The recommendations below are an amalgam of my experience and the various reports and surveys in the computer press.

The PC and Laptop recommendations are limited to reputation of the actual manufacturers, as individual models change from month to month, and from country to country.

Best PC Manufacturer

Dell 93% of customers would buy again and the quality of their computers is exemplary, backed up by very good service; excellent value for money.

Runners up

HP 91% of customers respectively would buy again; HP machines are very well made but lack a little in performance.

Best Notebook (Laptop) Manufacturer

HP 92% of customers would buy again and HP are delivering high-quality, excellent value notepads.

Runners up

Dell, Toshiba, and Acer. Nothing to choose between them and over 90% of customers would buy again from all of these manufacturers.

Buy a notebook from any of these manufacturers and you’re very unlikely to be disappointed.

Best Laser Printer (Mono)

Samsung ML-2510.

Fast, cheap to run and offering flawless text quality, this is a great-value option.

If you’re after a small printer for high-quality, text-based documents, you can’t beat this machine for quality or value.

Running costs are approx