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LAPTOP FOR MY DAUGHTER

G

gmkwftx

Junior Member
My daughter will start attending her freshman year of college in about 3wk. She is going to need a laptop computer and I am trying to find one with a wireless card already installed. The computer needs at least Windows XP hopefully the professional version. I am trying to stay in a budget under $400.keensnipe@yahoo.com
 
walmart had a $400 special last week and if you look around you *might* be able to find things at the $400 mark on some deal sites. $500 is more common. anything being sold new now will have wifi and vista.

if youre really tight you can probably find something used in FS/T or on ebay. $400 new is really rare, though. good luck
 
Get one with either a 13" or 14" display. Laptops with 15" displays exceed portability requirements, IMO. I haven't seen a laptop without built-in wireless capabilities recently, so that shouldn't be an issue.

You can get a base Dell Inspiron 1420 for around $650 and it will fit your kid's needs.
 
Originally posted by: Mermaidman
Get one with either a 13" or 14" display. Laptops with 15" displays exceed portability requirements, IMO. I haven't seen a laptop without built-in wireless capabilities recently, so that shouldn't be an issue.

You can get a base Dell Inspiron 1420 for around $650 and it will fit your kid's needs.
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yeah, thing is a sub 15" wont hit near the $400 price point unless its used. i prefer a 14" myself.

you can *maybe* try the dell outlet and get something between $400 and $500 as a 14", definitely a 15". check the vostro line too.
 
while the 15"+ laptops are nice to play with they do suck for a classroom notebook.

12" is really a good size. Widescreen's are nice but you pay a premium.

The biggest limitation for a notebook IMHO is the graphics card/technology. If you are just looking for Office and basic programs then even a PIII-M 1.2 or so can do nicely.

I picked up a D400 for $200 after the 25% cash back deal through live.com. I wanted an ultracompact for my car. This machine (like the Thinkpad X31) I was looking at comes with no ability for a built in CD/DVD...it keeps the size down.

I wanted a machine with an onboard serial which limited my search a bit.

I knew a couple people that bought the Dell 700M and 600M's when they came out and thought they were excellent note taking machines.
 
I recommend a netbook (ASUS EeePC, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, Dell E, etc...) just because those have good battery life, are small, affordable, a VGA Out in case she wants a bigger screen in the dorm room, and most have solid state HD's so they take shock better. Add a cheap USB CD Drive and you should be good to go.
 
Originally posted by: ed21x
I recommend a netbook (ASUS EeePC, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, Dell E, etc...) just because those have good battery life, are small, affordable, a VGA Out in case she wants a bigger screen in the dorm room, and most have solid state HD's so they take shock better. Add a cheap USB CD Drive and you should be good to go.
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That's a good point on the bigger screen (as well as full size mouse/keyboard/numeric keypad, etc).

For a daily laptop, it's usually smaller the better. It's cheap and easy to bring the 'full-sized' features to where you can spread out.

The biggest limiting factor is usually always the video card. It's insane the CPU power people want to buy to just do basic PC stuff.

I get asked about upgrading these all the time by older folks I know. Most of the time I pick up a 5400rpm drive for around $30-50...do a clean install and XP tweak, and for those with less than 512MB-1GB another SODIMM.

They swear they have a brand new laptop. There are some deals out there in the $300-400 range, but many of these machines are pretty cheezy on the build quality...for a TV laptop this is fine, but start carrying it around and things start chipping off.
 
A laptop for your daughter? Sounds like a deal, what's she like? 😉

Seriously ... for college use, you want a decent (non-glare) screen, long battery life, and a halfway robust case. Speed is rather on the bottom of the list.
 
Originally posted by: Peter
A laptop for your daughter? Sounds like a deal, what's she like? 😉
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Dunno, a laptop sounds like less maintenance than a woman. 😕
 
Originally posted by: NightDarker
Best off spending an extra $150 and getting a real decent Dell.
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+1

also for college people, get the accidental warrenty.

I made sure my brother had it, and im glad he did. During the lifetime, someone did nock the lappy over and it cracked the screen. Dell replaced it right away.
 
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