Looking for a laptop

the older Macs (before 2006) like the one you mentioned were significantly less powerful than other brand notebooks released at the same time due to the slower and less efficient processors used.

Based on the class of notebook you're looking at, you might want to consider getting a more recent netbook, such as the Asus Eee, Dell Mini 9, MSI Wind, etc.

Unfortunately, notebooks in general aren't very reliable long-term (according to a Consumer Reports article I saw, at least 15% of people have significant problems with their notebooks, across all the brands they studied), and buying an older notebook means that it's more likely that if it does have problems, there won't be any replacement parts available.

However, older notebooks are inexpensive and would meet your needs. You just cannot really guarantee their reliability.

the best way to find out is by asking around for people's opinions of their notebooks and buy a model that a lot of people still like. I've had a Sony and an Asus. I still have the Asus and I like it, but I haven't owned a Dell or an Apple, so I can't say from personal experience. However, I'd recommend the Dell over the Apple because it's more powerful.

I don't remember the exact model number of the Sony, but it came with a 500 Mhz AMD CPU and it ran Windows ME. It was also quite fragile- the screen cracked one time I picked it up by the lid. And the battery died rapidly and cost in excess of $200 to fix. I was not very satisfied with the Sony because it had problems whenever I tried to play a DVD, even though the notebook came with a DVD drive. There were also several problems I had with using the computer, at least some of which involved the operating system, which had a tendency to constantly reboot for no apparent reason.

My current computer is an Asus Z71V. I bought it in April of 2005. There was an issue with the original batteries shipped with the notebook that they would stop charging around halfway. I replaced three batteries for this issue, all covered under warranty, before Asus fixed it. Within the last few months, my motherboard spontaneously went kaput and took my video card with it, which cost me just over $350 to replace them both, since my warranty had expired. However, despite those issues, I have found it performs quite satisfactorily in everything I've used it for, from video encoding to playing games and watching video to word processing and spreadsheets to burning discs, etc. So I would recommend Asus as a brand.

my personal good old used, and still running, laptops: hp n5470, emachines m6805, iBook, ibm a21 .....

cheers ...

For $350 you can get a pretty decent machine. The D610's we use at work run a second monitor and usually two or three low impact programs at once. It would work good for what you want to do. The B120 is about the same as the D610 as far as specs. It does have a widescreen format monitor though. The B120 works good for me as a short trip machine hooks up to the internet word processing occasional movie. Over all a good machine just very basic. I have an e1705 that I am currently upgrading that I absolutely love but it is a little higher price then you were looking. If you can get a D610 for $200 from a reputable source that sounds like a good deal...good solid machine.

The D610 as far as I know has a native resolution of 1400x1050 which is a 4:3 aspect ratio(not wide screen). Not that you can't display other resolution but with LCD's it is often complicated to stray from that. The B120 has a resolution of 1280x800 which is a 16:10 aspect ratio, a bit off from the standard 16:9 widescreen but close enough to count.

The B120 would deffinetly do the things you mentioned. I might add though that they do not usualy come with WiFi. The B130 which I do not have does have WiFi and it also has a larger screen. The B120 has a large bezel that on the B130 is filled with a larger screen. Don't want to recomend a laptop I have never seen but as far as I know they are the same other than those two things.

As for upgrades those pricees don't look great. You can get 2 1GB Ram chip from newegg.com for $30. Warrenties are completly up to you. I tend to stay away from them but...thats me. Hope this helps!

Sorry I missed the part about the apple. I am not a big fan of apple. My father has a G3 desktop and if the G3 laptops are anything like that then I would stay away. My father payed I think like $1500 dollors for his 8 years ago...I think and they now sell for $60. The technolagy in an 8 year old computer is the same as what I was putting in Windows computers 10 to 15 years ago. I upgraded his memory with some out of a realy old PC I had laying around. I know they have come along way but the G3's are pretty old.

what would be so wrong with a brand new netbook?

Im typing on a Samsung NC10, cost was.....crap cant remember, but heres the link.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834131015

Errr, I dont recall paying 500 for it.


But an Asus EEE1000, or MSI wind (anything with the 10 inch screen) would be perfect for what you want to do

A bezel is the plastic that trims out the screen.The D610 you are looking at on Ebay does look good but as with everything on Ebay there is always a risk. The expansions slots they are refering to is for a PCMICA card used to add components to the computer eg. network card, modem, drives, card readers and more. PCMICA is in general becoming less used do to USB and other better ways of adding components so yes what it has is fine. I hope this answers your question.

ok

then try this

take your 350, put it down towards a dell, or from the outlet, finance the remaining 200-ish dollars

now you have a super new machine, and not something that will break or be hard to fix on your hands