Laptops

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Not quite a Newb Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 72

So, I'm about to go off to the university this upcoming year, and it's -highly- recommended that one have their own laptop. At present, I just have a desktop computer at home.

I've save up around $500 so far, and my parents owe me another $500 or so for certain jobs I've done for them over the summer, so that comes to around $1000 total (about 500 British Pounds I think). So does anyone have any suggestions for a decent laptop in that price range?

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:01 am

I'd be interested to know what Laptop can be recommended, because I have to take a few with me to Nigeria next week.... Wink

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 11:35 am

One of these little beauties is at the top of my wish list when funds allow:

Asus Eee PC 901

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:58 pm

I bought an ASUS Eee 701 back in January - the original model with Linux and the 7" screen. It's more than good enough for web browsing and typing, although I wouldn't recommend it for sole use (i.e. without a desktop at home/office) as the screen is pretty small.

The 901 looks sweet - longer battery life, faster, more RAM, bigger screen; the only problem is that it's more expensive.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:07 pm

Sorry to snatch your thread for a minute BGK. Wink

^ @ someoneorother, Should I go for M$ or Linux? I was leaning towards linux. With windows you lose 4gig of memory. Is connecting by wireless easy in most places that allow it?

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:32 pm

I bought this laptop a few weeks ago and it's great once you clear off all the extra stuff HP put on it. I'm dual booting with Mandriva ONE and it detected everything except the modem straight away. Wireless connectivity is a breeze. It's pretty much a matter of clicking "next" a half dozen times and entering in the WAP password. Battery lasts for around 2 hours 20 minutes from full charge. The only problems I've found so far is that some bluetooth adaptors have problems with it (but that could just be that particular version of Linux - Kubuntu refused to run, but I'm a Mandriva man myself anyway), and the headset plugs are at the front of it, which I personally find awkward. I'd much prefer them to be on the side. But an old bluetooth adaptor and a USB headset fixed both problems at very little cost.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:49 pm

I bought a Toshiba Equium A200 about 6 months back and it's excellent. It was about 500 pounds ($1000).
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/jsp/seriesHomepage.do?service=UK&SERIES_ID=128462

A couple of months later I bought another Toshiba, an Equium L40 for less than 400 pounds ($800) as a second machine. It has a smaller hard drive, but it's still a good machine.
http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/jsp/seriesHomepage.do?service=UK&SERIES_ID=131894

If you are going to use it to watch films on, go for the better one as it has a bigger, better screen. If it's just for work and web, the smaller one is fine.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

What are you going to use it for? If you are just going to type papers and surf the interwebz why not look at a cheap, older used one. I recently bought an older Dell Inspiron 1150 that I snatched for $50 US. I upgraded the RAM to 512 MB for $20 and run Puppy Linux (After the HD containing XP died, now I run Puppy off of a USB stick). It is a great basic computer for the above mentioned uses. Then you can save the rest of the money for beer.

If you are using it for graphic intensive stuff (ie: Photoshop) then you may need a new fancy one.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Mar 2007 Posts: 2628

@ Wayne
I've just bought my daughter one of those. It took longer to uninstall the bits and bobs ( like Norton ) than to get it going.
(Got AVG and Spybot on it now.)
She seems very happy with it especially with the built in webcam
See they've got them in some Tesco stores as well as online. They've also got a 1GB model for just under £300.
I also got the laptop bag with optical mouse for £15

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 3:15 pm

I'd go with Pastor Franks modality. Puppy Linux works very well with old laptops and with 512Mb of RAM it'll do enough for most students. The Puppy forum is also very good for help with problems.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 4:58 pm

Macbook, I think Apple's doing some kind of educational deal at the moment and you can run OS X, Linux and Windoze all on the same machine if needs be.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:18 pm

windypops wrote:

One of these little beauties is at the top of my wish list when funds allow:

My lads think these are great and want one each. Thanks for the tip.... Very Happy

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:19 pm

windypops wrote:

Sorry to snatch your thread for a minute BGK. Wink

^ @ someoneorother, Should I go for M$ or Linux? I was leaning towards linux. With windows you lose 4gig of memory. Is connecting by wireless easy in most places that allow it?

Linux. I could fire off my usual spiel about software freedom and soforth, but there's a much more convincing reason to go with the Linux version (other than the extra storage space). The Linux distribution installed on the eeePC is specially fine-tuned to run on the eeePC. That means it's not got drivers for stuff it doesn't need, and has exactly the drivers for stuff it does (including wireless card, you shouldn't have any problems with that). If you go with Windows, you get stock Windows XP, most likely (please correct me if I'm wrong) bundled with power management/wireless utilities that run on top of the already bloated system. Hope that helps your decision.

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:23 pm

^ Cheers mate Thumbs up

I'm keen to get a computer with linux up and running.
This is the perfect solution for me. Wink

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:39 pm

@Bokku

I've heard that Acer laptops are pretty good, and they're dirt cheap (sub-$500)

@Simba

Will you show us where that lad laptop deal goes?

Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:46 pm

Acer usually has crappy battery life, but if that is not important to you it will be a good basic lappy at a good price.

I have an HP Compaq and love it. Wifey has an HP with their extra special lappy screen (forget what they call it) and her colors are WAY better than mine, but she does a lot of photoshop stuff so she needs it. I process text and post on the eater so I don't care Smile

Battery life on mine is 2hrs plus with the standard no frills battery.

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:21 am

i would give a IBM Lenovo a good look at.
good solid machines and excellent battery life(thats if you dont keep it connected to the mains with the battery connected to the lappy)
Embarassed

Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:28 am

^ Rem, They never tell you in the instructions to take the battery out when running on mains. Take the battery out as it's constantly being charged and run down because most lappies default to using the battery as the primary power source.

@Simba, Your lads will love em'. As they are so small and cheap you can send them two for the price of one. Getting them to promise one to someone else will ensure some earache when they don't materialise.

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 31 Aug 2007 Posts: 8

Well for your case you can have a look at the apple macbook, apple is offering some discount for students, and you can also consider getting a Dell, they are quite reliable and now have some sales also.