# Cheap laptops? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551 "2005-03-02T03:44:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![remisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@remisser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/remisser)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/1 "2005-03-02T03:44:41Z")
Being poor, I want a laptop… I have saved 800 bucks over the past few years (squirreling away a dollar here and there while paying rent, bills, etc.) – and I want a laptop so I can make music on the go. Can I work with an $800 budget? Where online or in Massachusetts can I get the best bang for my buck? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/2 "2005-03-02T03:54:56Z")
There are many decent laptops in the $800 dollar range. That shouldn’t be much of a problem. Look in the Boston Globe on Sunday and take a look at the inner specials from CompUSA and Best Buy to get a feel for prices. Many people on this board hate Best Buy so take that into consideration. The best computer store in the Boston area is MicroCenter on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. It is important to actually look and feel laptops before you buy one (moreso than a desktop). They have people that can help you there. If you find one you like, look on the web, especially on [Newegg.com](http://www.newegg.com) to see if you can get a better price. Don’t buy any extra warranties or extra stuff that salespeople make huge bucks on. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/3 "2005-03-02T04:05:32Z")
[Here is just a sample from Newegg.com in your price range.](http://www.newegg.com/app/SearchProductResult.asp?Submit=Go&Range=&MINPRICE=500&MAXPRICE=850&DEPA=3&bop=and&page=2&listStyle=2). LIke I said though, you need to look at them first. They have some crazy special sometimes in the Sunday Globe. Look at those. If you want one in your price range that isn’t on sale, see if you can beat the price on the web. Some tips: 1. Get a 15" screen or bigger. 2. Get 256mb of RAM at the very least. 512mb would be way better. 3. Make sure it has a CD burner and preferably can play DVD’s as well. 4. Get at least a 40gb hard drive. 80gb or bigger would be much better but you are on a budget so something has to give. ---
**Author:** ![remisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@remisser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/remisser)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/4 "2005-03-02T04:55:58Z")
Most excellent. [newegg.com](http://newegg.com) seems to be the place to go. This is excellent. I will check the globe as well. I was pondering the idea of craigslist… but you can be scammed easily that way, right? :\ ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/5 "2005-03-02T05:09:07Z")
What I did when I was buying my laptop is to just periodically check the direct online stores (Gateway, Dell) and the ads in the paper. One of those places will end up running a special and you should be able to get a good deal. I would recommend going with a larger laptop in my opinion the smaller laptops aren’t worth the extra price. I ended up paying $950 (Free shipping too) for a 2.20 ghz 40 gb 512 mb ram CDR/W drive a year and a half ago. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/6 "2005-03-02T05:44:12Z")
[www.fatwallet.com](http://www.fatwallet.com) [www.anandtech.com](http://www.anandtech.com) (goto forums then hotdeals) people post deals… often you can get a pretty damn nice laptop in the 800 range. ---
**Author:** ![LordVor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/90ced4/32.png) [@LordVor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LordVor)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2005, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/7 "2005-03-02T06:31:40Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > 1. Get a 15" screen or bigger. Unless you want to use it on an airplane and you fly coach. ---
**Author:** ![remisser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@remisser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/remisser)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/8 "2005-03-07T11:25:03Z")
So I was discussing this with a friend and he said “you’re going to be making music with a laptop? The hard drive RPM’s won’t be able to handle music creation unless you get something like a raptor drive that has a good RPM.” ugh. What can I do? :\ ---
**Author:** ![kinoons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a698b9/32.png) [@kinoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kinoons)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/9 "2005-03-07T11:29:20Z")
Hard drive speed has little to do with music creation, aside from maybe how long it takes to access the data. The majority of desktops dont have 10,000 RPM drives either, so it wont be an issue. Your friend is mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![cluelessnoob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@cluelessnoob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cluelessnoob)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/10 "2005-03-07T12:17:04Z")
You should go with what Harmonix said. The best way to find a good deal is to look at those sites on a daily (or even hourly, if that’s possible) basis. Stores like BestBuy and CircuitCity often have amazing deals w/ rebates that amount to hundreds of dollars of savings. Look at the sites as often as you can (it’d help if you have a browser that supports grouped favorites), and you should be able to find a good sub-$800 laptop within a month or so. That’s what I did and I got a better laptop than I would’ve if I just went to newegg or whatever directly. If you can’t pay the pre-rebate price right away, BestBuy and CircuitCity usually offer financing too. It’s important to note that the best deals expire very quickly and the stores can go out of stock before you know it. So keep checking the sites and when you find something that matches your specs, act on it ASAP. Fatwallet isn’t the only site of its kind out there. Some other ones (I would say they’re better/cleaner) include: > **[Best Deals Online - Today's Best Daily Deals](https://www.dealnews.com/)** > > Today's best deals and coupons from across the web, vetted by our team of experts. We find ALL the best deals daily and handpick every single deal we post to ensure it is the best price available. [http://www.hotdealsclub.com/](http://www.hotdealsclub.com/) > **[Slickdeals: The Best Deals, Coupons, Promo Codes & Discounts](https://slickdeals.net/)** > > Your search for great deals and coupon savings ends here. Find the best bargains and money-saving offers, discounts, promo codes, freebies and price comparisons from the trusted Slickdeals community. [http://www.resellerratings.com/](http://www.resellerratings.com/) Anyway, if you choose to go that route, just make sure you follow up on the rebates carefully! ---
**Author:** ![cluelessnoob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df788c/32.png) [@cluelessnoob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cluelessnoob)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/11 "2005-03-07T12:24:14Z")
In fact, looking at those sites right now, [OfficeDepot currently has a pretty good laptop on sale](http://dealnews.com/articles/82108.html) for just $400 after rebates ($680 before). If possible, you’d probably want to upgrade the RAM to 512 MB+ and maybe get a bigger hard drive, especially if you’re going to be working with a lot of raw .WAV files for your music. A CD burner of some sort might be useful, too. Or you can wait and see if a better deal comes along… ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/12 "2005-03-07T21:42:42Z")
Just bought a laptop from Dell. If you go that route, I highly recommend their [outlet store](http://outlet.dell.com). Once you figure out exactly what you want, watch it for several days – you can sometimes get a really good deal if you’re patient. ---
**Author:** ![wnorthr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@wnorthr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wnorthr)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/13 "2005-03-07T22:51:51Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Just bought a laptop from Dell. If you go that route, I highly recommend their [outlet store](http://outlet.dell.com). Once you figure out exactly what you want, watch it for several days – you can sometimes get a really good deal if you’re patient. I did this too. My daughter’s been using it for a year and a half now with only a cd drive problem that they fixed over the phone. I kept looking at prices for a few months after that (cause I like to torture myself that way) and I never saw anything come close. I think Gateway has an outlet store too. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/14 "2005-03-07T23:19:54Z")
Since you said you’ll be “on the go”, make sure you invest in some mobile security. Laptop theft is the second most commonly reported business security breach. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/15 "2005-03-08T17:36:46Z")
I just got a $600 HP laptop from Circuit City about six weeks ago. Here’s what I got for my $600: 15" screen 512 MB RAM 60 GB hard drive 1.4 GHz processor CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive WiFi card I basically kept an eye on the ads to get an idea of where the market was, so I’d know a good deal when I saw it. I’m quite happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/16 "2005-03-08T21:15:49Z")
If you don’t need your soul, than Walmart’s website has a lamptop for just 550, plus soul. [http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product\_id=3163026](http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=3163026) It also has one for 500, but I wouldn’t buy it. Not for the Linux OS, but for the no name CPU. Yes, that’s right, a lamptop. They are counting on people to think it is a laptop. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-laptops/292551/17 "2005-03-08T21:50:55Z")
I just bought a used laptop from Universal Computers that has turned out to be very nice. $769 for [the E-machine 6805](http://universalcomputers.com/xcart/product.php?productid=70000079&cat=0&page=). It was cheaper then. Now it’s $829. It’s not a light laptop and doesn’t have a long battery life. But it’s very powerful and has nice features. I was a little dubious about the site but they sent me exactly what I ordered in good time and in good condition.