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Cheap Laptop Recommendations

durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
Hey, so. My girlfriend may be a gremlin, because she's had both a laptop and a backup netbook crap out on her in like 2 weeks.

Having a computer is decently important for her at the moment, and she's tired of using work/school computers.

So! She needs a laptop. She decided that while she likes smaller laptops, the netbook she ended up using for a while just wasn't very comfortable for what she wanted to do.

Also: no money whatsoever, basically. I'm trolling LogicBuy and Newegg for deals, but basically I want to know the best option for getting a not shitty laptop for ~$3-400. $500 at the very outside. If you have some way to go even cheaper without it just being a worthless machine I'd be really interested.

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Posts

  • ArchsorcererArchsorcerer Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Look for notebooks with AMD Fusion on them. They are a good option for that price range.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215057

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  • floobiefloobie Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    How much power does she need? If I were in that situation, I'd hit up ebay or something and look for a used Thinkpad. I'd have a really hard time trusting the reliability of a new laptop in that price range, save for a few netbooks, which are apparently out of the question.

    Edit: For instance: http://cgi.ebay.ca/IBM-THINKPAD-R60-CORE-2-DUO-120GB-HDD-BLAZING-FAST-/260778942963?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item3cb7a2e1f3#ht_1634wt_771

    floobie on
  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited May 2011
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  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Ah, all excellent suggestions!

    Power-wise, her actual needs are pretty low, but I do know that her previous computer was slow enough with basic tasks to be kind of annoying to use for even normal things like internet and word processing.

    I'm trying not to shoot too low in terms of power, because if a savings of $40 means a really annoying computing experience it's not worthwhile. Plus, I need to remind myself that "not used for games" doesn't mean "can basically be a typewriter".

    durandal4532 on
    Take a moment to donate what you can to Critical Resistance and Black Lives Matter.
  • floobiefloobie Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Ah, all excellent suggestions!

    Power-wise, her actual needs are pretty low, but I do know that her previous computer was slow enough with basic tasks to be kind of annoying to use for even normal things like internet and word processing.

    I'm trying not to shoot too low in terms of power, because if a savings of $40 means a really annoying computing experience it's not worthwhile. Plus, I need to remind myself that "not used for games" doesn't mean "can basically be a typewriter".

    In a lot of cases, a nice reformat, or the installation of a lighter OS (Ubuntu or whatever) can make an enormous difference. So, just comparing specs to her previous laptop might not be all that useful. If her old laptop was running Vista, and her new one were running 7, that would already help immensely. Removing the inevitable pile of pre-installed crapware you'd get on a new laptop would also help a lot. But, I stand by my original recommendation (used Thinkpad). Good luck!

    floobie on
  • EasilyAmusedEasilyAmused Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    My opinions on the little HP is that it is actually realy responsive for what is basically a netbook, and the slightly higher resolution over most netbooks is a nice advantage. It will actually even run something like RIFT, bouncing between 10-20 fps most of the time, but it will run which to me is pretty impressive for such a tiny and cheap machine. Keyboard is much better than some other netbooks I've used in the past, and battery life is realistically 5-6 hours. I did have a bit of a build quality issue with mine (touchpad was lifting in one corner) but it doesn't seem to be the norm and it was resolved pretty quickly.

    Anyways, best of luck in your search.

    EasilyAmused on
  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    floobie wrote: »
    Ah, all excellent suggestions!

    Power-wise, her actual needs are pretty low, but I do know that her previous computer was slow enough with basic tasks to be kind of annoying to use for even normal things like internet and word processing.

    I'm trying not to shoot too low in terms of power, because if a savings of $40 means a really annoying computing experience it's not worthwhile. Plus, I need to remind myself that "not used for games" doesn't mean "can basically be a typewriter".

    In a lot of cases, a nice reformat, or the installation of a lighter OS (Ubuntu or whatever) can make an enormous difference. So, just comparing specs to her previous laptop might not be all that useful. If her old laptop was running Vista, and her new one were running 7, that would already help immensely. Removing the inevitable pile of pre-installed crapware you'd get on a new laptop would also help a lot. But, I stand by my original recommendation (used Thinkpad). Good luck!

    Oh! That is actually a great point. She was running like, almost-minimum spec Vista. From what I've read, that probably slowed it to molassass speed. Would Windows 7 run very poorly with only 2gb of memory? That seems to be standard and I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to grab an extra couple gigs.

    durandal4532 on
    Take a moment to donate what you can to Critical Resistance and Black Lives Matter.
  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited May 2011
    Win7 actually runs quite respectably at 2GB of RAM. It's much less of a resource hog than Vista was.

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  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Great to hear. I think we're probably going to go with the little 11.6 inch HP.

    It's quite cheap, it actually outperforms her past few computers, and it's small enough to conveniently be carried by a person who is the size of a hobbit. I might spring for a memory upgrade if there's cheap memory for it on NewEgg just to make it seem extra snappy, but tonight I'm going to ask for the repair cost on her old one and if it's > $100 to fix, we're going with this.

    durandal4532 on
    Take a moment to donate what you can to Critical Resistance and Black Lives Matter.
  • Bionic MonkeyBionic Monkey Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited May 2011
    Just be aware, it appears that HP may have been a limited quantity production. The BB I work at, and the BBs all over my region are completely sold out.

    Looks like you should still be able to order it online though.

    Bionic Monkey on
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  • durandal4532durandal4532 Registered User regular
    edited May 2011
    Oh, good point. I'll pick it up in a day or two, then.

    Yeah, also: $450 to repair the laptop and replace the battery.

    Turns out it probably needed a new motherboard! So. Definitely getting a new and better computer for $380.

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