Buying a Laptop!

[Freddy Schurr]

I want to get a laptop and would like to get some help from the CD community on what I should buy.

Here's my situation!

I am a college student looking to spend around $700 to $900 dollars. I would like to have this laptop to last for a good 5 to 7 years.

Any recommendations?

[Katie Reynolds]

What do you want to be able to do with your laptop?

Here are a few posts that discuss specs and prices for different computers, though they're all at least few months old now:

laptop
New Cybersoinics Computer
computer shopping Is this a good computer?

[Greg Marra]

There is one very important detail to consider when purchasing a computer:

What will the primary use be?

If you are buying a computer for word processing and using the Internet, you have a different set of needs than someone buying a laptop for programming a robot, who has a different set of needs than someone buying a laptop to frag everyone in Doom 3. Will this be your primary computer, or complimenting a desktop?

Also, 5 to 7 years is a very optimistic lifespan to have for a laptop. If you want to avoid having to drop a ton of money every 3-4 years on a laptop, consider buying a cheap one now, and a cheap one in 3 years. The laptop you buy 3 years from now will be light years ahead of anything you can get now, and you can give the old laptop to a family member who doesn't need any extra power.

There's a lot of things to consider when purchasing a computer.

[Freddy Schurr]

The computer would be mainly use for word processing and using the Internet.

[Billfred]

Given those parameters, I'd look at a refurbished MacBook. (Look on the lower-right part of Apple's online store--the refurbished section is a little hard to find.) Apple's refurbished gear is good as new, from my experiences; I've bought two items as such (one Mac mini, one 5G iPod), and you'd never know they weren't brand new once you hide the box.

There's a base-model MacBook for $899. If you've got a little extra money to spend, I'd look at buying more RAM to upgrade with (you can do fine with 512, but getting at least a gig is nice).

Treat it right, and it'll certainly reach the five-year mark.

[efoote868]

well, today was the day to buy a laptop... best buy and circuit city had them on sale for $250 and $300 respectively.

I would recommend (if at all possible) you wait to get the laptop until vista comes out (i don't think you could buy a mac for $700-900). If not, when making the purchase, see if they'll upgrade you to vista for free, or cheaply.

If you're at college (and you probably know this), don't buy any software from the computer stores until you check out what your college sells. Chances are you can get the software for free, or heavily discounted.

Upgrading a laptop imho is a pain. Don't buy the cheaper one with hopes to install another/different disk drive, or hard drive.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally Posted by Freddy Schurr

The computer would be mainly use for word processing and using the Internet.

That's it?

Presidian Personal Internet Communicator.

I may actually pick one of these up for myself in the future for the very same purposes.

That's pretty much all you can do with a 10gb hard drive nowadays anyways.

But. then again, did you mean computer, or laptop?

I bought my Dell Inspiron 8100 Laptop on ebay as well for $650 about 4 years ago and have had reletively no problems with it (except replacing the keyboard that i broke) and buying some extra batteries, and a CD/RW drive.
It was used, but I took a chance and it has proven to be a good one.

If you have time to shop around, ebay is a good bet.

[mtaman02]

Dells Warehouse has some pretty good deals they have everything from brand new laptops sent back to them that are refurbished / used once and sent back / dents and dings. Basically if people do not want their dells they send it back to dell so that it can be reselled after all appropriate repairs are made.

[Freddy Schurr]

I'm looking for a laptop for school work and also Internet. What laptops you think I should at! I am willing to spend up to $980 but thats it.

[Schnabel]

If you want to go with Mac (Highly recommended if you want it to last a while), go for the newest refurbished MacBook that you can find. (P.S. the link is in the lower left, not the lower right).

If you want to go with a PC (won't last too long) I would suggest a Toshiba as they will last a bit longer than most.

[SamC]

Just to help everyone out here is the link to the Referbished Apple Products section.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Schnabel

If you want to go with a PC (won't last too long) I would suggest a Toshiba as they will last a bit longer than most.

This statement is disingenuous at best. Macs do not last longer because they're Macs. If all he wants to do is word processing, any computer will last for years, PC or not. It's not like the system requirements for Firefox, IE, MS Office, etc are going to be increasing enough in the next 5 years to make a difference. Some manufacturers do have better build quality than others, but you get what you pay for, and as long as you aren't abusing it, the odds of having your laptop survive past it's usable lifespan are pretty good.

You like Macs. That's great. But just because you don't like PC's doesn't mean that they're going to fall apart 6 months after you buy one.

[Ian Curtis]

He said we wanted something cheaper than $980 and Apple doesn't currently have a refurbished laptop for less than that price... Well, you could buy one on ebay (that's where I got my powerbook) but it's probably too much of a hassle judging by what you want to do Freddy.

I'd suggest just getting a cheap Dell laptop (as much as it hurts me as a Mac user).

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Cory

This statement is disingenuous at best. Macs do not last longer because they're Macs. If all he wants to do is word processing, any computer will last for years, PC or not. It's not like the system requirements for Firefox, IE, MS Office, etc are going to be increasing enough in the next 5 years to make a difference. Some manufacturers do have better build quality than others, but you get what you pay for, and as long as you aren't abusing it, the odds of having your laptop survive past it's usable lifespan are pretty good.

You like Macs. That's great. But just because you don't like PC's doesn't mean that they're going to fall apart 6 months after you buy one.

Thank you!

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Cory

You like Macs. That's great. But just because you don't like PC's doesn't mean that they're going to fall apart 6 months after you buy one.

However, it is a fact that Macs retain value longer. Look around eBay at old Powerbooks and G5 towers and compare their selling prices to PCs of comparable age/original price. For some reason, people are willing to pay more money for old Mac products than PCs. It probably has to do with the fact that I can cobble together a PIII PC with parts I find lying around a dump with little challenge, while Macs are not reproducible in the same way.

If build quality is what you are after, Thinkpads are pretty much the standard for business-class-ruggedness on the PC laptop side. If you look on eBay, you will notice that old Thinkpads still fetch a fair amount of coin, and this is because they are built well and do not break easily.

It's not just a fanboy thing. PCs can last a long time too, but don't discount a Mac's long term value.