I have no idea how to pick a laptop...HELP!?

Question

I am a college student who needs to buy a laptop. Needless to say, an impoverished student like me needs an inexpensive one! Probably under $500. I mainly just need to write papers and play some music on it. I have no idea how to go about picking a good one though, as I know nothing about memory and ram and hard drives...please help me!

Answer 1

Even the cheapest laptop should serve your needs, but too cheap would not have reliability, service and will break easily.

One place to look is Staples. They do offer extended warantee, but they also offer an excellent return policy. They prefer to serve the customer MORE than they serve their vendors. So they simply can't afford to sell you CRAP. I would steer you toward a Toshiba, but it won't be under $500. But look at their models, they probably have a Lenovo or Acer that comes close.

Good luck and Happy Computing!

Answer 2

I am going thru the same issue in my attempt to buy a laptop. I suggest you look for a n hp pavilion w/ an AMD Turion dual core processor, that means you can run several programs at the same time w/ little slow down. I prefer those to Intel processors. You'll want at least 512MB ram & 80 GB HD that way you don't have to worry about running out of room for a little while. Look for 1.8GHZ speed or better. Try to get min.15" monitor to reduce eye strain. There are plenty of add ons to think about such as wireless network cards, high capacity batteries,mic/webcam, etc. But if you goi in with these terms you'll have a head start & can haggle a little as to what wil be best for you. Oh if you get Windows XP options get Pro or Media ( Pro preferably). I'm no techno geek by far but the last few weeks have really helped my cpu vocab... Happy hunting!! PS try to buy direct from the maker to get the best price & support (both pre- & post-purchase)

Answer 3

Go to Dell.com and browse the laptops there. Since you are in college you probably want a light weight one. Dell shows your the weight. Here is the cheapest laptop: http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/inspn_1501?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

You can configure from the cheapest one to get a good and cheap laptop for your needs. Here is what I would suggest:

If you have the money go up to 1 GB of RAM (may be called SDRAM; same thing)


Enjoy

Answer 4

Dell.com has a 15.4 on wide screen inspiron 1501 has the new amd turion64 which runs excellent comes with512 memory which is pretty good don't get one with less memory than that.the 1501 comes with a256 graphics card which speeds up the computer even more. Plus has a wireless card with it already so If your college has a wifi area you'll be ready to jump right on line.It also has a CD burner DVD player.all for about 529.oo you can apply for a credit acct. with payment at about 29.00 a month.

Answer 5

You can't get a good one under $500 unless you hit a good half-off sale, so you are stuck with a Dell or an HP. Good luck. I'd buy a MacBook pro... runs both Windows and Mac - the best laptop around.

Answer 6

I would go with a refurbished one to keep the cost down. You can try IBM Certified Used Equipment at www.ibm.com. You're pretty much going to be limited to what you can pick for $500. You can really keep it simple:

Pentium 4: (Any speed)
RAM: 512MB
Hard Disk 40GB or greater

There's not a whole lot you can do for $500.

Answer 7

Price should not be your first consideration. Put your needs first. I'd really recommend Apple. Macbooks can usually be had for $1000, and they're really high quality. You can go get a $500 clunker, but you're going to regret it. You pay for what you get.

Answer 8

if you just need it for music and papers, I reccomend a harddrive with either 512mb to 1gb of ram, (1gb will be more expensive).
now for the harddrive:since your useing it mainly for music, you want to make sure you have enough room for all of your music. so depending on how much music you have, heres a simple way to figure it out:
1 song = about 5mb
1000mb = gb
so you can fit at least 200 songs on every gb of your harddrive.
This means that if you have about 2000 songs, you would want atleast 10gb of room on your harddrive for your music. and you want atleast 20gb of room on your harddrive for programs (such as windows, microsoft word, etc....)
So for the harddrive size I would say nothing less than a 40gb harddrive, but a 60gb harddrive should be the best for you. and dont worry about word documents, they take up very little room so you dont have to worry about them takeing up alot of your harddrive memory.

Ignore what that guys saying, 500$ is fine to spend on a laptop for what you need! it doesnt have to be super fast to type and play music.

Heres some good laptops for you:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1873384&Sku=G153-MX6625
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1904159&Sku=M975-5000
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1862770&Sku=G153-MX3563

Answer 9

Get one with at least a 1.2ghz processer, at least 256mb of RAM, and at least a 30-40gb harddrive.

Answer 10

If you have no idea about computer stuff like RAM or something i have one rule for you: The more numbers the better. =)