Looking for a Cheap Laptop

[funked up]

Well as the title says I am looking for a cheap laptop. I would say no more than $300-$400. I'll be using it for basic internet, email use, sharing photos, forums, that kind of stuff. Should I consider netbooks/notebooks? Or should I stick with a reqular laptop? What kind of operating system do I need? Windos Vista home basic or Windows Vista Home premium? Do I need a dual core processor? Should I consider a re-furbished or used computer? Where should I look for one? I am also open to specific reccomendations. I like Dell and HP but would consider other Brands. Sorry if this is a bit away from the normal Audioholics topics.

 

[ChunkyDark]

If you want to hook your laptop to your TV and use it as a media player you'll want premium, otherwise basic should be fine.
If your sharing photos I'm assuming you will be editing so if you have Vista you'll want 3gb of ram. If you find an XP machine 2gb would be fine.
I would recommend duel core since the cost now between single and duel is minimal. The performance difference between Intel and AMD is so minimal don't worry about it. (I know you didn't ask, but it comes up a lot).
Netbooks aren't as flexible as regular laptops so given what you want to do I would stay away. Plus you pay a premium for the size.
Several people that I work with have gotten refurbs from Dell and were happy and got a decent deal. Just be sure you have a good warranty and make sure if something goes wrong you aren't paying shipping to send it back for service.
Personally I like dealnews.com and techbargains.com. Woot and yugster also will have some great buys, but at one product a day it's hit or miss.
I discourage people from buying Sony laptops. Having worked on every major brand they TEND to be the worst for access to drives and other commonly replaced parts. They also tend to favor proprietary parts.
Final note, if you ask 10 computer geeks the same question your likely to get 10 different answers and everyone is convinced theirs is the right one

 

[lsiberian]

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Dell-Inspiron-1501-1.8GHz-Laptop-Laptop-Refurbished/3679027/product.html

I found that seems good enough for your needs.

 

[scott911]

I was just in a similar situation. I ended up deciding that the Atom processor was good for simple web browsing - but doing anything else (like running office) required me going up scale a bit. You don't seem to have those higher end requirements, but a netbook may limit your future use...

I got a HP Pavilion dv3z series . Got it with a $150 off coupon plus another 15% off - came to about $600. Very, very nice laptop in my opinion. First HP after so-so quality experiences with three Dell laptops.

Also, the 3" larger screen on the dv3z (as compared to most netbooks) still keeps the laptop very portable and light, but really gives you a decient amount of real estate.

Keep an eye out for deals at edealinfo.com . I've found when getting a good deal, you often get a better price than referbs.

If I were to get a netbook, I would first look at HP. I would get a 10" screen over the 8.9" options. I would get a solid state drive for super fast start-ups. And I would probably get the unix os, because the Atom processor would likely struggle under the bulk of a microsoft OS. Keep in mind, I would use a netbook, as it's intended, for just web surfing so there would not be a need for windows compatibility with many other programs, and I would not need the larger spinning harddrives because I wouldn't be storing content/programs on the device.

good luck

 

[ChunkyDark]

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Dell-Inspiron-1501-1.8GHz-Laptop-Laptop-Refurbished/3679027/product.html
I found that seems good enough for your needs.

For 50$ more you can get a new one from dell that has a full year warranty verses 90 day , 250gb drive verses 80, 3gb of ram verses 2 and a better video card.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dndopm2&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=features~laptops_great_deals

More times than note I find that you get a better deal on Dell refrubs from Dell as opposed to 3 party sites.

 

[popotoys]

If you can wait, Vista is going away. Windows 7 is already in beta, just not sure on the release date.

IMO, stay away from Vista!!! If you have to, have someone rebuild to XP

 

[lsiberian]

For 50$ more you can get a new one from dell that has a full year warranty verses 90 day , 250gb drive verses 80, 3gb of ram verses 2 and a better video card.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dndopm2&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&kc=features~laptops_great_deals

More times than note I find that you get a better deal on Dell refrubs from Dell as opposed to 3 party sites.

He said cheap I gave him what he asked for. If he want's it optimized I would be more than happy to optimize a laptop for him.

 

[popotoys]

Any processor should be fine for you application.

For me three things

Hard drive size -> as large as you can afford. Amazon, for example, has online storage cheap and secure as well.
RAM -> 2GB or more
Large screen -> 15" or larger

 

[tcarcio]

I know some people don't like to buy on ebay but if you do your homework and check out the seller you can get a good deal. I got my Dell latitude with all I needed and I got it for 199.00 with a 30 day warranty. That was about six months ago and I am useing it as we speak. You can get some good people with good deals so check it out.

 

[strube]

Your budget is best suited for a netbook. I wouldn't get a regular laptop at that price; I think the quality of it will be very disappointing.

I have a good friend that just got an Asus EeePC or whatever they are called and seems to like it for the price. He is an enginerd like me and is picky about physical build quality. He has a $1500 Dell laptop and thinks it is junk compared to the Asus (as far as physical build quality), and I definitely concur.

If you decide you want to go with a regular laptop, you should save up a while so you can afford more in the $800 or more range IMO. If you want to do that I will recommend the lesser known www.powernotebooks.com for a laptop: much better warranties, service, and product than most Dells, HPs, etc. (note I have had 3 powernotebooks products and had great luck with them - right now I have a business class HP, which is great in comparison to any brand's home/home office stuff, but that comes at a premium). I was a computerholic before I was an audioholic .

 

[10010011]

Your budget is best suited for a netbook. I wouldn't get a regular laptop at that price; I think the quality of it will be very disappointing.

I have a good friend that just got an Asus EeePC or whatever they are called and seems to like it for the price. He is an enginerd like me and is picky about physical build quality.

I would have to agree here. I also have an EeePC-900 with 20Gig solid state hard drive and while it is nice you have to accept it for what it is, a small portable computer, NOT a desktop replacement. I find it perfectly suited to mobile computing (wireless hot spots) and running basic office apps like word and excel.

I just got my wife the Acer Aspire One, 1.3Gig Atom and 120G hard drive. It is a lot snapper than mine as it is the next generation. Makes my wish I had waited.

 

[Votrax]

If you can wait, Vista is going away. Windows 7 is already in beta, just not sure on the release date.

IMO, stay away from Vista!!! If you have to, have someone rebuild to XP

You should try Windows Mojave!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igSlM3tl2zE

 

[10010011]

You should try Windows Mojave!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igSlM3tl2zE

That's funny, I was showing my wife the Windows 7 beta I was playing with and she said "That's nice, but it's no Mojave!".

 

[funked up]

Well after doing some research I've changed my mind about what I want. I've decided that a desktop would prob be a better route for me to go and I have bumped up my budget to $500-$600. Any suggestions for this price range?

 

[Tomorrow]

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11379075&cm_mmc=BCEmail_387-_-FOCUS-_-18-_-ZTQ8300

 

[lsiberian]

Well after doing some research I've changed my mind about what I want. I've decided that a desktop would prob be a better route for me to go and I have bumped up my budget to $500-$600. Any suggestions for this price range?

This is easy. Find an old used monitor I bet you can get one for like 20 bucks on craigslist.

Then put the thing together yourself.
Antec case
Asus mother board(they can come with video too will save you some money)
Nvidia video card
AMD CPU(go for highest cache and core lowest speed combo will get you the most bang for buck)
For a HD get a Western Digital they make the best ones.

For memory you can get a 4 gig kit for very cheap so just go with that. Make sure to pick up a couple case fans and a CD/DVD burner.

You will need an OS. If you don't play games just pick up a distribution of Linux. Like Suse it used to cost about 30 bucks. Does everything for you and comes with everything you need.

I think that's all you need these days. A lot of stuff is integrated in the motherboard now. Like the network card, USB ports etc.

Antec cases use all thumb screws. Very easy to put together.

 

[strube]

I (mostly) agree with Isiberian on this one. Desktops have become so easy and inexpensive to build.

The only thing I would disagree with is the AMD processor, and it is based on my experience (I have built around 40 custom desktop PCs), YMMV. I have had much better luck with Intel recently. You can get processors from both brands well under $100 and the benchmarks (if you don't get a Celeron) favor the Intels. That's not to say AMD is not good - just another opinion.

I can't use linux because it doesn't work with my raid array, but I have used it a bit on my laptop. IMO, you have to be more of a power user to use it than Windows, especially if you are building your own system. I would be more inclined to recommend Windows if you have no Linux experience, because the learning curve can be frustrating. That said, it is free, and Windows is not.

EDIT: So you know, I am not an Intel fanboy, and have used AMD in the past, they just haven't been keeping up very well the past few years.

 

[Votrax]

Since strube brought up raid I would suggest a motherboard with raid. A motherboard with a raid controller will only run you about $20 more than one without raid. This gives you the capability to add four more hard drives in the future.

 

[ChunkyDark]

If your not doing heavy 3d gaming you would probably be fine with the new on board graphics motherboards. If I hadn't tried it personally, I'd probably flame somebody saying that
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128379
That board has raid, on board graphics, sound, hdmi, optical out, and LAN.
I used this board in my home theater and was very happy with it up until the HD crapped out
I was able to play need for speed at high resolution without any hitches. Plus the graphics are cross-fire compatible so if you got into some game that the machine was struggling with you could another a video card at it would work in conjunction with the on board.

 

[highfigh]

Well as the title says I am looking for a cheap laptop. I would say no more than $300-$400. I'll be using it for basic internet, email use, sharing photos, forums, that kind of stuff. Should I consider netbooks/notebooks? Or should I stick with a reqular laptop? What kind of operating system do I need? Windos Vista home basic or Windows Vista Home premium? Do I need a dual core processor? Should I consider a re-furbished or used computer? Where should I look for one? I am also open to specific reccomendations. I like Dell and HP but would consider other Brands. Sorry if this is a bit away from the normal Audioholics topics.

I bought a Dell Vostro (Dell for Business) just over a year ago and it was $469. I got it with XP Pro because I don't want to deal with all of the Vista BS. It has Core 2 Duo 1.6GB processor, 2GB of RAM, and wireless. It also has US based customer support. This thing has been great and I can't recommend it highly enough. I run FireFox exclusively and Avira for anti-virus, but also SpyBot and AdAware. I haven't had a single virus or Trojan.