i'm torn between two laptops and I don't know which one is best for my needs!?

Question

One Laptop is an Everex Stepnote NC1502 it's got 1.5MGZ 80GB and 512 MB of Ram, IEEE 802.11b/g wireless LAN and it has 15.4 display and a C7-M processor and it's $498.00 the other is a Toshiba Satellite a105-S2236 it hasalmost the same exact features except it's got an M Celeron 520 Processor,1.6MGZ, Atheros 802.11b/g WLAN and a Super-Multi DVD drive dual layer, but it's $656.00, I also need Office 2007 for my schoolwork and thats $149.00 so I really cannot afford to buy the pricier one, but am I sacrificing something by buying the cheaper Laptop? I really only need the laptop for school work, surfing the web(having mutiple windows open at the same time) and I will have Wireless DSL Internet so is it better to go to the cheaper one or the more expensive one?
Here is the link to the Everex
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5673667

The Toshiba:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5673667

any help would be much appreciated!!!!

Answer 1

I would recomend the toshiba because they have been on the market longer than the everex ones so.....

Answer 2

I would say neither, cause the first one is a brand that is no so much heard of, you wouldn't want to spend that much money only to learn that the laptop got spoilt in a few days. Celeron isn't a good processor either.
Try not saving on the processor, get a good processor - a pentium for the least, also make sure you have a good sizable RAM, 512 MB for the least. Hard disk you can go for a smaller one.
There are plenty of online offers for HP, IBM may not be Toshiba, but these 2 are much better than Toshiba. HP doesnt have that many printing issues as far as printing from color images is concerned.
Most of them come with a free version of COREL word which functions similar to MS Word and Excel.

Answer 3

Why be stuck between these two brands. There is an Acer Aspire 3100 model for $599 at Buy.com. Specs: Acer Aspire 3100-1868 Notebook - AMD Sempron 3400+ 1.8GHz - 15.4 WXGA - 512MB DDR2 SDRAM - 80GB - DVD-Writer (DVD-RAM/ R/ RW) - Wi-Fi Fast Ethernet - Windows Vista Home Basic. I would add another 512 mb of ram to run more efficiently. And forget Windows 2007. Download Openoffice (openoffice.org) which is free and does basically same thing as Office, or Star Office 8 from Sun Microsystems at $70. Acer has been around a long time (bought from them back in the early 90s as a reseller).

Answer 4

Kerisa, both are excellent nachines BUT the day you upgrade or trade-in or sell your laptop TOSHIBA is a BIG BIG plus over a relatively unknown brand.

Go for the Toshiba if you can afford it. HOWEVER, there is another problem.

You stated that you wanted to have multi tasks on your hard drive. If this is very important to you then you should spend an hour at your local dealer (not Walmart, they don't have them)
asking what his BEST price for a DUAL CORE PC.

DUAL CORE means you can have more and faster tasks on your PC, which, as a student, you likely would.

DUAL CORE is the latest and best new addition to computers.

And, if you rteally can afford $650 you should start to bargain hard with a dealer who CAN, if he wants to give you dual core PLUS VISTA PREMIUM, instead of lousy BASIC.

BASIC will leave you yearnibg for all those nice things that PREMIUM can do and it only costs the dealer a few bucks more.

DRIVE a hard bargain. Get one of your thrifty classmates to help you. If you know a used car dealer as a friend he will go into that dealer andget you an even better deal because they use ADVANCED BUYING SKILLS that nobody else know.

Good luck and let's here what you finally get. I think you deserve the best !

Answer 5

I own an Everex NC1500 and it is almost identical to the 1502. Before I bought it, I researched Everex and found out they have been in business since the 80's. Also, Via has been making chipsets, other than CPU's for a long time. For my money, I'd tell you to go with the Everex, it should do everything you need if you're only planning to use it for schoolwork.

Answer 6

You probably know this but make sure you get the student edition of MS Office 2007 it should run you about $140 or 190 depending upon edition.
Home and student is cheaper but you can get more features for a few dollars more because you are a student.

Your school should know authorized vendors or check with the MS office website

Answer 7

mmmm, i wouldn't think that you need office 2007 at all, I use open office (what microsoft copied in the first place) though you should be able to use office 2003 just as well with out too much noteable difference, and i think you mean ghz not mhz otherwise you would go no where with XP =) to be honest though i would say that toshiba would be the better bet just because of the brand being more reliable.

by the way open office is free, virus free and downloadable at openoffice.org

Answer 8

You have to first realize what your using the laptop for. You say for schoolwork, then the cheaper laptop is your best bet. If you can get a good deal on a laptop with dual core processors (for multi-tasking) then go for it. Save the expensive model for gaming purposes only.

Answer 9

what do you need the laptop for? is it to do homework, get a smaller laptop for less money, go to toshiba they have good laptops for 600-700 dollars. If you are using it for designing, graphics and advertising you need a bigger laptop with more memory, more ram, good video cards ect... first figure out what you need it for, and do your reserach.

Answer 10

No, the cheaper one is more than adequate for you.
The difference in processor speed is negligible!
And both have the same wireless speed.