MetaChat - Hope me with buying a laptop? (sorry if this is lame)

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07 May 2007

Hope me with buying a laptop? (sorry if this is lame) Long story short, I need a cheap laptop (somewhat) quickly. →[More:]I live in Toronto, I know very little about hardware, and my price range is pretty limited. I need something to work on while I travel for a month.

I'm ok with used/refurbished so long as it's not total garbage...I was told a refurbished IBM Thinkpad is the way to go. I may do this, but I wanted to ask two questions:

1. What am I looking for in a laptop...memory-wise, etc. I honestly know nothing. I will use it for the usual: web, email, word/excel, AND for photoshop work and some web crap (nothing too fancy.

2. Can you think of a better deal than a refurbished Thinkpad? If you say a Mac, I will kill you...tooooooo expensive!

Thanks and hugs in advance!

post by: SassHat at: 19:18 | 4 comments

I know they're not cool anymore, but I'm very happy with the lowest-end dell I bought new for about $450 about a year and a half ago. I use it for web (especially streaming audio), email, word/excel. I also watch the occasional netflix and youtube video on it. It has a 1.40GHz processor and 248MB of RAM. 34.2 gig hard drive. I have not bothered to look up refurbished thinkpads so I don't know if this is a better deal.

posted by JanetLand 07 May | 19:24

I have the same thing as Janet, except double the ram. I bought mine around the same time too. It was around $500 bucks if I remember correctly. Never had a problem with it, although I only use it a few days of the week.

posted by puke & cry 07 May | 20:17

I would second that. I am actually looking at used ibooks from the local Apple Store. I am sure they must have a good one of those in Toronto.

I would think a gig of ram would be good. A half gig would be bare bones, at this point. 1.40GHz processor, also would be the minimum.

Dell has some offers now, on low end Inspirons.

posted by danf 07 May | 20:33

SassHat - what do you need the laptop for? It'll be easier to offer suggestions if you give a ballpark estimate of what type of software you're planning to run, whether you'll use this at home or elsewhere. Were you planning to install a certain OS on it? Do you need to use this for writing reports, or mixing music? Are you willing to settle for something that plays CDs, or do you think you'll have to record as well? Play DVD movies? That sort of thing. A general price range can open up (or limit) your available options.

posted by Smart Dalek 08 May | 08:18

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