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killergamer
11-01-2007, 09:55 PM
Ok so Im a high school student and i dont have a ton of money but i do know how to add hard drives and ram to laptops so i can upgrade when money rolls my way. Anyways dose anyone know of a good laptop under 700 that i can use for school and some enjoyment?

Xpirate
11-01-2007, 10:17 PM
You could score a lower end Dell for less than $700. I got the lowest end Dell laptop for about $450. I wish that I would have spend a little more and got a better one.

killergamer
11-01-2007, 10:24 PM
Other then the fact that ist cheap and you get cheap stuff is it ok?:?

D1337
11-01-2007, 10:32 PM
If you have a fairly good desktop, i wouldnt recommend spending more then $400ish on a laptop.

why? Youll barely notice the difference in internet speed on a laptop then a wirless desktop. So it wont improve your streaming/downloading/internet vastly.

The only REAL reason to spend a fair amount of money on a lappy(not referring to a lap dance) is if you plan to game or watch movies off of it. Which IMO is still a lost cause since your going to be limited in HDD size & speed, graphics cards and processor speed.

I know im counter productive, but i just dont feel like spending lump sums of money on laptops is worth it unless your constantly on the move.

killergamer
11-01-2007, 10:37 PM
I can totally understand what your talking about i love to watch movies and save them so i don't have to carry my DVDs So i can put a nice size HDD but i dont need a huge screen (I don't like huge screens on Laptops.) Yea should i have more ram then 1gb if i watch movies?

D1337
11-01-2007, 11:00 PM
No, 1 gig is fine, hell 512 would work too. Your processor will be the most obvious factor of movies/video's then gfx's cards.

killergamer
11-01-2007, 11:03 PM
gfx's Cards? yea i know so i will go on dell and customize it and see whats up with it

NightrainSrt4
11-01-2007, 11:06 PM
Ya, if your not planning on using the laptop for gaming or anything seriously intensive like that than a basic laptop will do you wonders.

You can snag a nice dual core laptop, with 1Gb of ram for around 400-500 brand new if you look around. You will be able to play older 2d games pretty well, just don't expect to play much more than Wow on lowest settings for 3d titles. Any real high performance game won't run but thats what console's or high performance desktops are for.


I bought a 17" semi-gaming laptop over a year ago and loved it for a month. Hated it after that. I game on my desktop. Movies is nice, but I have a tv. And a desktop.

I use my laptop to program, browse the internet, occasional movie, and homework. Not much else. (Occasional gaming old 2d titles when im sick...aka right now).


A gaming laptop is an oxymoron. Even the top gaming laptops out right now get smoked by desktops a quarter of the price. And...whats the point of a laptop that has to be plugged in every half hour so the battery doesn't die?


Just go for a cheap dual core with a gig of ram and it seems you will be set. Sorry for the long post.

killergamer
11-01-2007, 11:09 PM
well you guys and or girls im off to look for one. Thank you if I find one I will post it and tell you what it has.

killergamer
11-01-2007, 11:14 PM
PROCESSOR AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0GHz/1MB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home
LCD PANEL Anti-glare, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
MEMORY 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHZ, 1 DIMM edit
HARD DRIVE Size: 60GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
VIDEO CARD ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
SOUND OPTIONS Integrated Audio
BATTERY OPTIONS 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)
My Software & Accessories
ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE No Security Subscription (Norton 90-day)

All for $649

Grade from 1-10

D1337
11-01-2007, 11:36 PM
6/10
You can do better for the price, just make sure when looking for laptops you find one with xp or have a spare disc to load xp onto it. I HIGHLY recommend not putting vista on the laptop.

Greco101
11-02-2007, 12:18 AM
Under 700?! There are tons of nice ass laptops for under 700, just buy used. As long as it's in good physical condition and still under warranty, you can't go wrong.

I've bought 5 laptops in the past 2 months and I didn't spend 700 dollars total lol.

Inspiron 5100: $100 (sold for 400)
Inspiron 5150: $140 (sold for 533)
Inspiron e1505: $200 (gave to girlfriend)
Vaio T350P: $100 (sold for 760)
Everex NM3900W: $150 (sold tonight for 300)

haha, paid JUST under 700 :o)

D1337
11-02-2007, 12:40 AM
Under 700?! There are tons of nice ass laptops for under 700, just buy used. As long as it's in good physical condition and still under warranty, you can't go wrong.

I've bought 5 laptops in the past 2 months and I didn't spend 700 dollars total lol.

Inspiron 5100: $100 (sold for 400)
Inspiron 5150: $140 (sold for 533)
Inspiron e1505: $200 (gave to girlfriend)
Vaio T350P: $100 (sold for 760)
Everex NM3900W: $150 (sold tonight for 300)

haha, paid JUST under 700 :o)

wow your making some nice profits, were the laptops broken and you fixed them or are you just reselling for a higher price?

Greco101
11-02-2007, 01:01 AM
the 5100 and 5150 had "bad cd drives" but the connectors were just dirty. *unscrew one screw, pull out, put back in* worked.

e1505, the girl was asking 600, I told her I wasn't interested. She emailed me back saying 400... no thanks. she calls me an hour later, 300?! I say sure. Went to pick it up and found out the specs she was claiming were inaccurate. I told her I wasn't interested and she asked, "what about 200?" *sold.*

The vaio had a bad 1.8" 60gb hdd so I replaced it for 100 bucks. Recently, I found out the hdd was good, just got corrupted. I hooked it up, wiped it and just sold it on ebay for 70 bucks.

The everex's "6" key stuck but the laptop is still under warranty so I sent it in and had it fixed. Shipping was 20 bucks or something like that.

:)

Xpirate
11-02-2007, 10:13 AM
The Dell I got is okay. It's a lot better now that I upgraded the ram by one gigabyte. If you have a $700 budget, you should use the whole $700.

killergamer
11-02-2007, 04:57 PM
ok how about this

My Components
AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0GHz/1MB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
Size: 60GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
Integrated Audio
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)

Price $699

killergamer
11-02-2007, 05:04 PM
Dude I wish I could have bought that sony

Xpirate
11-02-2007, 07:31 PM
ok how about this

My Components
AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0GHz/1MB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
Size: 60GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)
Integrated Audio
53 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)

Price $699

This one should work for you as long as you don't intend to upgrade it to Vista. The built in wireless is nice. I have the Linksys card sticking out of the side of cheap laptop.

killergamer
11-03-2007, 08:36 AM
how is this?

SPECS:

- Pentium 4m @ 1.7 Ghz (Northwood)
- DVD/CD-RW drive
- Floppy drive (hot swappable, you can remove it and add a second battery!)
- 1GB DDR400 Crucial memory
- Nvidia Geforce 4 Go 440 graphics
- 15.4" UXGA "Ultrasharp" screen
- Toshiba 40GB hard drive, 5400RPM
- Fresh install of Windows XP Professional

I managed to dig up most of the accessories I've purchased for it. As an added bonus, I will be including all of these accessories for FREE!


Added extras:

+ DLink 802.11b PCMCIA wireless adapter
+ ADStech two port USB 2.0 PCMCIA card
+ Logitech optical wheel mouse
+ FREE Dell laptop bag


Asking price is $310 + shipping.

killergamer
11-04-2007, 11:28 PM
The person is still selling it dose any one think its ok and a good deal or should i pass it?

Xpirate
11-05-2007, 07:20 PM
It would probably be all right for you. I'd still rather have one with built-in wireless card. The wireless card on mine sticks out and it won't fit in a laptop bag with it in.

TheGreatSatan
11-07-2007, 10:33 PM
DO NOT GET A FRIGGIN" DELL.

Go to Office Depot. You can get 15.4 inch Laptops with 120GB+ hard drives and 2GB of RAM for less than $700. I'm in charge of Technology there and I know 1st hand. The new sale add comes out every Sunday and there's always a sale

Also, the last sales quarter just ended and previous laptops that were once displays get an additional 10% off the register price.

TheGreatSatan
11-08-2007, 11:25 AM
For instance....

Item #548-815

Toshiba Satellite A215-S4757
15.4"
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-56 1.8GHz
2GB DDR2
250GB HD
Vista Premium
DVD Super-Multi
wireless b/g
4 USB, 1 Firewire, 1 S-Video
5-in-1 memory card reader

$699.99 Instant, no mail-ins

Crazy Buddhist
11-14-2007, 07:03 PM
The person is still selling it dose any one think its ok and a good deal or should i pass it?


For what you say you want to do there are budget laptops available. Based on the Pentium Dual Core T2060 chip - it's an end of line chip now but more than capable of what you want to do. It only has 1M of L2 cache but it's a real bargain and gives a fair bang for the buck.

The one I just bought has a 15.4" widescreen, 1G ram T2060 Dual core x 1.6ghz DVD/CD RW+- 80G HDD and Intel 945 Mobile Chipset graphics/

Right now I have Photoshop, WS_FTP and Bittorrent running plus this browser with three tabs, another browser with three tabs, notepad, a command prompt and I am watching live TV through a Hauppage TV Stick USB thingy in the corner of the screen.

It's doing all that quite happily and its running Vista, which works sweet with USB TV Tuner thingies - something XP never did. And you don't need more than 1G of RAM if the first thing you do is cut out all the crap you don't want from Vista.

:)

Example:

Sony VAIO VGN-N220E/B Dual Core T2060 1.6GHz 1GB @ $416.16 (http://www.yourdigitalelectronics.com/product_info.php?products_id=384)