# Off Topic > The Water Cooler >  >  Best laptop for excel

## bigband1

Hi all
I want to buy a new laptop that will mainly be used to work with extremly large spreadsheets on excel and perform calculations,formulas and macros,and download numeric data from the internet,it will never be used for gaming.The minimum display should be 15.5 and my price range is around £500 to £600 and would come with windows 7.Can anyone please advise,many thanks in advance fo any help.

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## TWent

I can only offer minimal assistance as I do not know the hardware of a computer that well. However I know that if your using very large Workbooks your going to want Windows 7 64bit along with office 16bit. This will allow you to have a large amount of Ram which you will want a at least 4gb. For a video card you will want to be around 512mb if you have a lot of calculations happening at once. 

-To the Point-
1. Windows 64bit
2. Office 64bit
3. 4gb of RAM or more
4. 512mb video memory

I am not an expert and this is only my opinion from the 8-10 years I have been using a computer. I hope this helps even in the least bit.
Check Newegg.com for some good deals. I got my Desktop which came with all the above and more for $500.

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## romperstomper

Define "Extremely large" in terms of spreadsheets. Unless you are talking about 1GB+, I wouldn't choose Office 64bit.

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## bigband1

Thanks for the replies
the spreadsheets are 130000 rows by 87 columns
I also wish to transfer the data between the laptop and a PC which is a dell DXP061,32bit,2GB RAM.

Thanks again

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## TWent

Are these spreadsheets large in memory size? If is only contains text then the size of the file can still be rather small even with 130000 rows. Just right click one of your files and look at the size. If it is near 1GB or more then office 64bit would be useful. If not then you will have no need for office 64bit.

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## Jack in the UK

erm if you go 64BIT Windows go 8GB memory as 32 is 4GB max remember

Cant go wrong with thats rule.. its OS (Opperating system / Windows) Vs restrictions

Version of Excel dont matter.. its all in the usage

jiuk Rule:
More memory the better subject to OS version max

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## bigband1

Thanks all for replies
Checked file sizes they average around 95.5 MB,so 32 bit with 2 GB ram seems optimum.So many to choose from, any advise on models sony,dell ? ect would be appreciated.

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## romperstomper

I've always had good experience with Dell, and there are some good deals on the XPS and Inspiron models at the mo.

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## Jack in the UK

If you can go Win 7 - 64 bit thats x64 not x86 

Go 4gm or mor if you can or have space to do so later as easy upgrate

As for OS Premiun or Ultimate if you can afford it (prem i guess then)

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## Domski

You can get a Dell XPS with 4gb memory and an i5 processor for £599 at the moment. I've had my XPS for a few months now and think it's a brilliant piece of kit.

Dom

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## romperstomper

I wish they'd stop emailing me as I'm finding it harder and harder to resist (my 1.6GHz XPS M1330 is getting on a bit now)

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## Domski

I'm sure you deserve a treat. Give in to the temptation!

Dom

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## TWent

I also am having thoughts of upgrading from my HP Pavilion. I would not suggest HP to anyone as mine came with a disconnect somewhere in the screen that would render the colors Yellow then Magenta and back and forth. The old slap to the side of the screen seemed to always fix it. Also it started right after my warranty ran out.

I know in the states they are advertising a new windows laptop will come with a "free" X-Box 360.

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## HamzaG

Excellent info Bor, really helpful!

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