Cheap Portable Laptop...too slow?

[bigal40]

I am looking at getting an ultraportable laptop off of ebay for $500-600. I have been looking ad I think some might be too slow. All I want to do is email, office and internet for when i am traveling. One has an 850mhz cursoe and 128mb RAM the other has a 700mhz cruso and 128mb RAM. Do you think the slower one will be enough to do want I want or is it going to be laggy and take for ever to load programs. I am think about putting a 7k60 in it because it really sped up my other notebook from its old 4200rpm.

 

[smopoim86]

well, i have a 380 MHz AMD-K6-2 in a laptop and it seems to do everything to the extent of your needs. I use it for mainly mobile internet acess, and do not have any problems.

 

[Tsaico]

I bought a cheap Gateway that was sub 5 lbs, and put in a 7k rpm drive, wiht 1 gig of ram, it did all my basic stuff on the road just fine. Internet, Office, and minor web and database design, (primarily edits) were what I am using it for. I got it all for about $600, not including shipping costs...

 

[morkman100]

If they use WinXP, then only 128MB RAM is going to kill you...

 

[pkme2]

You need 512MB RAM to run XP properly. 256MB is minimum.

 

[Gagan]

If you want a good ultraportable think fujitsu lifebooks, no competition.

 

[bluestrobe]

Originally posted by: bigal40
I am looking at getting an ultraportable laptop off of ebay for $500-600. I have been looking ad I think some might be too slow. All I want to do is email, office and internet for when i am traveling. One has an 850mhz cursoe and 128mb RAM the other has a 700mhz cruso and 128mb RAM. Do you think the slower one will be enough to do want I want or is it going to be laggy and take for ever to load programs. I am think about putting a 7k60 in it because it really sped up my other notebook from its old 4200rpm.

That laptop would be perfect. Too many people are scared at going lower than the 1ghz barrier for some reason. You would probably want to upgrade the ram for XP but it should do fine with Win2K. I run XP on my 800mhz P3/384 Ram with no problems and it runs fine. Used for the same reason you have above.

However, a laptop for that much with those specs is too much. My friend just got a brand new Centrino Duo from Dell for $700. I paid $300 for mine right here off the forums. A <1ghz laptop shouldn't go for over $350.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Too slow? Wow. I'm posting from a P2-366 with Windows 2000 on it right now. It's just for coding / programming, and getting online remotely around the house, and it does the job absolutely wonderfully... Those laptops will be just fine.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: Gagan
If you want a good ultraportable think fujitsu lifebooks, no competition.

That's is what I am looking at, the P1120 mostly.

Originally posted by: bluestrobe
However, a laptop for that much with those specs is too much. My friend just got a brand new Centrino Duo from Dell for $700. I paid $300 for mine right here off the forums. A <1ghz laptop shouldn't go for over $350.

I think that there is a large premium put on the size of the laptop. I know some people think that a 12 inch notebook is ultraportable but I am looking at 9"

 

[bigal40]

I am ready to pull the trigger on the p1120 off ebay for $500. 800mhz crusoe, 256mb, 30gig, 9", 802.11b, XP Pro

Anyone have reasons to or to not buy?

 

[thescreensavers]

dosent dell have 500 laptops?

 

[SparkyJJO]

Originally posted by: pkme2
You need 512MB RAM to run XP properly. 256MB is minimum.

QFT, I'm running of my dad's old laptop right now (finals week at school, took my main comp home) and it is a 1GHz with 256MB of ram. SLOW. it does a lot of HD swapping, and the fact that the HD is going down the tubes doesn't help any (click of death - been doing it for months now, waiting for it to die.... nothing important to lose though)