I keep thinking I want a laptop, but can afford only the low end at best. They tend to be priced out of my range. (They don’t look like the kind of machine anybody could just assemble with a Radio Shack kit.)
What I want out of it is basic performance and connectivity. I want it to have the powerfulness to play my favorite game (Civ III), and most of all, the technical wizardry that would allow me to connect to the internet with my cell phone if I travel anywhere. Wondering if there is anything like that which I would have any hope of affording.
The low end of the IBM and DELL lines are about 1000. The low end of the Compaq, HP, Toshiba lines are typically on sale at Circuit City and elsewhere for around 900 - 1100 depending on sale and rebates in effect. CC had an amazing Black Friday deal on an HP for 699.
These would probably do everything you need. These bargain units typically have (a this time) about 1.4-1.5 gig processors, a 20 meg hard drive 14.1 inch screen, 8-16 megs video (some are shared video/RAM mem and some are not) and a DVD (few onboard CDRWs at this price point) which is enough to do what you want. What onboard hardware does the cell phone to net connection require? The unknown is the video requirements for your game. Notebook video chipsets (esp beginning levels) can do movie DVD playback fine but are not normally optimized for high end FPS type gameplay. If CIV III requires a lot of video horsepower, few (if any) beginning level notebooks are likely to satisfy you. Try before you buy.
I would not buy a notebook used unless the price was really fabulous given the relatively low prices for new units. I have had to fiddle with/fix many a used notebook for fun. Many notebooks have led hard lives. Go new with a warranty. Trust me on this.
Try Consumer Reports or amazon.com or circuitcity.com & find the laptop you want & read what people have to say about it. They do that on those web sites. There is no best, just what is… My credit card gives me twice the guarantee period usually for free.
Hie thyself to www.pricewatch.com and check out the deals there - if there are any.
I bought myself a refurbished Dell laptop (check under the Not Exactly New section of Pricewatch for refurbished deals) a while back and (while it’s now pretty dated, but so is my desktop) I’ve always been satisfied with it. It even managed to live through my stepping on it. However, it really doesn’t see much use.
Be warned, however - not all the deals they list there are actually available when you get to the website advertising them. I had a good amount of trouble actually getting a laptop from some of the advertisers. Use your noggin - if it looks like a reputable site, it’s probably better.
computergeeks.com (usually has some of all speeds)
Sometimes BestBuy.com has laptop specials. There was one (1.5 mhz? toshiba satellite) a week ago with a hefty $350 in rebates, came out to $550… plus tax on $900 Also, some magazines, Maxim for example have 10% off in store coupons for that place.
