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looking for non-gaming laptop

W

wpeng

Senior member
I've never owned a laptop and have never researched laptops before. I'm looking for a computer that is small and light, has excellent battery life, runs maybe 4 windows of general apps (Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, etc...) with little to no lag, and has a nice screen (14" maybe?). My dad has poor eyesight, so that last part is kinda important.

I will probably be getting this laptop after about two years, so I'd like it to be able to:
--Run Photoshop with 5 layers with only a little lag
--Burn DVDs

Most importantly, I'd like the laptop to be under $900. The cheaper, the better, and I am willing to sacrifice some speed for cost.

Thanks in advance.
 
For battery life, look for deals on Pentium M processor systems. Dell often runs deals and if you go for one of those, you are offered the base battery or an extended life battery for about $100 more - go with that one if you want the battery life. To extend battery life even more, disable SpeedStep in BIOS. This will force the CPU to run at lowest MHz (600-800 depending on chip) which will extend battery life and still run those office type programs just fine. For something more extreme, use a program like CrystalCPU to not only lower speed, but lower voltage - even more battery life. I've clocked easy 4+ hours of stuff like watching movies, and 5+ hours of web browsing. I think once even got close to 6 hours reading ebooks or something that takes no CPU time.

For your dad's eyes, get a unit with a 15" screen, but not a widescreen. If you are given an option of resolutions, buy the cheapest with lowest resolution since things will look larger on the screen. Typical is 1024x768 resolution. You can also increase font size in Windows.

Once you "inherit" the notebook, just toss in a maximum amount of RAM (good for Photoshop) and a DVD burner for a couple hundred to make it meet your needs.
 
Best bet is to take him (if possible) to a bestbuy, circuit city, etc and see what types of screens he can read better. You don't have to buy that notebook right then and there, can price it out and such. But the main thing is that you'll know what screen would be best for him.
 
We have used Dell Inspiron 600M notebooks for our students for the past 2 years.
The Centrino 2.0 and the 64MB video w/ 1GB RAM are recommended. The video card is not upgradeable, but quite suitable with our Vegas Video 6.0.
We recommend the 7k60 HDD for maindrive and use the media bay with another 7k60, for digital video work.
We use the original HDD as a USB external for transferring files.
We have good luck using the 600Ms and if you're looking for a well-built practical laptop, we recommend the Inspiron. (The Dell Latitude D600 is the same unit)
 
Anyone know about the ECS 532 or 536? I'm in the market for a cheapo laptop too, and wouldn't mind buying refurbished either.
 
Hi wpeng,

If you want a good performance laptop under the $900 range, then look for the
Averatec AV3270-EE1 PC Notebook. I came across this laptop recently - it runs on an AMD Mobile Sempron 2 GHz, has 512 MB of RAM and a 60GB hard disk.

Sure, the brand is not well known, you get what you pay for, I guess.
 
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