Laptop info needed. Never used wireless LAN

[JB]

Looks good. If you want smaller notebook check out this Acer is pretty close to the system you're looking at and is on sale for $399. Don't know about shipping. The Travelmate is a 14" WXGA screen, which I prefer over the 15" XGA on the Compaq. The compaq has a 5200rpm HD which is nice. I don't know how fast the Acer's is. IN both cases you'll need another 256MB memory.

One thing you should consider is how long you want to use the machine. The cheapies might not be the best choice if you want the machine to last more than 2 years.

A few weeks ago Dell was offering incredible deals on machines w/ Pentium-M and Dual-core processors. You need to use the coupons on the notebookforums.com . These machines will have more longevity provided they don't break.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Please find em a superioir machine for under 400...i bet you cant. If so, I will buy it!

I've searched fatwallet already to no avail.

And WTF is a WAB on dell?

You're in luck. I'm only charging $150 to look for a notebook for someone. This week only. Next week its $250. Better jump on this deal!

WAB is another user here, who I dont think i've seen on in a while. He scrounges the Dell Outlet, which is full of machines people ordered and then cancelled. Dell builds custom to order, so anything cancelled has to be sold as-is to someone else. Theres also some refurbs and "scratch and dents" with cosmetic issues. You plug in your minimum specs and keep hitting refresh until you see something you want at a price you like, then buy it. Quickly. Because people actually have scripts and racks of systems polling the dell refurbs for the best deals, scrape them up and resell them on ebay. Its a HUGE little microcosmic symbiotic business.

I nailed a pretty good looking machine for a great price after poking 'refresh' for a couple of hours over a couple of days, but when it was delivered, it didnt have some of the expensive options in it that were advertised. I asked Dell to take it back and send me the machine I bought, they finally agreed to eat the machine but told me i'd have to go back and play for another couple of hours in the outlet center until I found another machine that suited me. Oh yeah, this is after I sat on hold for a couple of hours in total, got disconnected or transferred to the wrong department a half dozen times, and just generally decided to never buy anything from them again.

Dell used to offer you money to keep the machine, as taking it back, refreshing it and reselling it costs a fair amount. Had they offered me a hundred bucks to keep it, I would probably have done so. Instead, it cost them almost that much to ship it both ways. Morons.

Perhaps you'd have better luck. Wab seems to have done well, so he says.

 

[kathyet]

We have a wireless laptop we have a 802 11g router (linksy) we also have a wireless mouse(bluetooth) just plugged it in and it works great especially if you play on line poker. the Laser mouse we had at first worked fine but it didn't last long at all.  We have a 15 inch screen and love it. We don't have it networked to our main computer but it can be done. It is great when we travel and we usually always keep the computer plugged in it only has a few hours of battery time so you might consider a second battery.

The only thing I would recommend would be to buy it somewhere that has a good service dept or someone that can build it to your specs you might spend a few hundred dollars more but it might be worth it.

we got ours at fry's and we didn't buy the service warranty big mistake it went down after 3 months  the hard drive was under warranty but it still had to be mailed back for replacement took almost a month..thank goodness we have a local computer company that took care of it for us but it cost us to have it repaired that is why I would recommend some one local build it. If you don't do that BUY a Service Warranty.

Good Luck
Kathyet 

 

[thefed]

Compaq Presario V5000Z notebook w/ AMD Sempron 3000+ 1.8GHz, 15.4in WXGA screen 1280x768, 256MB, 60GB, DVD/CDRW, 32MB Radeon 200M XPRESS video, 56k/NIC, free 54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/125HSM, XP Home, 1yr warranty for only $725 - $150 off - $100 rebate (exp 8/29) = $475.

I can add a 512 of ram for 50 bux

Seems liek a better processor, bigger hard drive than previous models i've come accross

opinions?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Eh, its about the same performance processor. It'll do the job, but nothing to write home about.

Four or six cell battery? If its a four, battery wont last long.

 

[thefed]

Eh, its about the same performance processor. It'll do the job, but nothing to write home about.

Four or six cell battery? If its a four, battery wont last long.

6 cell.

i've always heard amd processors trump intel. that was for desktops 2 yrs back, but i aSSumed it still applies.

i built my home pc from scratch 2 yrs back...i wish it was that easy with notebooks

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Actually in most analyses, the sempron is considered one of the worst processors currently in the marketplace, but since its got a little more MHz behind it its probably close to the celeron in the 1.4-1.6GHz range. The celerons nothing to write home about, but the celeron-m's arent that bad. I've actually used a celeron-m 1.6 machine and a simpron 3000 machine in the last year. Simpron seemed a little more sluggy but they were about the same for what you're going to use them for.

If you want something good, a pentium-M is pretty decent for price/performance. The turion's arent horrible and you can get a lot of bang for the buck out of them.

For about a hundred bucks, maybe a hundred and fifty, more than you're looking at with this machine, you could get the half gig of ram, an older pentium-m, a dvd burner, a 60-100gb drive and a 15" screen.