Hi all, I'm a newbie to laptops so please forgive for what may seem stupid questions. I'm looking for a reasonably reliable laptop purely for study, no games. I'll be using a voice activated typing and mouse program, SPSS statistics programs and obviously Excel etc. and researching the internet. I've got a PEntium 2 that's on its last legs and I need to replace it pretty quickly. Any thoughts? Thanks Z
advice for secondhand laptops needed
- Thread starter zahira1
- Start date
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2002
- Messages
- 5,273
How much money do you want to spend, how big a screen? Voice activated typing, seems to me, took more then an Athlon 1.4 gig processor, last time I tried it.
Anyone else given it a shot? What are you using the voice activated typing program on, currently?
s
Anyone else given it a shot? What are you using the voice activated typing program on, currently?
s
blakerwry
Storage? I am Storage!
I would stick with a name brand, being a student on a budget I would suggest Compaq/HP/Dell.
All of their laptops seem to be middle of the road with regard to quality and are competitively priced. IBM would likely be out of your price range.
For an affordable laptop I would suggest 256-512MB RAM, a Pentium/Celeron M processor, onboard video/audio/sound and don't forget a CD-R drive and integrated wireless. If you need more RAM you can almost always upgrade later for cheaper by buying after market Crucial RAM. The base model screen/display is probably where you want to go, it won't give you the best viewing angles or highest resolution, but it should be fine for the tasks you indicate and will be the cheaper option.
You might start looking on bensbargains.net to see if they have any good deals, they usually highlight atleast one laptop deal from a name brand every week. If that doesn't turn up any gems you can look at the Dell outlet for a refurbished laptop and compare it to the price you could get on a new unit. You'll likely save $50-$100 by buying a refurbished unit and my friends and myself have had good experiences with them.
All of their laptops seem to be middle of the road with regard to quality and are competitively priced. IBM would likely be out of your price range.
For an affordable laptop I would suggest 256-512MB RAM, a Pentium/Celeron M processor, onboard video/audio/sound and don't forget a CD-R drive and integrated wireless. If you need more RAM you can almost always upgrade later for cheaper by buying after market Crucial RAM. The base model screen/display is probably where you want to go, it won't give you the best viewing angles or highest resolution, but it should be fine for the tasks you indicate and will be the cheaper option.
You might start looking on bensbargains.net to see if they have any good deals, they usually highlight atleast one laptop deal from a name brand every week. If that doesn't turn up any gems you can look at the Dell outlet for a refurbished laptop and compare it to the price you could get on a new unit. You'll likely save $50-$100 by buying a refurbished unit and my friends and myself have had good experiences with them.
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2002
- Messages
- 5,273
I recently purchased a CF-51 for 1100 dollars, to replace an aging CF-37 366 mhz, both Panasonic Toughbooks.
You might ebay for a Panasonic. Anyway, for regular functions, not including voice activated typing software, I found 600 mhz was adequate for just about all functions, with 1.25 gigs of ram.
The only way I could get the Pentium M to go to 1.6 ghz, was to open a ton of video stuff, and play it all at once...
s
You might ebay for a Panasonic. Anyway, for regular functions, not including voice activated typing software, I found 600 mhz was adequate for just about all functions, with 1.25 gigs of ram.
The only way I could get the Pentium M to go to 1.6 ghz, was to open a ton of video stuff, and play it all at once...
s
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
Never buy a secondhand laptop.
They are too expensive, and for all practical purposes non-upgradable and unrepairable. Bad idea. Buy a new one, from a quality maker (IBM, Fujitsu, NEC, etc.) with a 3-year factory warranty (less is madness), or go without.
They are too expensive, and for all practical purposes non-upgradable and unrepairable. Bad idea. Buy a new one, from a quality maker (IBM, Fujitsu, NEC, etc.) with a 3-year factory warranty (less is madness), or go without.