laptop, brands to avoid

[crittergeek928]

Hey,
I am planning on getting a used or refurbished laptop. It will be used just as a convenience to surf the web answer e-mail etc. My desktop is my main computer. That being said, I don't want to spend a fortune. I have been looking at some refurbished pc's that have what I want at a pretty decent price. I have googled and read some online reviews of different makes and models, but I would love to hear anyones opinion from this forum. You guys have never steered me wrong. Are there any brands I should avoid? Maybe certain ones that need repair more than others. Currently I am looking at Dell, IBM, Lenova, and HP. And that is mainly because my friends have them and like them. Any opinions?

[glc]

If you are going for used/refurb, the *ONLY* ones I recommend are IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads, or Dells out of their outlet store.

However, you can get a new Dell pretty darn cheap these days. I do not like HP/Compaq, Toshiba, or Acer laptops.

[Panama Red]

Originally Posted by glc If you are going for used/refurb, the *ONLY* ones I recommend are IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads, or Dells out of their outlet store. However, you can get a new Dell pretty darn cheap these days. I do not like HP/Compaq, Toshiba, or Acer laptops.

I'm 100% with glc on this one. And add Gateway/eMachines to my list of "don't like".

[jdeb]

I'm 100% with glc on this one. And add Gateway/eMachines to my list of "don't like".

[crittergeek928]

Thank you. That exactly the advice I wanted!
Frasher

[Masaki 7-11]

I highly recommend used/refurbished/off-lease HP/Compaq business laptops such as the NC series. I've had a few NC6000s for over 4 years which I got refurbished and they still work great. The Dell laptops I've used tended to overheat from time to time. Only laptops I don't like is Toshiba (have used about 5 and have had issues with them during normal use). Newer Acer, Asus and HP/Compaq laptops are pretty good.

[glc]

I have not had good luck with NC's.

[mattaggie]

Since you are only going to be doing very basic PC tasks, consider the "netbook." They are very portable, come with either Linux or XP, and have good battery life. I didnt really care for netbooks when they only offered 7" or 8.9" screen size. It meant the screen and keyboard was just too small for me. But now they make a 10" which is a really nice size. Asus and Samsung offer really nice models.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...2&N=2034940772

[glc]

Dell has a 9 inch netbook, it starts at $349.

[crittergeek928]

I did actually look at these, but I was concerned about everything being so small. Have you used any of these before, and did you find it "cramped", like hitting the wrong key, etc?

[shadowpr]

I have an asus eeepc 900, and it takes a little while to get used to the smaller keyboard. I do make a few mistakes while typing, but nothing major.

[mattaggie]

The Asus 10" ones have a keyboard that is 90% the size of a normal keyboard. If you are going to be doing a lot of data input, netbook are probably not the way to go. Netbooks make sense because of the cost. If all you are going to do is surf the web and email, you dont need the fancy hardware that many laptops today have.

[Larix8]

2 years ago, I bought a 6 year old T30 IBM Thinkpad off ebay, for $500. I just recently upgraded RAM from 512MB to 1gig because I use Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator CS3. So far the laptop has been pretty solid, error free, other than minor chassis problems (keyboard area is starting to "pop up" from the main chassis).

My dad recently bought an EEE thing, and its impressive, for $300. I may buy it off him, just because of the drastic improvement in portability, and because the wireless service at the library went defunct recently, which is what he bought the EEE for.

So Thinkpads in my opinion are solid, and hard to justify cost of upgrading, after buying them, to a different laptop.

Laptop specs, off the top of my head: P4 M 1.8ghz processor, 15" screen, 1 gig RAM, CD rewritable, DVD player(I only use the DVD player for watching movies, and CD rewritable for installing software). Video is kind of a joke, (maybe 16MB 2600 Radeon??) but it will run the graphics software I need to use, as well as EVE online.

One last thing, I think I need to buy a new CMOS battery, because sometimes the laptop "forgets" and gives me the time/date screen, instead of going directly to loading Windows XP. Not a major issue yet, and the laptop IS about 8 years old or so.

So as far as buying used goes, there are definitely good ones out there. However there are also some very impressive laptops that are brand new, cheaper, that will perform better, depending on your preferences for software.

Whatever you choose the laptop will definitely become your friend. I bought a case for my laptop, the case is falling part 2 years later, laptop is still going strong, Im thinking about putting a skin on laptop for appearances. I carry my laptop around in a laptop bag in my backpack, along with power cord, wireless internet cards, (I believe original battery has 45min if I use it) and at 200+ pounds, 5'11", I can still tell its definitely there. Laptop - 5-8 pounds?

Good luck!