Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Ruler2 on February 26, 2010, 07:17:15 PM

Title: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Ruler2 on February 26, 2010, 07:17:15 PM
Well, I got a friend that asked me about a laptop today, he is looking for a good one for around $400, he won't be using it for gaming, mainly internet surfing and photo browsing. He DID tell me he needed a CD/DVD drive, so netbooks are out of the question.

I told him that he would want to look for one with Windows 7, 2GB or more RAM, and an Intel Core 2 Duo or Atom/ AMD Athlon II or better.  Do any of you guys know a laptop in that price range that would fit that picture? Or something that would work good enough?
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Meatwad on February 26, 2010, 07:31:04 PM
I thought the Atom processors are used mostly for the netbooks. Wouldnt think they would give much processing power

Myself personally I would stay away from windows 7/vista or whatever it is called now. Try to see if he can get a used one with XP on it. I cant stand vista at all
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Shuffler on February 26, 2010, 07:46:27 PM
I thought the Atom processors are used mostly for the netbooks. Wouldnt think they would give much processing power

Myself personally I would stay away from windows 7/vista or whatever it is called now. Try to see if he can get a used one with XP on it. I cant stand vista at all

I stayed with XP pro for years. I recently built a new machine and installed Windows 7 Pro. It is so good I upgraded the other 4 machines here and my daughters Laptop. I highly recommend Win 7 Pro.

Toshiba makes some pretty decent less expensive machines along with HP.
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Ruler2 on February 26, 2010, 09:32:10 PM

Toshiba makes some pretty decent less expensive machines along with HP.

Alright, I'll see what I can find! Although I will not recommend HP to anybody, their customer support is terrible, the BIOS is locked, they put idk HOW many GBs of extra crud on my PC that I would never need nor use,etc...
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Spikes on February 26, 2010, 10:51:36 PM
Netbook is good if he wants to have a CD drive that is detachable. They are great when not using it, extremely compact. They will do surfing and photo browsing easily but you'll need to buy a USB CD rom drive...that'll run you about 350-400 total.

I think Walmart has nice low laptop prices now...but 400 is quite low for a laptop with a good amt of RAM...I'd suggest bumping it up to 600...options would open up like heck.

As per HP...just reformat with your own copy of windows. Toshiba and Dell do the same, Dell to a lesser extent. My Dell cost 1000 but I upgraded it to hell.

Windows 7 is great as well...especially for notebooks.
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: AAJagerX on February 27, 2010, 01:00:34 PM
Wasn't sure about Win 7 when I first upgraded (got a copy of win 7 Ultimate from my college for $10)...  I'm a total believer now though.  Outstanding OS.

AAJagerX
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Ruler2 on February 27, 2010, 03:08:03 PM
What is your college? :devil
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Maverick on February 27, 2010, 03:49:58 PM
Start looking at WalMart online for laptops and compare the specs and prices to Best Buy. Getting a decent laptop under $400 should be easy and that will be with Win 7, CD/DVD read write drive at least 2 gigs RAM and a 250 Gig HD.

We got my wife a Toshiba with 3 gigs RAM, AMD processor (2.5 or 2.8 Mhz IIRC), 250 gig HD, CD / DVD r/w drive and 15" screen for $375 from wallyworld. just about Christmas time or so.
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Fulmar on February 27, 2010, 04:23:18 PM
We got my wife a Toshiba with 3 gigs RAM, AMD processor (2.5 or 2.8 Mhz IIRC), 250 gig HD, CD / DVD r/w drive and 15" screen for $375 from wallyworld. just about Christmas time or so.
Wow thats fast! :D
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Ruler2 on February 27, 2010, 04:43:49 PM
Yeah, I read a review and it said it only took 3 DECADES to get to the login screen, that's BLAZING FAST!   :D
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: AAJagerX on February 27, 2010, 05:08:31 PM
What is your college? :devil

Just a C.C. in Des Moines.  IIRC, MS is practically giving it away as long as you're enrolled in an accredited U.S. college.  Saved me $300, so I'm happy.

AAJagerX
Title: Re: Need some help on laptops!
Post by: Ruler2 on February 27, 2010, 05:52:09 PM
Just a C.C. in Des Moines.  IIRC, MS is practically giving it away as long as you're enrolled in an accredited U.S. college.  Saved me $300, so I'm happy.

AAJagerX


Time to make dad go back to college like he said he was gonna do! lol