Laptop - good or bad

from WinCustomize Forums
Hello, since all of you are good at this stuff, do you know if this is a good deal for my need of online surfing?

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I'm new with PC's and I don't know if that Laptop is good or bad. Any help and advice? Thank you all and sorry to bug you with this.
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Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Pretty ordinary specs for a computer these days....particularly one running XP.

Cheap at the price, though....

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Right now you're looking at $133 or so for that laptop.

A 6gb hard drive is not much at all - my windows directory (although old and bloated) is coming in at 2.87gb, so that's half of a 6gb drive. When you add recycle bin, backup, programs and the space you will lose in the format (you'll get like 5.4 or 5.6 gb instead of 6gb) it won't leave much room for anything else.

I don't believe that you'll be able to upgrade either since this laptop is so old the current drives probably won't work with the motherboard.

Also, the battery is dead. A new battery (should you decide to use it away from the outlet) is going to run $50-100 to replace.

The 14.1 LCD isn't really large. It's baseline. Only the laptops that put size at a premium are smaller.

It's only got 288MB of ram and I'd bet you'll probably be stuck with that. XP would like 512, 1gb if you can afford it.

It's 600mhz which is really slow compared with today's pc's.

The questions you should ask yourself are:

1) How important is surfing the internet to me on my own computer?
2) Is this *all* i'm going to do? Would I do more with my own computer (i.e. programming, graphics, games, educational software, communications, web development, contact management, photography, etc.)
3) How much do I have to spend?
4) Can my needs be met without purchasing a computer for myself?

Money is always a consideration, but these days you can purchase a good computer (or at least a new computer) for well under $1,000. Dell and some of the other large vendors offer them for some crazy prices.

Basically, you're going to get what you pay for here. You pay $100 for a pc, you're going to get $100 worth of pc. Laptops have always been more expensive due to their portability, but if (in this case) you lose that portability, why get a laptop?

This is right off Dell's website:

Dimension 3000 (desktop)
Essential Tehcnology on a Budget
Bullet Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor (2.80GHz, 533 FSB) 600mhz vs 2.8ghz (4 times faster and multiple generations better)
Bullet Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Bullet 256MB DDR SDRAM at 400MHz -- this would be expandable at your leisure
Bullet 40GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive --- plenty of storage space
Bullet Single Drive: 48x CD-RW Drive -- you can make cds instead of just read - if you don't intend to view movies on the computer or use data dvds this is more useful)
Bullet FREE (3-5 Day) Shipping! With ANY ONLINE purchase over $549 (before tax). $19 Handling Charge may apply.
$568
$454 After 20% OFF Instantly!

Admittedly, it's $500 vs $130, but this current technology not 2-3 years back and thus a quantum leap in quality.

The addage in purchasing a computer is to buy as much as you can afford as it will be obsolete in a year.

You can always fine folks in your hometown that build computers who are often willing to discuss your needs and what they can do for you. That offers local support if you have questions/problems as well. A good local shop will sell you what you want not what they want to sell. It's hard to find a town without a few shops and geeks all love to talk
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well I wouldn't buy it as I don't care for Intel chips...

Well maybe I would buy it...

anyhow...

But keep in mind you COULD run Linux on that machine quite nicely - and you can install windows emulators in Linux to use your Windows programs.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Also, the battery is dead.

I didn't notice that...and the price 'was' lower...so now I'd say...."walk away"...

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The processsor speed itself would indicate a slow Front Side Bus (the pathway used by the Processor, Memory, and Video), so you may experience a bit of slow surfing on sites with video content.

Also, MS recommends 384 MB RAM minimum to run XP - and that is just for the OS, not other programs, all of which need to be loaded into memory to run.

black udder makes many good points.

I just purchased a Dell notebook, and it is amazing how far the notebooks have come with reference to the user being able to upgrade themselves.

The hard-drive, optical drive, and memory are extremely easy to change out - so you would be set for a number of years. The Dell support is good, which includes driver downloads, upgrade parts, and downloadable service manuals directly from their site, to help you maintain the computer for future work.

In short, buying something newer - even if it does not come fully loaded - will allow you to use it now, and upgrade easily later.

I second Jafo's comment - "walk away".
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Heck, this system is 500MHz.

That laptop might be faster.
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
shackngo -

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=80209&item=6783860413&rd=1

This would be much better for today's stuff. It even has warranty. This is one of the newest Gateways.

(It's AMD, so Kona would be happy)