(Cheap) laptop computer advice?

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Yooper

Yooper

Ale's What Cures You!
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I bought a notebook in May. It is an el cheapo Toshiba, and it works great! I paid $249. My daughter is starting school soon, and wants a similar computer just for internet classes (and pictures of her son!). The prices have skyrocketed since May! The same Satellite computer we have is in the neighborhood of $479 now.

Can anybody give me some specific recommendations for my college daughter? She has very little money, and a new baby, so going back to school is already a challenge. She would be happy with a netbook if that's all she could afford, but would prefer a notebook.
 
Check out Micro Center. If you have one near you (they show one in Detroit/Madison Heights, don't know how close that is to you) they often have really good deals that are in store only with a limit of 1 per household. I build custom pc's as a side business, and their "one per household" deals are usually even cheaper than I can buy from any of my suppliers.
 
Yoop, we have three Acer computers in our household, two are laptops, and have been very pleased with them. They are moderately priced.

I just did a bunch of looking around at newegg.com for my son who is going to to school and put together a list for him to look at. They are mostly netbooks - i think for a student the netbooks are great (unless you're studying engineering or somesuch), they are remarkably powerful and you can throw them in the back sling things that every college kid is wearing these days, no computer bag needed.

In any case, Newegg allows me to forward the list (with links) to other people, so I'll send it to you, if it would be helpful - just pm me your email address. The prices range from $300 - $350 for the netbooks, around $450 for a notebook.
 
Pappers said:
Yoop, we have three Acer computers in our household, two are laptops, and have been very pleased with them. They are moderately priced.

I just did a bunch of looking around at newegg.com for my son who is going to to school and put together a list for him to look at. They are mostly netbooks - i think for a student the netbooks are great (unless you're studying engineering or somesuch), they are remarkably powerful and you can throw them in the back sling things that every college kid is wearing these days, no computer bag needed.

In any case, Newegg allows me to forward the list (with links) to other people, so I'll send it to you, if it would be helpful - just pm me your email address. The prices range from $300 - $350 for the netbooks, around $450 for a notebook.
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Perfect! I'll send you my email right now!

KC- I appreciate the advice about Mirco Center. Unfortunately, Detroit is +/- 600 miles from us!
 
YooperBrew said:
KC- I appreciate the advice about Mirco Center. Unfortunately, Detroit is +/- 600 miles from us!
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That sucks, they do ship though, you just won't be able to get the in-store only deals. And like Pappers said, newegg.com is a good source with good prices. You might want to look at Directron.com too, they have some good specials sometimes and I've always gotten great service from them.
 
I second newegg.com - I buy ALL my computer related supplies from them. They have some regular laptops in the mid $300s, but they are all sold out. If this isn't an urgent purchase, waiting a few weeks might be the way to go as you get more bang for your buck. Netbooks, are ok, but they have SMALL keyboards which can be a nuisance.
 
slickdeals.net forum might be a good place to try posting also
 
I use newegg.com almost exclusively and their service has been top notch.

I know a few people who have bought HP laptops over the past couple of years and they have had very good luck with them. Toshiba had an awesome reputation a number of years back and I've seen TONS of posts online about quality problems.

Sony is almost always good but a bit more money.

A friend got a screaming ASUS not long ago. It's not a cheap machine, but a good name. They may make a lower-level laptop too.

Pick a good brand and shop the heck out of it. I'd rather spend $100 more and get a machine worth having for an extra year or two. Sometimes the bargain basement models are lacking in places that aren't obvious when you are shopping them.
 
I was in the market for a cheap lappy to use when brewing or for basic needs, since I have a desktop for most of the important stuff. I bought an Acer netbook, its lightweight, quite small, has amazing battery life, and is great for surfing the web and for brewing software.
The netbook has no cd drive, only USB ports, so on the occasion I need to install something that is not downloadable I just transfer it over on a flash drive. Works for me!
 
all i can say is when you buy a cheap laptop, they sometimes skimp on the RAM. 500MB of RAM does not really cut it anymore with the antivirus software and bootup programs. It will take FOREVER to boot up and programs will crash. You need 1 GB of RAM. Just my 2cents
 
I just picked one up recently from Best Buy it was $289, so about $350 in total with tax and recycling fees.

The spec was pretty good (3GB RAM) and for the price it works fine.
 
eMachines netbook for $200

http://dealnews.com/e-Machines-Intel-Atom-1.6-GHz-10-Netbook-for-200-6-s-h/380692.html

Toshiba Satellite for $350

http://dealnews.com/Toshiba-Satellite-AMD-Athlon-2.2-GHz-16-Laptop-for-350-free-shipping/380653.html

I like checking out dealnews.com every so often to see what they have. They don't sell directly, just report on what others are offering, so be careful of who you're buying from. Most places seem pretty good about shipping and customer service, but every so often you get a bad deal.
 
triethylborane said:
all i can say is when you buy a cheap laptop, they sometimes skimp on the RAM. 500MB of RAM does not really cut it anymore with the antivirus software and bootup programs. It will take FOREVER to boot up and programs will crash. You need 1 GB of RAM. Just my 2cents
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agreed, but after-market RAM is cheap at newegg or zipzoomfly.com - don't let places like Dell sucker you into paying $180 for another 1gig of memory (nearly double the normal retail price!)
 
I myself am a computer engineer, and I've seen that laptop companies sometimes love to slap on really cheap quality ram for laptops.

Other than that, I think someone mentioned microcenter before. That store has really good deals, and sometimes they have promotions with newly opened credit cards there. They take 100 dollars off your purchase.

Again, newegg has some really good deals, but try to see if your daughter's college has a deal with some type of laptop company. I know my college had a deal with hp that saves you 100-200 bucks off some laptops/computers
 
YooperBrew said:
I bought a notebook in May. It is an el cheapo Toshiba, and it works great! I paid $249. My daughter is starting school soon, and wants a similar computer just for internet classes (and pictures of her son!).
Click to expand...

What's a mom for?
sell her the notebook you bought, and buy yourself a new one...:D
 

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