Buying a Laptop. Probably. Help?

RedMageDarion

So, I've been toying with the idea of buying a laptop for some time now. I've just been waiting to find one that is cheap enough.

So, looking around on Newegg I see these two machines, which both seem pretty nice (Save coming pre-loaded with Vista):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16834115383

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16834280001

They're both $600 or less which is awesome. Only a gig of RAM, but that's easy (and cheap) enough to fix.

I'm still looking, but I'm wondering whether one of those is a really good deal, like too good to pass up or anything.

Also, coming to you guys for recommendations if you have any.

I'm not looking for much. Just basically Internet/Word/other basic programs. It may run a couple games on it, but nothing overly crazy, probably just some older stuff, if anything.

Wezoin

Someone posted this resource when I was looking for my first laptop, and it was really helpful.

Check out www.notebookreview.com, go in the forums and make a thread for yourself in the recommend me a computer subforum, and fill out the little survey, I can pretty much guarantee satisfaction in the results. Also, look through other people's posts in that subforum, if you find any in a similar situation to you you should check those out too.

HadjiQuest

The OLPC and the Eee are out in November, if you can hold off.

I'm sure you know what the OLPC is; the eee is a commercialized alternative with better specs developed by Asus and Intel that'll run $300-$400. If you have any semblance of gadget geek in you, you may want to read up. They both run linux natively, but the eee can run XP.

I may freak out and buy both just so I can get people to look at a blog I don't have yet.

STATE OF THE ART ROBOT

Check to see if the gig of ram the laptop comes with is a one gig stick or 2 512-megabyte sticks. Because if it is the latter then you would have to buy 2 1-gig sticks to have 2 gigs of ram.

RedMageDarion

Wezoin wrote: »

Someone posted this resource when I was looking for my first laptop, and it was really helpful.

Check out www.notebookreview.com, go in the forums and make a thread for yourself in the recommend me a computer subforum, and fill out the little survey, I can pretty much guarantee satisfaction in the results. Also, look through other people's posts in that subforum, if you find any in a similar situation to you you should check those out too.

I'll have to check that out.

HadjiQuest wrote: »

The OLPC and the Eee are out in November, if you can hold off.

I'm sure you know what the OLPC is; the eee is a commercialized alternative with better specs developed by Asus and Intel that'll run $300-$400. If you have any semblance of gadget geek in you, you may want to read up. They both run linux natively, but the eee can run XP.

I may freak out and buy both just so I can get people to look at a blog I don't have yet.

I can probably hold off. I didn't even think about the fact that these were coming out. I'll have to check them out and see if they're for me.

STATE OF THE ART ROBOT wrote: »

Check to see if the gig of ram the laptop comes with is a one gig stick or 2 512-megabyte sticks. Because if it is the latter then you would have to buy 2 1-gig sticks to have 2 gigs of ram.

Yeah, both of them are 2 512-mb sticks, which is too bad. But 2 sticks of 1-gb are only like $80.

The $599 one is upgradeable to 4 gigs, whereas the other is only able to handle 2.

HadjiQuest

The eee has a 900mhz celeron M, integrated intel GMA 900 graphics, 7 inch display, 512meg DDR2 Ram (shared with the videocard and upgradeable to a gig), built in wifi, etc. No cd drive, and only 2-4 gigs of hard drive space, but it does have slots for various media cards and, of course, usb ports. The OLPC's specs are pretty much half that across the board, with the exception of the screen size, which I think it slightly bigger on the OLPC.

So the biggest issue that's turning people off is the lack of default storage.

RedMageDarion

HadjiQuest wrote: »

The eee has a 900mhz celeron M, integrated intel GMA 900 graphics, 7 inch display, 512meg DDR2 Ram (shared with the videocard and upgradeable to a gig), built in wifi, etc. No cd drive, and only 2-4 gigs of hard drive space, but it does have slots for various media cards and, of course, usb ports. The OLPC's specs are pretty much half that across the board, with the exception of the screen size, which I think it slightly bigger on the OLPC.

So the biggest issue that's turning people off is the lack of default storage.

Hmm...

That doesn't sound that appetizing.

I'm thinking I may just cough up the extra $$$ for the Acer laptop that's $600. It seems like it's a pretty good deal, and I've got a little holiday pay coming to me since I'm working Columbus Day.