I am looking for a laptop. The only thing I will be using it for is to take to school, and go online. Nothing fancy. I will most likely be buying it used, but what are some good brands to go with? Is there any to stay away from? I am clueless about this stuff. I am looking to spend like $300-$400. Is this possible? Any help would be appriciated. Thanks.
Don’t get a gateway. Mine sucks and its super slow. It also overheats alot. Did I mention it’s just months old?
just got this for GF + 1 gig of ram.
My HP laptop is working flawlessly, my girls is in the mail riiight now
I recommend that no matter which laptop you buy, get the 3 year warranty.
Try to find a core2duo system, and stay away from celerons.
1GB RAM is fine. If you want more later, you can buy another 1GB stick for about $30.
My Acer laptop has been running strong for almost 5 years now. Fuck the warranty
A warranty s allways good, but it might be a lot more, so id say screw it. In that price range, you dont have much choice. Just find one that isnt 40 years old and 20 lbs.
My mom picked up a really nice Dell laptop around Black Friday time for something like 499 for my step dad.
Check Dell.com and search for coupons, they have deals and I am sure you could get a new one for that price.
like one of the posters above said, stay away from celeron processors. get a dual core processor. also, if you get a computer with vista, make sure there’s 2gb of memory in it. 1gb will make it run real slow.
dont buy toshiba’s, acer or gateway.
buy a dell, hp or apple
Decent start build prices at:
www.dell.com/epp
Skip the area where it asks for employer info, etc.
$300-400 won’t get you much. It hardly covers the cost of the extended warranty. Want something decent, budget at least $1000
Dells are fucking cheap. I have a XPS M140 less then a year old. Flimsy POS
Lenovo or IBM makes one of the most solid and reliable around.
Even the non-thinkpad Lenovos are really decent for a budget laptop, sadly you’re paying for a windows license and that makes kansei sad 
Dell at least lets you option laptops with Ubuntu or FreeDOS --but I don’t know if that’s only on their Latitude line or on comsumer laptops as well.
In the 300-400 range you can get a decent used Thinkpad, check http://forum.thinkpads.com
If you did want to go used I have some dells… for 400 it would be 1.7GHz Pentium-M Dothan processor, 512MB-1GB ram, 40-80GB hard drive, 1400x1050 14" screen, built-in WiFi, etc.
What do you want to use it for? If you just go online and type shit in word and dont download massive amounts of pornography in widnows, then a $400 laptop is fine. But its going to be slow… real slow. The screen will look like shit, and its going to have poor battery life and likely be a heavy huge POS.
For something decent, it starts at $800, and goes to around $1200 for a macbook, wich most people love even if they think they wont…
I’m honestly not that impressed with Lenovo / IBM lately. Really hard to get customer support with them and not as much in the means of options.
Lenovo is their entry level systems and ThinkPad is their higher end systems.
I still do like Dell Latitudes and HP notebooks. Mac is ok, but $
Mister whenever your ready to come over and help me find that Dell.
thats good advice right there.
I have a dell inspiron 1520. works perfect. Ive taken it apart a few times too, seems to be fine to me. although the TIM used all over it is kinda crappy, but any computer from a major retailer is like that i suppose. Dell makes nice laptops for very cheap. I would say save at least $600 or youll be very disappointed.
a used macbook for 300-400? please, find me one and I will buy it. Mac-wise, the best you will do for that price is an ibook g4/ibook pro g4(not that its a bad thing). I have an ibook g4 and its great for surfing the web and what not.
that eee pc is awesome if u just need internet/email access and basic office functions tho. Even ibooks and macbooks are pretty heavy to carry in a backpack all day.
Word… My MBP gets heavy sometimes. But i carry it with me daily, so i got used to it.