Advice re: buying cheap home computer?

In My Humble Opinion
1

It’s been a while since I had to buy a new computer, and even longer since I had the money to worry about what was state-of-the-art. My home computer died and I need to replace it super-cheap. There are some good-looking deals at the local Microcenter in teh refurbished category, but I need some savvy help to sort them.

My primary confusion is in the names of all the chips. Is a Pentium P6200 as old and slow as it sounds? There are so many names and serial numbers attached to each one I can’t figure them out. . .

Thanks for any help/advice you can provide! :slight_smile:

What I’ll use it for:

E-mail

Excel files and MSWord for simple reading and correspondence.

Playing low-level games, pre-schooler stuff mostly. The most challenging thing we’re likely to load is “TheSims Medieval” (which may or may not have been what killed my last laptop. . .)

Storing/playing loads and loads of precious baby pictures, video, etc. These files always have at least one back-up source.

Bugging you guys with my inane chatter

Streaming Netflix and/or Amazon video.

Playing silly youtubes.

Here are some sample deals - what should I be looking for?

Toshiba Satellite A665D-S6059 Laptop Computer Refurbished - Charcoal
SKU: 333047

**1 new in stock **$283.41
[ul]
[li]<LI class=specs>AMD Phenom™ II P920 <LI class=specs>4GB DDR3 RAM[/li][li]500GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive[/li][/ul]Toshiba Satellite C675-s7200 Laptop Computer Refurbished - Black

SKU: 098285

**0 new in stock **$349.99
1 open box from: $314.96

[ul]
[li]Intel® Pentium B940 [/li][li]4GB DDR3-1066 RAM [/li][li]320GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive [/li][/ul]Toshiba Satellite L655-S5156 Laptop Computer Refurbished - Helios Grey

SKU: 823468

**0 new in stock **$359.99

1 open box from: $341.96
[ul]
[li]<LI class=specs>Intel® Pentium® P6200 [/li][/ul]
[ul]

<LI class=specs>4GB DDR3-1066 RAM

[li]320GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive [/li][/ul]Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv5-2134us 14.5" Laptop Computer Refurbished - Black Cherry

SKU: 216176

**10+ new in stock **$379.99
[ul]
[li]<LI class=specs>AMD Athlon™ II Dual-Core Processor P340 [/li][/ul]
[ul]

<LI class=specs>4GB DDR3 RAM

[li]500GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive [/li][/ul]ASUS UL80J-BBK5 Laptop Computer Refurbished - Black Aluminum

SKU: 529156

**1 new in stock **$386.99

1 open box from: $367.96
[ul]
[li]<LI class=specs>Intel® Core i3-330UM [/li][/ul]
[ul]

<LI class=specs>4GB DDR3-1066 RAM

[li]500GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive [/li][/ul]

2

If you’re set on a second-hand laptop, do check that it’s got a new battery. Or at least one that retains a decent charge.

3

Thanks! I woudl never have thought to ask that. . .

Definitely not set on anything, just looking to keep it below $400 and don’t have a monitor, sooooo. . . other options?

4

No advice on technical aspects, but if you just want a nice cheap household machine, I would highly suggest getting a laptop instead of a desk machine. It’s very useful to be able to move it around as needed inside the house.

Oh, I do have a technical consideration - look closely to make sure that it has a CD and DVD drive, and that it is a CD-R (recording) or DVD-R drive ***IF ***making CD photo albums or burned music is something you’re likely to do. Less useful if you’re “clouding” or store things in picasa or somesuch, but I do use my CD-R fairly regularly.

5

You say you’re looking for a home computer, then list a bunch of laptops as examples, then mention you don’t have (but apparently need) a monitor. So what exactly is it you’re looking for, a laptop or a desktop?

Unless you actually need a laptop, I’d recommend getting a desktop to get more bang for your buck.

As for where to look, believe it or not, Walmart is a pretty good source for reasonably priced computers, and they have an excellent return policy if there are any problems. <Prepares to get flamed by Walmart-haters>

P.S. I was talking less about going into a store and buying a PC off the shelf, and more about going to walmart.com and ordering from there. There’s a MUCH better selection that way. And with the Site-to-Store shipping, there is no extra shipping charges, you just pick it up at the store.

6

no, not really. It’s cut down quite a bit from the Core i5 and i7 on which it’s based, but it’s still a reasonably quick dual-core CPU that will easily handle your stated tasks.

I would just stick with something which is from a recognizable maker (Toshiba and HP are OK, some people seem to like Acer but I don’t have any direct experience with them,) has the screen size you want, and has enough hard drive space and memory. all of the ones you listed would probably meet your needs just fine. I would, however, probably stick with ones using Intel CPUs. I used to be an AMD fan but these days they have practically nothing to recommend them over Intel.

7

I also lean towards Intel these days, but AMD’s are still perfectly fine. In fact, when shopping with price as the primary concern, THAT is generally when I’d recommend AMD over Intel.

For example, this AMD desktop would fit the OP’s requirements perfectly:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Pavilion-p2-1033wb-Desktop-PC-Bundle-with-18.5-Monitor-AMD-Dual-Core-E-300-processor-3GB-DDR3-Memory-500GB-Hard-Drive/17218900
That’s a pretty good deal with the monitor and everything. Too bad it’s out of stock online… If you’re interested, you can put in your zipcode and check if it’s available locally, or call and find out when it might be available online.

ETA: I just tried putting in my zipcode for the heck of it, and that PC is available at the Walmart less than a mile from my house and a few others local to me, so it looks like it’s fairly ubiquitous.

8

I wouldn’t get a laptop as my home computer, they’re more expensive for what you get. If it’s been a long time since you had a new computer even the cheapest model is probably going to be so much better than your old one that you don’t have to worry about getting the latest and greatest features.

If you stood in the middle of any public place and said loudly “Anyone have an old monitor they dont’ want?” you would probably get 20 people begging you to take theirs. So what if it’s not a flat screen, you can get one later when finances allow. I would get a free monitor from somewhere and buy the best new desktop I could find for under $400.00.

I see laptops as a poorer choice for a home computer for repair reasons too. If something on a desktop breaks you can usually swap it out yourself for cheap but a lot of laptops are not repairable at all especially to regular users.

9

cheap destktops are usually integrated enough such that they’re not all that much more repairable than laptops anymore. everything is integrated into the CPU/chipset or motherboard.

10

For $400 you can buy a brand new HP with a quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive. These aren’t what I’m looking for in my next computer (I’m buying something from the middle to high end of their high preformance line fairly soon) but they should do what you want and more without the risk of having issues from being refurbished. Or you could drop by Walmart, Target or Best Buy, who have packages with monitors for $400 or so, but you’ll probably be looking at less RAM and a smaller hard drive as a trade off.

11

IME one of the biggest issues is a side effect of their benefits…you can move it around, but they get dropped, stepped on, cords yanked on and jacks broken, these kinds of repairs are orders of magnitude less common on desktops and are not covered under warranty.

12

One of the things that makes me like the refurbished laptops is they generally used to be business leases and come loaded with the full Microsoft Office professional or close to it. Of course, the bad thing is you don’t get the disks, even for the OS.

Hmmm. Some good thoughts here. I can’t think of any reason why a desktop wouldn’t work.

13

I hate to be a buzz killer, but I did not see what caused your old computer to die. If “super cheap” is important, is the diagnosis on the failure so bleak as to rule out a repair? Power supplies are cheap. Hard drives are fairly cheap. Memory is cheap. Only the motherboard would point me towards new and that would require an accurate diagnosis rather than a guess. If you just want a new computer, I totally understand that emotion too.

14

Well, we don’t know exactly what caused it. I only know that I loaded TheSims Medieval right before it happened. It was kind of a while ago, and I’ve been making do with my work laptop ever since. But the limitations of the coprorate firewall are seriously chafing.

The OS won’t load past DOS and I don’t have the disks. (Yes, it was a post-lease laptop purchase). So I’d have to pay to have it backed up, then buy a new copy of Windows and MS Office in order to load them back on, All of which comes to more than buying another one. Only then would I know what it might cost to restore the old files. Not to mention that it probably does need a battery. (Won’t start at all unless plugged in, won’t load past DOS when plugged in.)

Pretty sure it’s not worth it. Also haven’t been inside a computer chassis since the 236 chip went out of style, so if something obvious screams at you please do tell.

15

The Sims Medieval claims it needs a Dx 9 graphics card with 258mb of memory. What sort of graphics card does your old machine have? I don’t know how it would do with Intel integrated graphics.

Here’s couple of cheap desktops - the Acer has a graphics card the Leonova is integrated. Integrated is fine for all your other tasks, of course.

Acer
Leonovo

Oh here - a fairly decent Leonovo Ideapad for $429

lenovo IdeaPad Z575 (129929U) Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3400M(1.4GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 6520G

16

well, the thing about “refurbished” is that you don’t really know the origin. it might be something that:

  1. was returned as defective, inspected, judged “no trouble found”
  2. was returned as defective, repaired, and retested
  3. had it’s packaging damaged sufficiently in transit or storage that it now has to be re-inspected and can’t be sold as new
  4. has been used for a while and has gone through a recertification process.

Basically, if it can’t be sold as “new,” it’s “refurbished.” which isn’t bad, mind you; I’m typing this on a refurbished laptop while watching the Giants-49ers game on a refurbished TV. both looked brand-spanking-new when I unboxed them

17

Sims 3 / Sims Medieval are in my experience rather demaning games (since they have real time 3D rendering). I have a dual processor system with a mid range, 1 GB graphics card, and I have to turn down some of the settings to get it to run acceptably. Systems coming off business leases are more for office drones typing emails, the Sims might run but I’d imagine you’d have to turn down the eye candy significantly in order to get a decent level of performance.

18

OK, good info. So no worries at all about taking the TheSims of the table. I really don’t have much time for it anyway.

19

Probably people here will point and laugh at me, but my desktop is an eMachine from Wal-Mart in June 2010, for just over $300, as I recall.
http://www.emachines.com/ec/en/US/content/products

I do everything you mention in your OP except games.

20

I’d have to disagree with that statement.
Sure the motherboard is highly integrated, but a desktop case still has better airflow, a better power supply (even on cheap models), and easily replaceable storage devices (CD/DVD/BR, HDD). Plus, usually at least the ability to upgrade the video (at a minimum) later if needed.

And the biggest failure point of laptops doesn’t exist - the display isn’t an integral part of the box.