Cheap laptops....

[Meg O'Ryan 266444]

I have a great desktop that takes care of all of my needs but my laptop is old and takes forever to boot up. I am looking for a cheap laptop (can't justify my desire to purchase the MacBook Air tho I long for it daily!)

 

I use my laptop primarily for cerb, email and watching a bit of online tv...oh ya some chat too!

 

In today's Sun, there was an ad for a refurbished Toshiba Notebook with windows 7 home premium at $379.99. I am no techie so here is what the ad says....

 

P/N L455D-55979

AMD Sempron

Feature 2.16HZ speed

and 512KB L2 cache

 

2GB DDR2

250GB Sata HDD

DVD Optical drive

Wireless B/G

ATI radeon 3100 graphics.

 

Is this a waste of money?

[roamingguy 300292]

Meg

I'm no techie but laptops are (compared to a few years ago) pretty cheap

You should be able to get new for around $500.00 or less

Not endorsing this store (nor criticizing it either) but here is an example of Future Shops prices on laptops

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/category/laptops/1002.aspx?path=b8f0a0d0431371126a8b49f025af4455en01

Just a matter of shopping around and getting the best value for your dollar

Good luck

RG

[cables 100]

Get one from Costco new for about the same money. Avoid refurb if at all possible. My 2 cents.

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[PistolPete 61421]

Get one from Costco new for about the same money. Avoid refurb if at all possible. My 2 cents.

Posted via Mobile Device

 

Agreed refurb's are not money well spent,you might as well pay a little extra and get something that is new,and comes with a warranty. My 2 pennies.

[mod 135640]

Do you need a laptop or will a netbook due?

 

Many people do not know the difference but it sounds like a netbook is all you really need. The "watch movies" thing may be an issue as some netbooks do not have DVD players and most do not have large hard drives so you can't store a lot of movies on the actual drive..

 

Laptops are made to be more powerful so that you can actually run desktop applications on them. Netbooks however are mobile processors and don't have all the storage and power the laptops have.

 

Netbooks are made to use the internet, email, watch movies (DVD not store movies on the hard drive as the storage is often smaller) but the price is right and the batteries usually last MUCH longer on the netbooks as they CPU's and drives don't drain the battery so much.

 

A netbook is very much like your smart phone / tablet but with a large screen and keyboard.

 

So.... if you need power (big Word documents, smoother multitasking, large and complicated Excel spreadsheets, photoshop, editing movies, playing 3d games, multimedia presentations, or even custom software and databases) you need a powerful laptop but know that the batter will die quicker the bigger you go! More powerfull mean more battery.

 

If you are just browsing the web, doing emails and such the netbooks long batter life and 1/2 the price of a laptop make is VERY attractive.

 

I bought the Ipad (It's technically a tablet netbook) I have not touched my laptop since. The battery lasts all day long, it's light and easy to carry around and does everything I need (except photoshop and multitasking and apparently they are working on both).

 

I do however miss the mouse (but you can jailbreak it and use pretty much any bluetooth mouse).

 

The airbook from the MAC is awsome! It's so light and thin (it's like the ipad with a lot more power and all the stuff the ipad is missing to make it a full netbook). I am 99% sure the airbook has no hard drive (All flash ram) and this would greatly improve battery life. Best of all it's a MAC so email virus's, trojans, worms, etc... are virtually non existent so you don't have to run a anti-virus (that also kills the battery and slows the system down)

[WearAJimmy 101]

I have a great desktop that takes care of all of my needs but my laptop is old and takes forever to boot up. I am looking for a cheap laptop (can't justify my desire to purchase the MacBook Air tho I long for it daily!)

 

I use my laptop primarily for cerb, email and watching a bit of online tv...oh ya some chat too!

 

In today's Sun, there was an ad for a refurbished Toshiba Notebook with windows 7 home premium at $379.99. I am no techie so here is what the ad says....

 

P/N L455D-55979

AMD Sempron

Feature 2.16HZ speed

and 512KB L2 cache

 

2GB DDR2

250GB Sata HDD

DVD Optical drive

Wireless B/G

ATI radeon 3100 graphics.

 

Is this a waste of money?

 

That is an absolute waste of money, Meg. The AMD Sempron processors are virtually outdated now.. and a 512KB L2 cache will not do. Even the cheapest laptops come with a 2MB L2 cache. DDR2 RAM is pretty outdated as well, the newer DDR3 RAM is the standard today, and most new laptops come with a minimum of 4GB. The ATI 3100 is also some of the lower end integrated video cards today. 250 GB isn't acceptable today.

 

On top of that, it's refurbished. Windows 7 isn't going to run too smoothly on hardware that outdated.

 

Throw in another 20 dollars and get this:

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-15-6-laptop-featuring-amd-athlon-ii-dual-core-processor-p340-black-as5552-3557/10155020.aspx?path=5d6eb04f2ff08d90a60aa3b44b5b8c8ben02

 

AMD Anthlon P340 Dual Core (2x 2.2 Ghz)

1024 KB L2 Cache

4GB DDR3

500 GB HardDrive

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

ATI 4250 integrated video card

DVD Drive/Burner

HDMI port (if you have a television that supports High Def, you would be able to connect your laptop to the television, and watch movies straight onto your TV from your laptop)

Media Card Connectivity

 

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask me.

[Guest S*rca****sid]

While you are trying to decide which laptop to buy, I would suggest installing a Linux distro on to your old one. Download a version off the internet and burn it to a disc and give it a try, you might be surprised how fast it boots up.

[etasman2000 15994]

ipad won't do chat I don't think.

 

The 11" MacBook Air starts at CAD1049/-, 13" at CAD1349/-. Not pricey all things considered.

 

However for half that price you can get a decent new laptop. Ignore the refurbish, not worth the hassle.

 

tigerdirect.ca

 

http://www.audiotronic.ca/Products/List/136

 

are also decent places to look at as well.

[mod 135640]

Ipad will run flash now if you jailbreak it

http://www.google.ca/search?q=jailbreak+ipad+flash&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

And sarcasticsid has a good recommendation. Download something like ubuntu (Very simple and works with almost all laptops these days) it gives new life to a old machine and runs MUCH faster then windows (and no virus issues)

[Guest G***f******]

I subscribe to http://www.tigerdirect.ca mailing list, and every now and then they have some fantastic deals.

 

Like others have said, the first thing you want to do, when buying a computer, is define what you want to do with it. That will determine the minimum requirements.

 

Since you've said your computer activities are almost all web based, one of those inexpensive netbooks will probably suit your needs. The other advantage is that their size makes them super portable, and many have tremendous battery life.

 

I LOVE my iPad, but then, I don't do much that uses flash, so for me it's perfect.

[Manfromeastottawa 134]

Apple the only way to go :) just what you'll save in nortons antivirus will pay for it:) I've had my MacBook pro for one year and an iPhone for 5 months you couldn't give me a blackberry. Pick on up to try you'll see a 400$ laptop will not last 5 years. Just ask you self how long your old one lasted ? An apple boots up in seconds :) an my iPhone is my mini portable laptop

Cheers

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[Guest ***nsut***jr]

Great comments by Mod on the iPad and the MacBook Air.

Not sure if I would jailbreak anything being a non techie person.

The iPad does take some getting used to because I believe that even with a keyboard you still have to touch the screen for some functions?? Not sure though.

Biggest consideration is the switch to MacOS which gives less crashes and nice programs like iPhoto right out of the box.

Macs tend to have a longer life too in my opinion.

 

So I think the biggest question is whether you want to move onto the Mac side or stay with Uncle Bill and Windows 7.

 

Good luck either way

 

J

[dandywriter 120]

If you go to apple store online canada, down the left side under the blue banner "special deals", they have refurb'd MacBooks at some savings. I'm typing on a MacBook white that I got $150 off, on. Came out the package looking new. Works great. I'd do it again. Same for my iPhone. They also have MacBook Air 1.86 Ghz for the same price - $899, $150 off.

I suspect people try them and realize they need/want more power and return them, or new models come out, so they box it up and return essentially new machines.

[mod 135640]

The IPAD has some quarks - especially with the keyboard but they are working on that.

 

It's missing stuff like a backspace key, a CTRL key (Things that are very important for a system admin like me) but thankfully the APPS for system admin stuff ADD those keys usually in a extra menu.

 

Not having multitasking sucks as you want to go back and forth from email to web and other programs all running at the same time (You can't yet).

 

Also the safari browser has some issues (Copy and paste does not always work and is hard to master with the touch) the browser pages sometimes reload when you switch from one to another (This is annoying as you can loose stuff if your copy and pasting from one browser window to another) the browser is not TABBED but other TABBED browsers exist (Also have some quarks however)..... but this I am sure can all be fixed and you have to expect this stuff with such a new product.

 

Jailbreaking is VERY easy. It's just a single download and run... it does all the work for you and you can restore it back to normal without any problem. Just don't go randomly installing stuff (Make sure it has been tested on the jailbroken device)

 

If you jailbreak it now you can multi task with it (Apparently at the end of this month OS4 will be out on the ipad allowing multitasking) you can also run flash on the jailbroken device (Apple has no plans for that from what I can tell).

 

The flat surface keyboard does take some getting use to and the keyboard layout change button to get to the numbers (I hate that) but I purchased the keyboard and it works just like a desktop (It's the same desktop keyboard with the CTRL button, numbers, etc... so when you need to use a full keyboard you just dock it).

 

Now the big one for me... when it's docked in the keyboard you REALLY miss the mouse!! Using the touchscreen when it's docked is a PAIN and very unnatural (I can not get use to it) and the ONLY way to use a MOUSE with the IPAD is to jailbreak it.

 

The thing is FULL bluetooth compatible but they will not approve a APP to allow you to run a bluetooth mouse (Just a keyboard) probably because they want you to buy the airbook if you wanted a full netbook type experience.

 

If you JAILBREAK it you can run virtually ANY bluetooth mouse!! <- This + Flash + Multitasking makes it VERY desirable to jailbreak.

 

As for the refurbished MAC's out of the mac store... that is good advise! The mac store will make sure the device is in top shape before selling it. Reputation is important to them (Unlike some of the PC manufactures) I would not hesitate in buying a refurbished mac from the mac store...

[Leber 1328]

Today is Black Friday in US, you may want to check out the local Futureshop and BestBuy. You may be able to find some decent deals. I was told that there were no advertisements and every store has its specials.

[Apex2006 1071]

 

I use my laptop primarily for cerb, email and watching a bit of online tv...oh ya some chat too!

 

quote]

 

CERB and e-mailing is fine, but Chatting! now you are pushing it!

[quick25 137]

ok if your looking for a notebook or laptop the processor is a huge part of what you want.

 

The reason why I think that laptop is cheap because of its old processor.

 

cache

ram

hard drive

drives such as dvd and cd

 

(correct me if i'm wrong)

 

im pretty sure this is the order it goes in. The higher up in the list it is the more expensive a computer is going to cost you. This overall is the time it takes you to get a file. This in turn improves system preformance. For example say you have 1mb of cache and the cost to double it might be 600 dollars. But to double the space of your hard drive might cost you 300 dollars. But for what you are doing you might want 1mb or less cache, 2-3 gb or ram, you would not need a large hard drive so the least amount would do.