Cheap Laptop?

[Fifty]

Where can I get a cheap laptop that is at least decent? I have a feeling this one is about to die (strange noises from within...)

 

[Genocidicbunny]

You could look on dell. For low to midrange laptops, its a decent company. Or surf around on newegg. ( And yes, we wont do the work to find you one since we've no idea what your budget is, what your needs are, etc.)

 

[taper]

What do you plan on using it for? If all you want is web browsing and word documents, check out OLPC or ASUS EEE Around $400 each, and the OLPC includes a $200 tax deductible donation to education. Yes, they are very basic computers, they won't handle the vast majority of commercial software, and run Linux, but don't be scared by that if that's all you need. I have a OLPC on order.

If you would like something a little bigger, Dell and HP have nice low end laptops, you might want to consider XP instead of Vista just for performance if you don't get at least a Core2 Duo.

 

[illram]

Yeah, scour newegg and tigerdirect for something low-end and cheap with XP installed. Lower end cheap laptops aren't really optimal for Vista at the moment.

 

[cidknee]

stay away from anything dell...dell is evil, EVIL. never ever ever ever ever buy a Dell

 

[Genocidicbunny]

stay away from anything dell...dell is evil, EVIL. never ever ever ever ever buy a Dell

Im gonna guess that this is because you bought a crappy low-end desktop from them a few years back, got bad support and it sucked?

They do have crappy desktops, I know, but we're talking about midrange to lowrange laptops here.

 

[cidknee]

Im gonna guess that this is because you bought a crappy low-end desktop from them a few years back, got bad support and it sucked?

They do have crappy desktops, I know, but we're talking about midrange to lowrange laptops here.

actually, it was a high end LAPTOP.... and it melted... and guess what dell told me... its MY fault.. not thiers. took 8 months to get any answer.

so next time you assume.. remember what assume means...

 

[Quintillus]

What do you plan on using it for? If all you want is web browsing and word documents, check out OLPC or ASUS EEE Around $400 each, and the OLPC includes a $200 tax deductible donation to education. Yes, they are very basic computers, they won't handle the vast majority of commercial software, and run Linux, but don't be scared by that if that's all you need. I have a OLPC on order.

If you would like something a little bigger, Dell and HP have nice low end laptops, you might want to consider XP instead of Vista just for performance if you don't get at least a Core2 Duo.

I'm assuming you want a decent screen size (rule out Asus EEE) and to run some version of Civ (rule out OLPC). I've really yet to see any reason to get the EEE, especially as a main computer, unless you're an Asus fanboy.

Memory (RAM) is more important than processor in terms of running Vista. Any new computer has a powerful enough processor to run Vista (not necessarily enough memory, however). If you can get more than 1 GB, it is a very good idea to do so with Vista.

stay away from anything dell...dell is evil, EVIL. never ever ever ever ever buy a Dell

Working quite well for me and I don't just surf the web on it, either. You probably just got a lemon and bad service. Sure it's not an IBM ThinkPad, but you could do much worse, especially if you're looking for a low-cost but halfway decent laptop.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

actually, it was a high end LAPTOP.... and it melted... and guess what dell told me... its MY fault.. not thiers. took 8 months to get any answer.

so next time you assume.. remember what assume means...

I would like to direct your attention to the part where I said Dell is good for high end laptops. Whats that? There isn't such a part?

I never said they're good for high-end. I would only consider buying a dell if it was a midrange. For high end I would go with something like lenovo or possibly acer or toshiba.

 

[cidknee]

well i paid around 2500 for it... and well it wasnt that cheap but when i went to transfer stuff to my external....it melted... so just stay away from dells.

there are soooo many better options.

acer, gateway, heck...even a mac.... just NOT a dell...and they are krap.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I have had my dell laptop for over 2 years now, and it is alive and well. Sure its showing the usual wear and tear, such as the keys sometimes getting stuck, the hinge is a bit weak, and its gone through a few hd's. But its alive and well, and will most likely last another year.

You most likely, as said before, got a bad egg.

 

[cidknee]

so all those dell laptops that lit on fire were bad eggs too.... ok.. thats still alot of bad eggs. never again. and it wasnt the laptop. i can understand the reasons why it did it.... it was the severe lack of customer service and well just the total MORONIC ppl at dell... they need to stop going to poppa johns across the street and actually do some work.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Those were batteries that made them light. Note, I also hate the customer service at dell, but thats the price you pay for being such a cheap ass. Although most of the time, I dont need customer service to help me.

 

[cidknee]

see thats it...i didnt pay cheap... but anyways... dell sucks...sooooooo many better options

 

[kingworldss]

I think Dell is a good option for a cheap laptop. I have owned my Dell for a long time, and i like it very much. Chritmas is coming, I want to get one for my sister, but she likes sony. I searched a lot online these days and found this one
http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=73545
For typical web surfing, light photo editing, music listening, etc, it's a good one for her. I think you can look up.