Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Looking for a cheap notebook PC, Where is a cheap and reliable place to find a bargain. Looking to spend $5 or 600 only. DVD burner would be good.

Doesnt need to be cutting edge, and ideally Id rather not get lumped with Vista as it wont support the kids games anyway. 15" or larger ideally.

Mailorder is OK. Any suggestions? Tips?

Is this any good?

Cheers

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I use a Levono Thinkpad (slightly different spec) for sports video analysis work. It's been transported from ski slopes to gyms to hockey rinks etc and been 100% reliable - robust and well made.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Looks pretty horrible, and it's refurbished. This is better bang for buck:

http://www.directcanada.com/products...nufacture=ACER

or try something from Dell.

With a bit of tweaking you can make Vista look and behave pretty much like XP, and your kids' games will work fine.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Sleek and streamlined, they're not. Closer to heavy and brick-like. I chose it due to its construction and strength and needing to use it in less than ideal locations.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Cheers for that site (that one is unavailable at present)

Dell were cheaper than I was expecting too.

Ive been recomended to just install XP on a partition as some of these games go bacl to win98 and beyond and Vista is a bit dodgy with the old stuff (and a lot of the new acording to rumour)

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

We buy some IT from CDW Canada. Might be worth looking here:
http://www.cdw.ca/shop/tools/product...order=priceasc

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I'm pretty sure the compatibility options in Vista are the same as in XP - just go into Properties and select the appropriate options. Of course, if you've got a copy (ahem) of XP sitting around, you could just install that over the top of the Vista install and just pray that all the drivers work fine (they probably will).

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

The spec on that one looks pretty good but it's refurbished and only has a 3 month warranty - suggesting they don't think it'll be all that reliable.

When buying mail order, there's always the check-out price shock when taxes and shipping are added... and the "joys" of having to find someone on the phone to argue with and return it to when it breaks. Might be worth checking out what Walmart etc have?

Main things I'd look for (especially if the kids are going to use it) would be good long-term support (e.g. Dell has a good reputation, HP and Gateway don't) and a good battery.

I have heard a lot of people bought new PCs with vista and rolled them back to XP, only to find they can't get the drivers for the hardware (as they only made vista drivers). Just a heads-up in case you have a spare XP license tempting you to do this..

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

probably isnt a good word when it comes to compatibility and drivers in my experience....

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

When buying anything here there is the tax shock isnt there?

Walmart were pretty useless, as were the other local suspects:(

Good advice about the battery and support...Dell is looking more attractive, although its a little more than I want to spend.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Dell still provides XP if you want. Lookee here. Another tip, try using the Small Business configurator. I know that on the desktop side you used to be able to get a machine almost identical to one on the "home" configurator for less money. I don't know if they've closed that loophole, or if it exists at all for notebooks, but it's worth a look.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

In a former existence I spent a few months in Dell's European product marketing office for notebooks. Back then (1999, I think) there was a much more obvious distinction between a home machine and a work machine: the Inspiron range got better graphics processing and worse built-in networking stuff than the Latitude equivalents, for example.

These days there's much less to choose between the innards (and a couple more model names to confuse the unwary), it's mostly a different case and different bundled software. It used to be the case that home machines were a little less rugged than the business ones and an equivalent spec would be a tad cheaper, but it may well be the other way round these days due to relative sales volumes of Latitude. I'd recommend you try and spec up each variant the way you want and see which turns out cheaper.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Get a Dell. Their older crappy reputation no longer bears out, and for the last 4-5 years they have been a serious contender in high quality PCs for a good price. Reliable, with a great warranty (by Canadian standards, and this is a big plus) and good machines. Seriously. Me and Zoe just both got Dell gaming rigs. Friends of mine who I worked with in IT who 6 years ago would never have touched Dells all now buy Dells.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I beg to differ - mine's been a POS since day 1, and a number of colleagues have suffered problems too (all hardware related). They're all Latitude D620's.

In just over a year, I'm on my 3rd motherboard, 2nd set of speakers, 2nd screen and 2nd hard drive.

Warranty has been good and always resolved things, but I've spent several working days in total talking to customer support, and been without the machine for several weeks at a time.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Note that if you buy a cheap laptop it won't run most modern games at any usable speed; even Half-Life 2 is a slideshow on my Acer with the crappy Intel integrated graphics chip, though games from around 2000/2001 run fine.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

What he said.

I have had three Dell desktops the most recent purchased last March, it is the worst of the three and the customer service was atrocious compared with previous purchases.

I don't consider it my "job" to spend 45 minutes plus on the phone with a so called service tech trouble shooting their machine. That's what in home "service" is supposed to be for, not to just show up with the parts and replace them.

Prior to purchasing this one I didn't hesitate to recommend Dell, now I'll NEVER buy another one.:curse::curse:

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

What about Toshiba? They used to have a great reputation?

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

We have a Toshiba laptop had it five years now.

Never had a problem with it.

Was told on a photo forum when I asked about a robust laptop for traveling and saving photo's to, that the Toshiba's where pretty well bullet proof. That seems to have been true. :)

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I know someone who dropped his Toshiba off the roof of a building while he was doing maintenance up there, and it still worked afterwards; though that was in the days before hard disks were normal laptop equipment.

My girlfriend has one that's about seven years old with no problems other than obsolescence (e.g. the wireless card is incompatible with the wireless network in our house).

As for bullet-proof, there was apparently a company that used to demonstrate its servers by emptying a Colt .45 into them while they were running, but I don't know of any laptops quite that robust :).

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

my toshiba tablet has survived nearly two years in a science lab with nowt more than a few scratches on the top. Rugged is probably a good word , it aint light but it does everything I want , with another half gig of memory i suspect it would be even better.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

and I just keep banging on about costco.ca

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

....where the cheapest notebook is over a grand...double what I want to spend.

Thought I had found a deal on a toshiba for $600...but it was sold out. Still looking:(

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Staples have a flier out with two Toshiba laptops - one for $699 and the other $799. Mind you, it doesnt mention an operating system so perhaps that is extra. What about tigerdirect.ca?

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Personaly, I wouldn't touch a toshiba with a barge pole. I had one and the radiation from the screen gave me a face rash. A friend had loads of pimples and his face cleared up after dumping the Toshiba. I had heard stories like these before I got mine and never believed them. Big mistake.

Great computers, they are, but I don't trust the screen.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Never heard of that before? How can it be any worse than a regular LCR monitor...or any other laptop for that matter:confused:

So much EMI regulation now I would have thought it virtually impossible for any sort of harmfull radiation to be an issue?

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Have you tried Ebay?

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I had a look. Nothing jumped out as extraordinary good value in my price range to compensate for the $60+ shipping from the US, and the lack of sensible waranty provision. I'll keep checking back though thanks.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

:confused:
A quick Google search indicates LCD monitors do not emit radiation they use a fluorescent lamp to back light the liquid crystals.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I'm expecting Bazzz and Novo our resident scourges of 'fake science' to spring into action momentarily.................

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I'm off to make some popcorn then. ;)

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I have a lead on a 2Ghz Macbook with a broken screen.
2 Ghz Core Duo Proccessor
60GB HD
2GB RAM
13.3" screen (cracked)

Still works through a monitor. Im pretty handy and figure I can replace the screen maybe?

It suffers from the "macbook crack" thing Im told too:confused:

What do you experts think it might be worth. While I have your attention, how long is a piece of string?

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Eeeewwwwwww is that anything like plumbers crack. :confused::eek::eek:

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

check ifixit.xom to see how easy/hard it is to fix.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I said I wouldn't recommend Dell but have you seen this.

It is currently Dell's 10 Days of Deals event and on this page is a Vostro 1000 laptop for $499.

Vostro 1000
AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual-Core processor TK-55 (1.8GHz/512KB), English
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, English
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 Dimm
80G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+R write capability, Cyberlink Power DVD


Cheers
Steve

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

I'm not sure I would buy a dell again. Bought two dells through work around 3 yrs ago, both decent specs and relatively pricey. Work one hard drive irreparably damaged after 2 yrs. work at home one irreparably damaged after 3 yrs. I don't think its quite good enough.

Gryphea

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Thanks both of you.

Now I have a dilemma...the $500 dell (which was just what I was looking for originally sort of) or the appeal of a bargain macbook "project" with potential for being the best of bothworlds...as long as I can cobble it back together. That ifixit site is brilliant...karma worthy.

Problem with the dell is no firewire, so I cant get the video onto it from the camcorder:(

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...8911&CatId=510

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

You guys are good:)

Im all conflicted again between the dell and the functional, but broken, macbook with dual boot XP capability. I guess I should go see it and find out how much of a basket case it really is.

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Too bad you're not looking for a desktop.

Dell has another deal on.
http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/s...d.php?t=544875

No monitor but only $309.:)

Re: Where to get a cheap notebook PC?
 

Bestbuy is good and great support afterwards...good luck.