Laptop computers

[Andy1845c]

I have been kind of wanting to get a laptop. I can't afford a new one, so I have been browsing ebay for them for a few days, but there are so many I really get kind of overwhelmed. I've never had one, let alone used one to be honest. All I want to be able to do is surf the net and run MPLAB, i'm not a gamer and don't plan to run any super complex programs on it. Ones thats a few years old would probably suit me fine.

Anyone have a reccomendation? Anyone have/had an older one they are/were really happy with? Any issues a laptop novice should be aware of when looking for one?

 

[blueroomelectronics]

The old IBM laptops go for cheap. What's your budget?

 

[Andy1845c]

I dunno, a few hundred bucks or less. Cheaper the better. I don't want a boat anchor, but don't need alot of bells and whistels either.

 

[davidbball13]

You can get an IBM T41 for a little more then 300 that has a 40 gig HDD and 512MB of ram and a 2.00GHz pentium M. I am typing on one now. it is an amazing computer. and it has bluetooth and internal wireless. although if you are going to use linux it is a pain because of the ATI drivers.

 

[Marks256]

I was fairly happy with my Gateway 4026GZ.

40GB HD
1.3GHz (Celeron?)
1GB of RAM (obviously upgraded)
Internal Wireless
CD/RW - DVD combo
~15" display
5.5lbs if i remember correctly...
~.5" thick
4 USB

New it was $999, but you can pick one up on ebay for less than $200.

For the past year i've been running different flavors of linux on it with out problems (except for the SD Card slot... no linux support for it). Even wireless works great. Windows XP worked pretty good on it, too. but i hate Windows... so... that is rather biased... The home edition that came with it sucked, so i put pro on it, and it was satisfactory.

The ONLY things i did not like about this laptop was the fact that it was single core, the cooling fan ALWAYS ran at full speed, and the screen resolution has a max of 1024x768 on the LCD (external can go much higher, however)

Just recently i replaced my 4026GZ with a nice HP TX1000 tablet PC. So the 4026GZ is being used as a lab computer right now, but i've been meaning to sell it on ebay soonish.

 

[HiTech]

get a used Sony Vaio

 

[phil7890]

Buy a New One

Don't buy one that's too old. They (all brands) fail after a few short years. Some problems are heat-stress related, unless the owner puts a cooler/fan under the laptop at all times. Some laptops fail at the DC-input (power) jacks but this is fixable if you know how to find parts and solder. Some LCD screens get darker after a while - the backlight will not be as bright any more compared to new. Some batteries will not hold a charge after a few years (half an hour battery life after 2 years, compared to 4 hours when brand new). So, why not just wait until this Friday morning's after-Thanksgiving supersale and pick up a brand new laptop at your local store?? Estimated price should be around $400 or a little over and you won't have someone else's problem (it will have different problems! ha ha)

MPLAB will pretty much run on any machine. The more pixels on the screen the better it is - we can open more little boxes/windows on the screen). But it's a laptop and all these screens will be a certain small to medium size (unless you happen to have a gigantic laptop). This laptop for MPLAB doesn't have to be high-speed one. At one time some users at the microchip.com website reported there was a problem with this software running on multi-core processors but I did not have this problem with my current Toshiba Core 2 Duo laptop. They better have fixed this problem because every laptop is multiple core these days...

I'm actually shopping for another 11.1", 12.1" or 13.1" laptop - mine is 2 years old and it's already overdue to fail. It'll probably be a new Toshiba or Sony soon.

 

[Andy1845c]

Thanks for the replys.

phil7890 - Thanks for the input. While I'm not going to brave the crowds friday, I may just save my pennies till I can buy a new one. I was a bit leary of buying one off ebay anyway.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Thanks for the replys.

phil7890 - Thanks for the input. While I'm not going to brave the crowds friday, I may just save my pennies till I can buy a new one. I was a bit leary of buying one off ebay anyway.

I've just bought two new Sony NS series Vaio's, Intel Duo 2 core T5800, 3Gb RAM, 250Gb HDD, built-in web-cam - pretty nice machines, they retail ar £499 each in the UK.

I'd be wary buying second hand, laptops don't seem very reliable, and are expensive to repair as they use non-standard spares.

 

[Andy1845c]

Thanks Nigel, I think I'll take that as good advice and just buy a new one.

£499 = 759.38 US dollars - a little past my budget, but those do sound like some very nice machines

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Thanks Nigel, I think I'll take that as good advice and just buy a new one.

£499 = 759.38 US dollars - a little past my budget, but those do sound like some very nice machines

Check prices in the USA - stuff over there is usually a LOT cheaper than here

 

[Mikebits]

I was thinking of getting my wife a netbook for xmas, I read that the asus eee is pretty good, but I was a bit leary about the os not being windows.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

Those new ultraportable notebooks with XP like the ASUS EEE are not expensive.

 

[Leftyretro]

Those new ultraportable notebooks with XP like the ASUS EEE are not expensive.

And they look so cool. I've been tempted for one but really can't justify the expense. Thing is even the older model used ones are holding their value pretty good compared with the rapid depreciation of regular type laptops. They seemed to have attracted quite a new nich market and I see that several other manufactures are aiming at this new ultraportable market.

Lefty

 

[bananasiong]

Netbooks are good but there's no disk drive

 

[blueroomelectronics]

You mean floppy disk? Who still uses floppy disks?

 

[UTMonkey]

Hi There,

I note you say you have never used a laptop - this is only an observation but depending on the thickness of your digits (fingers) will depend if you will ever get on with laptop computers.

The wife says I have fingers like "pigs tits", I don't think that is a complement!

I can recommend the keyboard on my Sony VAIO - nice wide keys!

Regards

Mark

 

[Andy1845c]

I have big clumsy fingers. Typing is not exactly my thing, even on a desktop

 

[bananasiong]

You mean floppy disk? Who still uses floppy disks?

LOL I meant CDs or DVDs. What I found over here, there's no CD/DVD disk drives in netbook.

 

[things]

I have big clumsy fingers. Typing is not exactly my thing, even on a desktop

I just bought an eeepc, that I use for lightning and laser control. The keys on it are TINY!

I got a pic of it compared to my old laptop. If you think your keys are small, try one of these! Your fingers literally hit the keys beside them if you are off centre.

**broken link removed**