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Cheap Laptop

post #1 of 12
10/16/06 at 6:48pm
Thread Starter 
Hey guys,

A friend of mine needs a laptop. But her budget is very tight. I am still researching what would be best for her. Have you a suggestion what I could look into?

Many Thanks
Houman
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post #2 of 12
10/16/06 at 8:36pm
what are her requirements for the laptop? ideal screen, processor type/speed, HDD space, give us some more info plz.
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post #3 of 12
10/17/06 at 10:16am
Thread Starter 
hi Mech,

Well, she is a newbe in computers. She doesn't really know what is important. All she is intested in is writing her articles etc. She mentioned that high Battery life and lighter weight would be good and if possible but not neccessary a bigger screen as well. She also is interested in watching DVDs on it when she is bored or listening to music.

I would like to recommend something that would last a while and be fast and reliable enough for normal use.

I was thinking first about Dell 6400 with 512 Dell ram and ordering seperately 1 GB Ram from somewhere else and sell the 512 MB on Ebay. Or maybe even Inspiron 1300...not sure if it is really worth it...

Many thanks for your help,
Houman
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post #4 of 12
10/17/06 at 10:29am
An Alienwae Sentia m3450 would also be great for what she wants. That's what I have and really like it. Theres a few notebooks from other companies that are similar. Lots of power and battery life in a little package. With an 80GB HDD, 2GB RAM, 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo and the Dual layer DVD/CD-RW it cost me $1,200. 14" widescreen though, I love it, but you said she wanted a bigger screen. The 14" widescreens aren't too much smaller than the 15".
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post #5 of 12
10/17/06 at 11:02am
I suggest simple platform for a beginner to pratice with will be good and save money:
- Celeron 1.2GHz+ Processor
- 512MB RAM
- 40GB HDD
- CD-ROM or RW
-OEM WinXP

With those specs she should able to find a cheap laptop and capable with that she needs, and able to do all kinds of office works.
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post #6 of 12
10/17/06 at 11:13am
If she wants something lighter and she is on a tight budget I would go for a 14" screen b/c 12"/13" seem to be more expensive and IMO 15" would be bigger than she wants. Like the above poster said stick with some older tech, especially if she isn't doing anything exstensive.

Look at E1405 in Dell outlet or a 14" B120 in Dell outlet. Also put a post in the FS section of what you want it seems like a lot of decent/lower end laptops get moved in there for low prices.

One final place to look would be CompUSA/Office Max type places, sometimes they have decent deals for 400/500 dollar notebooks that would work fine for her. IDK what her budget is but I am assuming it is in the sub $1k range.
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post #7 of 12
10/17/06 at 7:09pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks for your comments guys.

First I think Alienware is one of the more expensive laptops on the market and she won't be able to afford it.

But this is a great idea to have a look on the outlets. I totally forgot about them!! Btw I should have mentioned that I live in UK and so does she. Her budget is about 500 pounds (sub $1000). She says she is willing to pay 600 pounds, but I can see she is not really up for that.

BTW I have found this offer, what do you think?

DELL Inspirion 1300

PROCESSORIntel® Celeron® M Processor 380 (1.60 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 400 MHz FSB)

SUPPORT SERVICESCollect & Return, 90 Day Service only

LCD15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280x800) TFT Display

MEMORY1024MB 533MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x512)

HARD DRIVE80GB (5,400rpm) Hard Drive

Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW with Software

PRIMARY BATTERY6 Cell, 56Whr Lithium Ion Primary Battery

WIRELESS CONNECTIVITYFor Celeron® M Processors - Dell™ Wireless 1370 802.11b/g Mini PCI Card

£452(Includes VAT & Shipping)

Thanks
Houman
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post #8 of 12
10/18/06 at 10:05am
Man.. 600 pounds you can almost get Core Duo Centrino laptop.. I can say she had a good budget. Well the simple way is to look on PC mags that specialize on laptops. I bought my Acer Aspire 5612WLMi for £624 (walk-in shop) and the specs are listed on my sig below.
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post #9 of 12
10/18/06 at 5:45pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by NEX_SASIN
Man.. 600 pounds you can almost get Core Duo Centrino laptop.. I can say she had a good budget. Well the simple way is to look on PC mags that specialize on laptops. I bought my Acer Aspire 5612WLMi for £624 (walk-in shop) and the specs are listed on my sig below.
This is exaqctly what I am saying. It pisses me off everytime over and over again, when a friend is asking me for advice and has set the budget on a chosen exact amount but for 100 more and you would get much much better built. Then I ask myself is that 1/6 less money really worth it to buy a crappy system? It is no real saving in this sense either.... BTW where did you buy your ACer and are you happy with it?
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post #10 of 12
10/19/06 at 9:45am
I bought my Acer in UK, i'm not happy with it because i can't get upgrade my onboard graphic to dedicated Geforce 7800GTX, i thought the customer service doesn't want to do any job until i send my laptop to thier workshop.. Well i know the CPU is upgradable to Core 2 Duo and they just don't wanna.. Some guys told me Acer's mainboard is quite fixed.. So making upgrades is impossible on some models. But for performance, is great.. Better then Acer TravelMate 4150 ALOT!
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post #11 of 12
10/19/06 at 6:15pm
Thread Starter 
Hmm never thought about an Acer laptop. Upgradeable shouldn't matter to her.

What do you guys think about this model
Aspire 1642ZWLMi
genuine Windows® XP Home Edition , Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology with Pentium M 735A
(1.7GHz, 400MHz FSB, 2Mb L2 Cache), 15.4”WXGA CrystalBrite TFT Display, Intel® 915GM
integrated 3D graphics with up to 128MB (shared) memory, DVD-Dual double layer drive, 80GB Hard
Disk, 1024MB (2*512) DDR II (2*256) RAM, 4-Cell Li-Ion Battery, 10/100 Fast Ethernet, Intel®
PRO/Wireless 2200BG, Acer Gridvista, Acer Arcade, Microsoft® Works

for only 439 pounds.


or this here for 539 pounds:


Aspire 5612WLMi
genuine Windows® XP Home Edition , Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2300 (2 MB L2 cache, 1.66GHz,
667 MHz FSB), 15.4”WXGA Acer CrystalBrite™ TFT LCD, Intel 945GM integrated 3D graphics,
featuring Intel GMA 950 and up to 224MB of shared memory), 80GB 5,400 rpm hard disk drive, 1GB
(2*512MB) of DDR2 533MHz memory, DVD-SuperMulti Double-layer, Fast Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g
WLAN, MS-Works


Thanks
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post #12 of 12
10/20/06 at 9:42am
Aspire 1642ZWMLi is kinda slow. But Oh! Mine one Aspire 5612WLMi i say is powerful enought for all kinds of application.

But for her. I think Aspire 1642ZWMLi is enought. Be expect that it can't handle Windows Vista. Is up to her to decide whather she want to pay £100 more for more powerful or she'll happy with the cheaper one.

EDIT: Just another thing, Acer comes with alot junk softwares that will hog system recources, if she bought one just help her uninstall those junks Another thing is, if you have a good look on zento thread what i discuss about Ultra cheap laptops you can have a look on http://www.notebookforums.com/thread178539.html (Err, revalent cheap on gaming sorts laptop..)
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