Decent cheap laptop?

[Git_R_Done]

Try Best Buy or Walmart I've seen some good laptops on there website between $400-$600 you should beable to find one pretty easy if all you want it for is the internet

[ksphotoguy]

I have an Acer I got at walmart for about 450. I would imagine for what you are wanting most places that sell computers would have something in the range you are looking at

[DNASREP000]

Dell Notebooks are are built like tanks. Don't mess with ACER's. Best Buy has horrible customer service, Wal Mart specials DIE (and after the 14th day when the in store warranty runs out).

Like the commercial says, "dude, you're getting a DELL!"

Skip the fancy colors and the bundled software. F*** Vista, try and get one with XP, or one with the ability to downgrade from Vista.

At the university where I work, at my wife's office and at my brother's City planning and maintenance office, they all have Dells. LoL even the FBI uses Dells.

I've never seen a Toshiba at a government office.


Check out the Vostro 1000 - go straight to small office, skip the "home" section.

click or copypaste.

http://www.dell.com/content/p ... l=en&s=bsd

[Black Lightning]

From the standpoint of this computer technician, quality-wise that Toshiba will walk all over that Dell. Way, way too many problems with motherboards on Dell notebooks. Toshiba makes a high quality product. Stay away from HP/Compaq. Lenovo (IBM) is also very good quality but they are expensive.

Personally, I have a Panasonic Toughbook CF-28 and while it's no speed demon (Pentium III 600), it definitely performs its task very nice and is tough enough to take a beating in a car, plus it has a touch screen which is very good for mobile use. It's the laptop you see in police cars. It runs Windows 2000 Professional, has a 40GB HDD and a DVD-ROM drive. I got it on eBay for around $400 in late May. I use it for mapping with a GPS receiver as well as logging (Microsoft Excel, Word etc) and also as my computer on the go with WiFi hotspots (it has wireless-G).

[Pro-Tech]

We sell them used for $250.00 and up in our laptop store.

[MoJo]

I am Dell Certified and will be the first person to tell you to stay away from them. Like Black Lightning says stay away from the HP. Toshiba's are good and so are Panasonic's. Acers are even good PC's and guess what??? Their Tech support is still US based.

As for the $400 ones think of it this way, cheap parts make cheap computer, make cheap prices. You get what you pay for.

[NCMidnight]

Ive owned and repaired a large number of laptops.. Usually I agree with Black Lightning and his knowledge but this time I cant agree with the Toshiba's quality vs price.. The toshiba LT's are prone to a number of problems due to poor craftsmanship and design resulting in power jack and battery charge problems that can cause fire, the heatsink gets clogged with dust. A layer of dust collects between the cooling fan and the heat sink and heat produces by the processor gets trapped inside the laptop. As a result of that, the processor overheats and the laptop shuts down. Another common problem - bad onboard memory. This memory is integrated into the motherboard and if it goes bad you’ll have to replace the entire motherboard.If your laptop starts with some weird characters or lines of dots on the screen, most likely you have a faulty onboard memory. If you test the laptop with an external monitor, you’ll see the same defective video on the external monitor too. You can test the onboard memory with Memtest86+ utility. Remove any external RAM modules and run the memory test. If the onboard memory fails, you’ll have to replace the motherboard.(waste of Money)(Note) these problems mainly effect the following models of the Toshiba's "M30X, M35X, A60, A65, A70, and A75's.. Dont take my word or Computer Science and Technologies A.S.(Information Technology) for it.. Google it..

Couple Pics of the MB in the toshiba LT's.. The bad power jack connections.. Notice the burnt spot in the yellow circle in pic one.. Pic Two has been repaired..






In this case if your looking for a cheap LT.. I cant tell you I'd go for the dell notebook either..If it were me I'd save a little cash and get a nice notebook.. Dont skimp youll end up paying for it in the long run..Like askificare said cheap notebooks equal cheap parts...Just my two cents worth

http://www.alienware.com/prod ... uters.aspx

http://www.falcon-nw.com/

I know you dont need a NB for gamming.. Both AW and Fal.NW notebooks can be bought used a lot cheaper then new.. Though there not as easy to find due to being the "BEST" on the market..People buy them and keep them..Like I said before its just my opinion but dont even mess with a cheap used or new laptop.. In 6 months youll be looking for another one..

[Black Lightning]

Remember, Alienware is now Dell (since 2005) ...

Also, the power jack condition affects many laptops. I will admit I have repaired more than a couple A65s, but the problem is most prevalent on HP laptops.

[Rex_foxhound]

Check this forum out SwampHog. Lots of helpful info.

http://www.notebookforums.com/home

[NCMidnight]

Remember, Alienware is now Dell (since 2005) ...

Also, the power jack condition affects many laptops. I will admit I have repaired more than a couple A65s, but the problem is most prevalent on HP laptops.

Indeed they are Black Lightning.. I was compairing quality though not brand.. Kinda like compairing a Cadilac to a GMC both GM but not close to the same quality.. The AW notebooks arent even close to being the same as the off the shelf "Dell" laptops. Though the Newer XPS systems are capible of at least being mentioned in the same sentence..

[103mass]

im on acer aspire one the 120 gig windows xp 1 gig ram this has know dvd drive but ..at time right know
im setting by my work in my car and the wire less works great great im on someone wireless down the street
fast small netbook i look at the eee but this is much better take a look pics due this no good i have firefox on this
and thunderbird email and you can down load free online games if you want hope this helps

[Wile E. Coyote]

Hey, You might want to look on your local craiglist.com and find a good used laptop. Most people that are looking to upgrade a decent laptop put their old ones on the list and you can find them for as low as 100 and up depending on what you are looking for.

I got a Toshiba satalite with all of the wistles and bells for 300 and an extra desktop for my wife. They both came with XP on them. And as all the others have said do not get windows vista. There are to many programs that are not compatable with it and if you will notice that the ram needed to run vista is a minimum of one gig. So, if you want vista to run half way decent it needs to have at least 2 gig of ram to run smoothly.

Good Luck and Happy Computer Hunting,
Wile E. Coyote Danny Rogers
Albuquerque, NM

[wood eye]

Take a look at tigerdirect.com. AND stay away from gateway...
wood eye

['Doc]

And while you're at it, take a look at some of the 'refurbished' computers (me <-- definition of cheap).
- 'Doc