Cheap notebooks

I've always liked the feel of toshiba keyboards, and they usually put a good screen on them. The 14" one I had as my last machine had a lot of flex in the chassis, which I wasnt fond of. But it hung in there for 3 years and I got about half of what I paid for it when I sold it on craigs list. Every time I picked it up from the corner with one hand it felt like it was gonna wobble and snap off.
 
Neither super great nor super cheap, but okay if you want a laptop in a particular color and these meet the bill :)

Gateway with a dual core, 2GB ram, 120GB hard drive, webcam, vista premium, $599 in red, blue or some funky light blue flower pattern...

Never touched a gateway machine, but they're getting okay reviews. I think gateway is owned by Acer now, so no worries about the company disappearing.

Gateway Computers: Store - M Series-S

Uncheck all the BS addons like Office, the 3 year warranty and the Norton subscription, and use the code FLOWER at checkout to get an extra $100 off.

This is about even with the Dell deal that was at bestbuy for $499, but that didnt come in all these pretty colors ;)
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
I've always liked the feel of toshiba keyboards, and they usually put a good screen on them. The 14" one I had as my last machine had a lot of flex in the chassis, which I wasnt fond of. But it hung in there for 3 years and I got about half of what I paid for it when I sold it on craigs list. Every time I picked it up from the corner with one hand it felt like it was gonna wobble and snap off.
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After reading this, I tried to pick my 15.4" Toshiba up from the corner with one hand and you're right - - my hand felt like it was gonna wobble and snap off! :2funny: <~~~ (sorry attempt at humor!)

But seriously, though I do believe you about the 14" ones, the Toshiba 15.4" laptops are well over 6 pounds and over 17" on the diagonal. Their center of gravity is somewhat removed from one's hand when picking one up from one corner with one hand like that. To do so with ease takes more muscle and a stronger wrist than mine. Maybe the flex in the chassis would be a concern to someone thus endowed. Before today, I have always picked mine up with two hands, one on the middle of each side. The metal case seems to protect it sufficiently for travel.
 
Yeah, it never amounted to anything in terms of reliability. It just felt a little cheap.

One of the things you need to worry about with computers is flex in circuit boards and connectors. Even overtightening a couple of screws in a mainboard when mounting it in a chassis can cause an iffy trace in the PCB to become defective. A lot of cable connectors in laptops are pretty close tolerance too, so a little bending over a long period of time can cause a cable to unseat.

Seems they did some "sculpting" on the case to reduce size and weight, and thats a good thing, but that little bit of wiggle always made me a bit nervous.

Fer crying out loud, first you shift to lighter pans and now to lighter computers! Time to do some wrist and forearm exercises M'am! ;)
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
Fer crying out loud, first you shift to lighter pans and now to lighter computers! Time to do some wrist and forearm exercises M'am! ;)
Click to expand...

Tee-hee! :2funny: So true, so true.... :) I lift a lot more than that at the gym, but the weight machines don't usually exercise my puny wrists very much!
 
My Dell Latitude L400 (which I bought in 2000 and still ran on Windows 2000 pro) died last week. I don't know what happened, I shut it down one day, no problem, the next day I couldn't restart it. I thought it was a windows problem, so I reinstalled, but I kept getting the same error message (something to do with networking...). So, since it was starting to fall apart anyways, I decided to splurge on a brand new laptop this morning.

Anyways, I went to circuit city and got a HP Pavilion dv6833us for $700. I don't know if it qualifies as a cheap laptop for you guys, but I think it's a pretty good price. It has 3GB DDR2 RAM, 250GB hard drive, 15.4" widescreen (glossy and high def), Intel dual core processor (1.83 GHz), built-in webcam. For the cons... It's HEAVY, and not very well balanced. It runs on VISTA premium (I would prefer XP). and it's probably not the ideal laptop for gaming. But overall I thought it was good value.
 
Staples has the 17" Acer Aspire AS7720-6569, which is a similar model to the laptop I own, for $579 on clearance, in store only as far as I know. Thats pretty cheap...mine has a faster processor but it went for $599 and I thought that was a steal for a 17".

7.4lbs; 1.66GHz Core 2 Duo; 2GB RAM; 160GB HDD; DL DVD+/-RW; 802.11a/b/g; Vista Home Premium; SD card reader. Runs pretty cool, fan hardly ever kicks in and you cant hear it when it does.

Screen is nice, its 1440x900. Big full size keyboard. A little thinner and lighter than the Dell 17" models.

Try picking this one up with one hand W2R... ;)
 
And that dollar figure, adjusted for inflation, would be $14,717 today.

It would have been hard to believe in '89 that we'd be buying laptop machines with 1000 times the RAM for 5% of that price in 2008 (and still knocking ourselves out to find them cheaper!).
 
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I remember back then talking about how in 15 years we'd have something the power of a mainframe that'd be small enough to put under a desk and thinking that such an idea was pretty much ludicrous.

I stuck my head in the Staples next to Sams Club while i was over there shopping and they had four of those 17" acers sitting on the shelf.

People at Sams Club were cracking me up. Everyone had a huge bag of rice in their carts and there were about 10 people stacked up at each gas pump. Usually theres one or two.

So I guess this recession may be good for the warehouse clubs.
 
Good thing no one is onto the beef jerky shortage yet


Oh ya I still need a laptop :( Im having problems making that commitment.
 
Acer Aspire 7720-6307 17'' Widescreen Intel Core 2 Duo notebook T5450, 250GB hard drive, Blu-ray Disc drive,2GB of DDR2 memory,Built-in wireless 802.11abg,5-in-1 media card reader - LX.ALN0X.254 - Buy.com

Not bad if you're looking for something heavy duty for desktop media replacement purposes.

Core 2 Duo, 2GB ram, 250GB hard drive, 17" display, Blu-Ray dvd WRITER (thats expensive!), 256MB 8400M graphics, 8 cell battery, $899.

Similarly configured lappies are running around $1100-1300ish, so thats a good deal.

If you're interested in playing blu-ray disks, and making your own, and you need a big honking laptop too...

Use this link to get an extra $15 off: Coupons - Buy.com
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
The $499 Inspiron is back in stock at Best Buy

Dell - Inspiron Laptop with Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2370 - Jet Black - I1525-100B

Cant do much better than this deal for a well equipped 15" notebook. Dual core, 2GB ram, 160GB drive, etc.
Click to expand...
I just might get this one.

I am having trouble with my Toshiba 15.4" laptop with Vista that I bought just a few months ago. Or maybe it's trouble with mouses (mice?).

First, after working just fine for a little while there was only intermittent response to my Kensington mouse, and I figured that I had probably crunched the cord. So, I bought a Targus mouse with a retractable cord, which worked just fine for a couple of weeks but as of this week it is now doing the same thing. (Both mouses were under $20... no big deal).

Windows says the driver is up to date, and there isn't any driver on the Targus site. I am beginning to think that maybe it's the USB ports. I have the same trouble with all three of them, though. No problem using the touchpad, but I hate touchpads.

Otherwise, I'm happy with my Toshiba setup. So, I will probably buy one more Kensington mouse, and if that doesn't fix the problem, maybe I'll get the above Dell. :(
 
They already jerked the price back up to $549. Check your local ad on the bestbuy web page, it may be listed there at $499 and you could call them to order it and ask them to honor the sale price in your circular. I think the problem is that there arent any in store anymore and they think they can get a little more for the few they have in stock to ship out.

These cheap deals tend to work for about a day, maybe two.

But another one'll be along soon.

Have you tried any other usb devices and are you seeing trouble with those? Might just be a loose connection inside to the usb connectors. Hard to get to though.

If you just got it a couple of months ago, isnt it still under warranty?
 
I haven't tried any other USB devices lately. Probably should, just to check. One of the USB connectors seems to be pretty wiggly, so at first I thought it was the problem but I have the same trouble with all three of them.

Good thought on the warranty. I didn't even think to look. I'll check tonight. I noticed on Saturday that my local Best Buy supposedly still had the Dell (according to the website), but by now who knows. If not, it won't kill me to use the touchpad until another deal comes along.

Basically, I don't need much of a system, but need the blankety blank mouse to work. I really hate touchpads. Thanks.
 
Check with toshibas web site for the warranty. Its either 90 days or 1 year.
Toshiba Support -

These things all get slapped together so fast its not uncommon to have something a little loose. I always recommend making sure you have at least a one year warranty.

I think toshiba is all mail-in though, so you'll have to box it up and ship it to them. All but guaranteed they'll wipe your hard drive while they're at it, so make a backup.
 
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