Need advice for wifes first laptop

[FlashG]

Her old 450mhz Desktop PC is just about dead so I thought that I would get her an inexpensive laptop around $1000 or less. It would be just used in the home so weight is not a problem.

She likes to play Hoyle Casino games and chat with her sister on the net. I would like to get her something that can play DVD movies and has a USB port. I'm partial to IBM or HP. Any suggestions?

 

[jpeyton]

HP/Compaq has some excellent cheap solutions. I recently suggested buying a Compaq R3000T to a female friend of mine, and she loves it. She paid $599 after MIR for a 2.8GHz Celeron, 15.4" Widescreen TFT, DVD/CD-RW, Wireless-G, 256MB, 30GB...etc.

Plays DVDs (which look great in WS), plays Window's Solitaire quite well , and hops online all over her house using the wireless.

IBM will get you great quality, but look at paying at least double (and no widescreen).

 

[way]

How about an Apple iBook?

 

[FlashG]

Originally posted by: way
How about an Apple iBook?

I'm not familiar with Apple stuff at all. Which models do you recommend?

 

[poslushnik]

IBM G series is a desktop substitute, good but nice one costs a little more. Say, 23849JU is $1,189. However, this one is P4, much better than Celeron. Actually, if you can efford not buying Celeron - do not buy it.

HP is OK, and its cheaper, so you might consider it too.

 

[FlashG]

Originally posted by: poslushnik
IBM G series is a desktop substitute, good but nice one costs a little more. Say, 23849JU is $1,189. However, this one is P4, much better than Celeron. Actually, if you can efford not buying Celeron - do not buy it.

HP is OK, and its cheaper, so you might consider it too.

tx ski, what models of hp do you like?

 

[Wuzup101]

Even a base level 12" iBook would probably be a smidge out of your price range unless you can somehow get EDU pricing. I would go with whatever special you can find cheap if she's not going to be a heavy user. Also, if she likes those casino games a lot she should stay away from the iBook. As much as it pains me to say it, most of those places don't make software compatable with a Mac. I'm kinda pissed that I can't play texas holdem on golden palace poker...

 

[FlashG]

Originally posted by: Wuzup101
Even a base level 12" iBook would probably be a smidge out of your price range unless you can somehow get EDU pricing. I would go with whatever special you can find cheap if she's not going to be a heavy user. Also, if she likes those casino games a lot she should stay away from the iBook. As much as it pains me to say it, most of those places don't make software compatable with a Mac. I'm kinda pissed that I can't play texas holdem on golden palace poker...

Yes I probably will go with something cheap and on sale. I guess the best thing to do is to take her shopping around with me and get what she likes best. As far as casino games go, she started with blackjack and is now completely addicted to texas holdem.

 

[rextilleon]

Before recommending a laptop it would be nice to know what your wife's primary uses are for the computer---??

 

[Justin216]

Personally, I'd get an iBook aswell. You can occasionally catch a G3 800 iBook, which would be perfect for the basics for around 700-800. www.powerbookcentral.com has an excellent price tracker for this. I'd choose Apple (Outside of the fact I have 2 myself) because of 1) No spyware to annoy and infest your system. 2) No real viruses for Mac OSX. Your only downside is applications, but even at that, with your Wife's usage, everything would be easy to get. Later on, you can get MS Office for Mac, etc if need be. These are excellent machines and are an excellent buy if you look around.

 

[FlashG]

Originally posted by: rextilleon
Before recommending a laptop it would be nice to know what your wife's primary uses are for the computer---??

She likes casino games, e-mail chat and i-shopping. No heavy gaming or processing.

 

[rextilleon]

Oh--in that case the world is her oyster---processing power isn't key and thus I would look for something with a nice LCD. I like Sony and Dell---and you can easily get in the game for under 1000.