I’m looking for an inexpensive laptop just for home use. We currently have a Dell desktop that is just over a year old and the motherboard went out. We also have a 5 year old dell inspiron laptop that we use as a backup or when we want to use the internet without sitting in the office. I went to use that this weekend and it died on us too (I think its the hard drive). We are having a friend replace the motherboard in the desktop, but I don’t want to put any more money into the laptop so we are going to replace it.
I want to get something inexpensive and small. We will just keep it in our living room or dining room and use it for going online and paying bills. We won’t really need a very large hard drive. It just has to be decently quick and reliable. I have been looking on dealnews.com and found some toshibas under $350, and HP for $500, and a little 9" acer notebook for $220.
I just have no idea what brand is good. Would the 9" acer be any good? I have heard of the brand but don’t know if they are reliable.
I think the mini laptops are nice, but I wouldn’t want it as a home laptop, I’d use it for travel only. They are still limited in their capabilities and I think you’ll get sick of always looking at a 9" screen.
I have a Toshiba laptop and I like it alot. I got it for I think $400 through Circuit City (RIP)
I have heard that Acer laptops aren’t that great because they use some really low end components, but I don’t have any experience with them to confirm or deny that…
HP and Compaq laptops are usually pretty nice and have a lot of features. Lenovo/IBM are good business laptops but don’t have quite the features.
Also check out techbargains.com, they may have a lot of the same deals as the site you listed, but I know Dell runs a lot of deals on laptops and such, and they seem to be pretty good too.
Me personally I’d probably go with an HP or Toshiba
Odd this thread was posted today. I was going to post a thread pretty much the same. I have a few quetions as well.
Is it worth $40 to upgrade from the Celeron 585 to the Pentium Dual core processor? I will be using the computer for basic home use, internet usage, storing pics/video, randome files, etc.
I know Vista is a joke and Windows 7 is to be released. There is a free upgrade when 7 is released. The catch is you have to have Vista Home premium for the free upgrade, if you have Vista Basic then it is not free.
For a Insperion 1545 I can have it shipped to my door with tax/shipping and vista premium upgrade for $400, I take it this is a good deal?
THe other manufacturers suck. Do a search on here, there are numerous threads about this subject.
If you are looking for a small laptop for internet and email and don’t mind the small screen, the netbooks are decent. If you don’t care about performance then the AMD will do just fine at a lower cost. I would definately upgrade the processor to a dual core for $40 over the celeron, Bics.
Vista works just fine if set up right. Out of the box it is a little sluggish but can be faster than xp with a few things turned off. I have a few computers with Vista and a lot of my customers upgraded to it are they all run well.
i didn’t read shit that anyone wrote, because i dont’ care:
never ever ever celeron… my mini notebook has a C7 processor… it hits 100% loading flash in firefox… is not a processor for multithreading or any sort of actual computing and barely squeaks by running optimal hardware settings. the video driver steals a lot of cpu and RAM cycles. if you are going to sit around and watch youtube all day and movies online, i would not undercut the CPU…
8.9" screen is nice (HP’s have the nicer screens that have the ‘wet’ look) but is way way too small for overall home use… i find myself walking to the back room to use my desktop.
i don’t know about all your windows 7 stuff unless you’re talking about manufacturers copies… which then it could be true. I read that HP is going to offer free upgrades. you can pre-purchse windows 7 home for $50, if you are not running new hardware.
in my past acers will do the deed, but are generally a step behind with technology and are clunkier than other machines. I like my HP 2133… found it online at walmart.com with vendor and store rebates and online deals… ended up being under $290 shipped.
looks nice… shared memory video cards are a lot more common these days… sucks because it steals system RAM for the video, but saves in hardware costs of the machine. If you aren’t going to be gaming or balls out 3-d anything, then you are golden.
If I were looking, I would try to find a comparable HP and see how much of a price difference there is. Dell is tough to work with if there is a problem, HP seems to be a little easier to deal with if an issue comes up.
Yeah, I am completely avoiding Dell from now on. Both computers that we have are Dells. The desktop was a year old when the motherboard died (issue that needs fixed now) and the laptop is already on its second harddrive (which just died). I know that these are not components that Dell actually manufactured, but I am tired of my Dell computers dying so I am going to go with a new brand for a while.
After seeing a few deal out there I am now looking at Core vs Turion processors. I read a few things online and it seems some say the core is better and others say the Turion is better. I found a good deal on a HP with the Turion, 4gb Ram, 320 GB hard drive, 17" screen…for $550.
Everyone has their favorites in terms of brands. We have 2 HP’s here at the business and they are both steaming piles of crap. One went back 3 times for hardware failures in 18 months. Slow as balls, unreliable crap. Some swear by them, i swear AT them.
We have Vaios now and except for one HD failure, they have been golden. However, if i was buying one for myself, i would lean towards that Dell that bics posted the link to.
I only recommend hp and sony because their support is better than the rest. Every company makes a shitty product every now and then but how that company takes care of you is what I look for. Dell used to be the best in tearms of warranty and service support but they have dropped off lately. I hear a ton of horror stories about the lower end brands like acer, toshiba, etc…
Any of the laptops will work for the op and bics needs but if there is a problem with one of them, i would feel bad recommending a cheaper model just to save a few dollars.
You were more fortunate than i was with HP then, they weren’t much help. Sony has been great. Agreed Dell support is a joke. Haven’t dealt with the others as much as you have.
I guess as the price is driven down, the quality is bound to suffer…
my father used to work at a place, and they got 500+ brand new dell desktop computers, within 2 months over 2/3 of them had bad motherboards that needed to be replaced
my father has had 2 dell laptops (supplied by is work) and the first one just failed on him (dont recall what happened) and i believe his second one needed two hard drives replaced on it… and its probably only a year old
We saw it at office depot last night and liked the size of it and I think that I am ready to stop buying Dells and move to HP and see if we like them better.
