Can someone recommend a descent laptop for my mom?

[TangoJuliet]

I had bought her a HP notebook about 6 years ago and its about ready to be replaced.

Now, she doesnt need anything crazy as she thinks the "internet" is aol. she has broadband but still uses aol for everything. With that out of the way I was thinking of a 15.4" widescreen, and probably a C2D CPU. The notebook hasn't left her desk since she bought it so she doesn't need a ultra portable or anything.

Her current computer has a 80GB hdd and I looked yesterday and there is something like 70GB still free....so she doesn't need a huge drive. She doesn't watch movies on the computer so there wont be a need for a blueray drive or anything.

Lastly, she has XP and is probably really used to it. I would hate to get her Vista and she freaks out and doesnt know how to use it (even though its basically the same OS - you know how it is with old people).

Can I still buy a notebook with XP that is not a refurb? I know Dell was offering XP but not sure if they still are. Also, the original notebook had a warranty from Best Buy which was used once to repair the keyboard. For some reason all of the letters on some of the keys rubbed off so I'm not sure if I should get a warranty as well.

Are there any good offers out there for something like this?

 

[xSauronx]

check hot deals. theres a $399 laptop that i think i saw this morning. thats about as cheap as its going to get.

if you want xp, youre looking at used/refurb. check ebay or the dell outlet, or for sale/trade.

for something so cheap, i wouldnt buy an extended warranty.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: xSauronx
check hot deals. theres a $399 laptop that i think i saw this morning. thats about as cheap as its going to get.

if you want xp, youre looking at used/refurb. check ebay or the dell outlet, or for sale/trade.

for something so cheap, i wouldnt buy an extended warranty.

Yeah, I saw that Acer in BBY's circular and it looked like junk. The one in CC looked a little bit better at $499 after the $30 MIR.

 

[Don66]

This might fit the bill

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: Don66
This might fit the bill

Thats actually pretty nice.....a little on the expensive side for the specs but not all too bad for a lenovo.

 

[Don66]

Originally posted by: TangoJuliet

Originally posted by: Don66
This might fit the bill

Thats actually pretty nice.....a little on the expensive side for the specs but not all too bad for a lenovo.

Quality comes with a price😀

 

[zerogear]

Thats what people keep telling themselves when they overpay for Lenovo and Apple stuff 😀

You might want to check HP site right now though, since they're having an 'Up to 50%' 10th Anniversary Sale (Till 10/11)

 

[LOUISSSSS]

u might wanna consider 2gb of ram, its a relatively cheap upgrade, and gives a substantial boost with vista

 

[wwswimming]

seems like Fry's always has a decently configured laptop for $499 in their
Friday ads. i don't know if it carries over to their mail-order operation,
outpost.com.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Well, someone sent me a PM for a coupon off a Dell Refurb system.

I found one of their studio 15's that came configured with a C2D 2.0ghz 667mhz FSB, 3GB DDR, 250GB HDD and Vista Home Premium for $498 shipped and including taxes. It seems like a pretty good deal. What do u guys think?

 

[zerogear]

Thats pretty good, I'd say go for it 🙂. You can always reload XP on your own. Though Vista might be better in terms of having UAC for your mom so it doesn't get infected with spyware, etc.

 

[TangoJuliet]

Originally posted by: zerogear
Thats pretty good, I'd say go for it 🙂. You can always reload XP on your own. Though Vista might be better in terms of having UAC for your mom so it doesn't get infected with spyware, etc.

she does a pretty good job with updating her virus protection and getting critical updates. every time i stop by I do a quick system scan and everything is good.

im sure i can put XP on it but since its got vista she might as well just get used to it

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: TangoJuliet

Originally posted by: zerogear
Thats pretty good, I'd say go for it 🙂. You can always reload XP on your own. Though Vista might be better in terms of having UAC for your mom so it doesn't get infected with spyware, etc.

she does a pretty good job with updating her virus protection and getting critical updates. every time i stop by I do a quick system scan and everything is good.

im sure i can put XP on it but since its got vista she might as well just get used to it

Vista's better/easier to use than XP anyway. Just make sure you have 2GB RAM, turn off UAC, and apply some other tweaks (search Google for "Vista Tweaks" or "Vista speed tweaks"). I personally turn of indexing, automatic defrag, UAC, every startup item I don't need, minimize/maximize window effects, and menu fade effects....etc.

Outside of the network configuration thing being total crap (mostly because it's super slow), if you tweak Vista (which is easy, and not even completely necessary) and do "general maintenance" (easy stuff), it's definitely better than XP.

And in the event that she absolutely can't get used to it after a while, install XP. End of story.