Right out of college I bought a brand new car. I had my thrill but I'll never do it again because cars depreciate so much in the first few years. Last year I bought a 3-year old Land Cruiser for about $35K (which sold for $60K new). I love it. Anyway, is it a smart idea to buy a used laptop? I have a desktop computer (HP Pentium 4, 2.53 GHz, 512 RAM) that works fine and I actually like the speed better than an HP Compaq NC6000 laptop which I sometimes use (and all I know about that baby is it has an M processor). Anyway, I want to add a used laptop to help me do business when I travel and mostly for surfing. I've got a budget of about $300 but I figure I'll probably have to bump that up to $400 or $500 to get something that's okay. Don't need a whole lot of storage for files. Do want built-in wifi capability. I'm a big ebay shopper too. What can I buy? Is my budget too low? What minimum specs should I look for considering my needs? What's your favorite beer?
2006-07-11 19:14:51 · 3 answers · asked by carademenzo 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Laptops & Notebooks
Honestly a PIII 1GHz, 256MB RAM would work fine for email and surfing. Watch out for used laptops cause a bad battery could cost you another $100+. I would get an entry level Dell for $500, you'd get a warranty too.
2006-07-11 19:32:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Used cars and used laptops are waaay different. The 2005 civic isn't half as powerful as the 2006 civic, but a top-of-the-line laptop you buy today will be nowhere near top-of-the-line after a year has passed.
Minimum, bare bones specs should be: a 30 gb hard drive, 256 mb RAM, running Windows 2000 or newer.
If you are using the internet and travelling, stay clear of Pentium 3 or 4 processors because they are heavier, run hotter, and drain battery life faster.
A gently used laptop isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I'm sure you can find them on eBay, but a year in computer terms is like 8 years in car terms, so be cautious in the used market.
2006-07-11 19:32:48 · answer #2 · answered by im.in.college.so.i.know.stuff 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I bought one at Fry's for about $500 with built in wifi.
2006-07-11 19:19:53 · answer #3 · answered by Not Tellin 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋