[maggiethecat]

I want to purchase a laptop, most probably used,but I haven't a clue how to begin knowing which one is best.
I've tried a few of my friend's but I am still not sure what to look for.
I'm not going to be doing anything fancy, like desktop publishing, but I would like to be able to see DVDs, and use floppies, and when online not fall asleep while waiting for a download.
Oh, and something not too heavy,since I'm a 120lb weakling!
I would appreciate any and all suggestions... Thanks! :)

[psi42]

I'm not lucky enough to own a laptop :) , but I have heard good things about IBM laptops--they are supposedly much better constructed than others.

Be sure not to end up buying a really old laptop that the seller tries to convince you is all you will need. There is someone on eBay selling pentium 100 (very old) laptops for $200! ;D

and when online not fall asleep while waiting for a download.

That depends on your internet service, not your laptop. If you are using dial-up internet like me, your downloads will be slow. If you have high-speed internet, you will be able to download large files very very quickly. I assume there is a way to hook up a laptop to high-speed internet, but I am not sure. :)

I recommend you get at least a 1 Ghz processor, and AT LEAST 128 MB of RAM. You could probably get away with less than 1Ghz, but if you want to run bloated programs (windows) at an acceptable speed, you'll want something as fast as you can get.

You can cut $100-200 off the price if you don't buy windows, but only do that if you are sure you can live without it. :)


Good luck in your laptop search! :)


~psi42

[elina]

maggiethecat, hi, yeah, psi42 is right. I recommend buying a laptop with at least a 1GHz P4 and 128MB of memory. There are tons of deals advertised everywhere, both online and offline... and especially with all those rebates. Of course, be careful, though, when it comes to rebates. You still would have to pay the original price like $1,400, for example, and then, after mail-in rebates difference, the price tag goes down to something like, $900 or so. For a really good brand, I recommend brand names like Dell (excellent support), Toshiba, and IBM, too. The others like HP, Compact are pretty good, but HP support sucks, charging you for 1 (20 minnutes) live support tech phone call at least $25 or more. (it was $25.00 when I called 7 years ago), and HP puts you on hold, too, even up to 2 or 3 hrs. HP customer/tech support is totally horrendous! God, I want to pull my hair out.. uugh! >:(. And the thing with Compact , there calls are almost as bad as HP, but the thing is I hate their BIOS updates. It weaks havoc with the PC or laptop. It was even worse 5 years ago.. ehhee.. but if you really want to compare prices--at street prices, you might want to try www.pricewatch.com, www.discountlaptops.com, www.laptopcomputer-usa.com, and www.half.com. I like www.half.com because it's got excellent reviews and excellent deals on new and used laptops. In fact, I bought a $450 500MHz, 128MB , 12GHz DELL Latitude Cpx laptop with all the needed ports there. The Latitude doesn't have a DVD-ROM but I got DVD-ROM on my main PC, anyway. Me, I would try out www.half.com (owned by E-BAY) first for its superb reviews. Happy Shopping! :D