extra 50 quid then?

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Tam o' Shantie

deal is over, thanks to PC world's in house staff fucking me around i didn't get to capitalise on it neiver! apparently there were fuck all stocks of the decent ones anyway. cunts.

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I highly doubt that.

They've never given me any hassle for going over the 2 gig limit, which I know I've done at least twice by at least 2.4 gigs. They seem to take the attitude that if you go over once in a blue moon it's no problem, only if you go over every month will they force an upgrade on you.

Word of warning for Orange customers though, if you use another modem/router don't lose the software for the supplied modem. I did, lost my internet connection for 3 days and they wouldn't run a check on my connection without the error code from the supplied modem. I eventually got them to agree to run a check if I tried another modem, went and bought one,still no connection and I was too tired to phone them back that day. Next day my connection miraculously appeared when I switched on my computer, tried my original router, everything was fine.

The initial conversation went something like this:

Me:"I have no internet connection?"

Them:"What's the error code on the modem?"

Me:"I can't find the disk to install the drivers."

Them:"You can get them online"

Sheesh. not employed for their common sense are they.

To be fair, that's the only problem I've had with them in approx 3 years, and it probably would've been sorted out a lot quicker if I hadn't removed their software and lost the disk. Speed seems to be consistently around 1.9 Mbps as well, which is not bad for a max 2Mbps connection.

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