Cheap notebooks

[W2R]

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.

Thanks. What a PITA. I think I've had mine for 90 days (will doublecheck the date on my receipt later) but I'll go check their website to see if it's a year on this model.

I just checked the local Best Buy ad and the Dell is back up to $549. That was quick!

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Finally decided on a Dell Vostro. CFB helped out a lot. Thanks My new baby should be here shortly..woo woo

 

[OAG]

W2R: If you purchased it with a VISA/MASTER card (or other card) you may have a "double" warranty. My VISA does not but many do. You will have to either call the card issuer or read the documentation that came with the card (probably easier to call).

 

[samclem]

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).

When my Toshiba crumped out approx a year ago (it was 2 yrs old) I found out that it was part of a mass service action and that the repair would be free. It was done at a local Toshiba-authorized service center. Call Toshiba and they'll probably give you a reference number and a referral to a local fix-it shop.

My repair went well and it keeps chugging along just fine. Maybe it's not the best laptop out there, but it has been reliable for me, and I travel quite a bit with it.

 

[W2R]

When my Toshiba crumped out approx a year ago (it was 2 yrs old) I found out that it was part of a mass service action and that the repair would be free. It was done at a local Toshiba-authorized service center. Call Toshiba and they'll probably give you a reference number and a referral to a local fix-it shop.

My repair went well and it keeps chugging along just fine. Maybe it's not the best laptop out there, but it has been reliable for me, and I travel quite a bit with it.

Thanks, RWood and samclem.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Gabe and I were scaring employees at Best Buy earlier this afternoon and I noticed they have a Toshiba 15.4", dual core, 1GB, 120GB, vista premium laptop for $449.

Toshiba - Satellite Laptop with Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T2370 - Onyx Blue Metallic - A205-S5825

Its in-store only, so you'll have to hoof it over there. Nice keyboard and screen.

You might want to add an extra GB of ram, which might require buying 2GB if there are 2 x 512MB sticks in there already. If its got a 1GB stick in it, then you'll only need to buy 1GB. Or stick a 2GB fast SD card in it and put Speedboost on it.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

ThinkPad R61e 7650 Laptop Computer Notebook- C 540 / 1.86 GHz - RAM : 512 MB - HD : 80 GB - CD-RW / DVD - Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : 802.11b/g - Win XP Pro - 15.4'' Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - TopSeller - 765084U - Buy.com

Underinspiring Thinkpad with weak features for a low price as far as thinkpads go.

Celeron 540, 512MB ram, 80GB disk, cd burner/dvd reader.

About the only good things with this are that its cheap for a thinkpad, and it has a the trackpoint instead of a touchpad. Some people love 'em. I actually like the trackpoint a good bit but I used thinkpads so much I got a little RS thing in the middle of my hand from them, so no more.

Fine for basic surfing and office apps. Built well. Everyone who sees it will think you paid a lot.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Nice officemax coupon that somehow has escaped onto that internet thing and now everyone can have it. Drat!

$100 off any computer at officemax.

This one looks nice on sale, decent for $449 after coupon. Dual core, 2GB ram, 250GB hard drive, 15.4" screen...you'll need to go into the store with a cutout copy of the coupon to get the deal. Its possible they may stop accepting these coupons in the next few days, so go quick...

Acer Aspire AS5730-4353 15.4" Notebook PC INTEL 15.4" Widescreen 250 GB Windows Vista Home Premium Pentium Dual-Core 2048 MB at OfficeMax
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[cute fuzzy bunny]

Hmmm...15" too small, 17" too big? Something a little different. Not super cheap but pretty well loaded...

Buy the Acer Aspire AS6920-6621 16" Widescreen Laptop and other Laptop computers at circuitcity.com

Core 2 duo, 3GB ram, 320GB hard drive, 16" screen, Vista home premium. $699

A little heavy...this weighs more than my 17" which is on the light side for 17's. More memory and hard drive than I have though.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

This ones okay for $519:

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5270 (1.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
1 Year Basic Limited Warranty plus 1 Year Mail-in Service
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Anti-Glare Display
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
8X CD/DVD+RW Read and Burn CD and DVD
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
Dell Exclusive MediaDirect™ Instant Play Software Application
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Wi-Fi Internal Card
No Webcam Option

You can bump the dvd writer to a DL with Roxio for free, and you can also bump the video from the x3100 to an nvidia 8400 for free. Updating the warranty from one year mail in to one year onsite is $39 and to go to two years onsite is $79.

 

[Marquette]

I just spent $2000 on a new desktop. I guess I kind of screwed up on the LBYM part ;-)

 

[dex]

I just spent $2000 on a new desktop. I guess I kind of screwed up on the LBYM part ;-)

What did you get for that amount? And what do you do with it - maybe it was worth the price.

I spent $750 for a Lenovo desktop with with a 19" monitor. I feel that I overpaid by about $100-200 based upon what has been posted about desktops. I use it for email, surfing the web and watching TV.

 

[Marquette]

What did you get for that amount? And what do you do with it - maybe it was worth the price.

It's an Intel Core 2 Quad core with 8 GB of RAM and four 160 GB drives in a RAID 0+1 configuration.... and a 22" monitor.

I went for value, but even then... Luckily, there was more of this O0 and less of this on the home front.

 

[dex]

It's an Intel Core 2 Quad core with 8 GB of RAM and four 160 GB drives in a RAID 0+1 configuration.... and a 22" monitor.

I went for value, but even then... Luckily, there was more of this O0 and less of this on the home front.

4 x 160GB drives = 540gb of storage - what are you storing on theses things?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Some sort of video...

Fry's has a Compaq desktop for $199 and a toshiba laptop for $379. In store only so you're SOL if you dont have one around. Better get out there as these will sell out quick if they're not gone already.

 

[Marquette]

4 x 160GB drives = 540gb of storage - what are you storing on theses things?

They're mirrored so it's 2x160.

But they're striped too so they're really fast.

I'm storing virtual machines. Basically, my host computer is running 2 virtual operating systems plus I have a couple more stored for other specific work.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Buy the Acer Extensa EX5620-4025 15.4" Widescreen Laptop and other Laptop computers at circuitcity.com

Not bad. A dual core 1GB/120GB vista premium acer for $449.

 

[free4now]

Be careful about Acer... when I was researching laptops they seemed to have significantly higher than average quality and service issues.

But they do have some great deals.

 

[Delawaredave5]

I've had good experience with geeks.com a lot of "refurbs" are repackages of returns.

Cheap Laptops, Discount Laptops, Notebook Computers, Laptop Computers, Refurbished Laptops, at Geeks.com

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Vostro 1500 15.4".

Some actually cheap upgrades to this. Core 2 duo upgrade for free, an extra gb of ram for $25, upgrade from the cd writer to the dvd writer for $15, and get a 120gb hard drive instead of 80 for $5.

Looks like you could tweak up a pretty good machine for $449-499.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Costco - ACER Extensa EX5620-4025 15.4" W Intel® T2370 1GB RAM 120GB HDD

Not bad if you're a costco member. Intel dual core, 1gb ram, 120gb hard drive, 15.4" screen, dvd DL writer, vista premium for $499.

Whats nice is you get a 90 day no questions asked return, 2 years full warranty, and costco gives you the tech support through their concierge service so you dont have to deal with cruddy tech support.

Only thing thats not good is the 2 hour reported battery life. Thats a little weak.

Not super cheap, but readily available and maybe a good choice for someone who wants to try it and be able to take it back and be well supported in the warranty and technical question area.

 

[Danny]

Well its not that cheap but helped daughter buy a Dell 1525 3gig ram 160 HD 15.4 3 year at home warranty - with alumni discount - $875 complete.

Dell and others have educational discounts - with Dell you can be a student, a parent, work at a school, or an alumni. Here's a link to my computer shopping experience including the Dell vs Apple decision.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Newegg.com - Acer Extensa EX5620-4025 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T2370(1.73GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 1GB Memory DDR2 667 120GB HDD DVD Super Multi Intel GMA X3100 - Laptops / Notebooks

Use code "EMCAGBKAH" for $50 off bringing it to $400.

Not too shabby for a basement price.

 

[TromboneAl]

I made the mistake of making a side-by-side comparison of my E1505 with DW's refurbished $399 Inspiron 1525. Her screen is way brighter and better. Until then, I liked mine.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Everything looks great until you put it in a side by side comparison.

So...dont do that!

The basic Dell screens are pretty mundane compared to some of the entry screens from toshiba and acer. Its not a bad idea to bump a notch or two for $50-75 where available.

But if you dont put it next to another computer, you'll probably never notice.