Okay new laptop question..What would you suggest for under $400??

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LandfillLumber said:
Tell me what to buy for $400 or less I'm computer stupid(I'm a carpenter,lol).Thanks for the helpful info. Victor
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Victor,

What do you want to be doing w/ the computer? If you want to just access e-mail, read IAP, and be able to haul up & down the stairs in your house, or out to the garage, that's one thing.

If you want to edit photos, videos, or play killer computer games, that's a different story :biggrin:

Tell us what your needs are, and we'll have more than the usual number of self-proclaimed experts chime in!

Regards,

hdtran
 
computer

Victor just go to micro center 14 mile and John R area Just east of I 75 reallllll far from your house. They are always sending me e mails and can hook you up for that price range. See you in 2 weeks at your house.


Dennis
Pine lumber :bananen_smilies104:
 
I will use it for internet stuff,I will use it to do simple photo editing(like get pics ready for the IAP),and I want to build my web site with the sotfware the web hosting place offers.I will load very little into the computer other then what it comes with.Does this help out?Thanks everyone,Victor
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200142

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215034

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BLK-DELL-M1330-2R&cat=NBB

http://www.compusa.com/applications/searchtools/item-Details.asp?EdpNo=7222027&sku=S445-170027

Brands to stay away from
Compaq
HP aka Compaq

Brands that can go either way
ASUS
DELL
Toshiba
Sony... pretty much the rest of them. There always seems to be one bad apple per product line (including ironically enough Apple ;) )
 
LandfillLumber said:
I will use it for internet stuff,I will use it to do simple photo editing(like get pics ready for the IAP),and I want to build my web site with the sotfware the web hosting place offers.I will load very little into the computer other then what it comes with.Does this help out?Thanks everyone,Victor
Click to expand...

I see you've got another thread going with some specific models.

Anyway, here are my $0.02 (but with inflation, maybe $.03 :biggrin:)

For your surfing the internet, just about anything you buy will handle that.

For simple photo editing (pics ready for IAP), use Irfanview. It's free for personal use, and does a great job resizing pictures down. (In fact, the photo editing software that comes with your digital camera will be able to resize your pictures, but I like Irfanview). Irfanview also can handle easy color correction (your indoor lighting is not white...). I think the requested donation for "business" usage is pretty reasonable.

Web editing is slightly different. Hosting tools can be either fairly resource intensive, or lightweight. I'm guessing that your hosting company is using fairly lightweight software (most of the heavy lifting done at the hosting company). An inexpensive (free or "donation-ware") program for writing documents is OpenOffice.

Speed: Can be greatly improved by uninstalling a lot of pre-installed software with any laptop or PC (free trial of MS-Office, etc.)

At your budget: Macs are just out of the question. You probably want a 14"-16" screen (10-13" screen will more easily hit your budget mark, but your eyes won't thank you...).

For an extra $100 (less than $500 incl tax, depending on where you live), check out your nearest warehouse store (say Costco). From Costco, you can get a fairly major name brand laptop with Intel i3 processor, 4GB RAM (what I consider "good enough"), Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 500GB hard drive, 8x DVD RW drive, memory card reader, wifi, 1366x768 15" widescreen display. By buying from Costco (I don't know about Sam's Club, but I wouldn't be surprised if they offer the same sort of deal), you get 90 day return and 2 year warranty. If you buy at mainstream electronics stores or mail order, your return privilege is usuallly 21 days or less, and you may be hit with restocking fees. Officemax, Staples, etc. may have loss-leader sales on nearly equivalent equipment.

Last but not least: Technical support with any of these machines will be minimal. Make a friend with a teenager for your tech support :biggrin: Dust and heat are the enemies of laptops. Don't operate them from your lap. Build a "lap desk" (from wood, what else?) for operating on your lap. Raise the rear end of the laptop a bit when operating for long periods of time, to get an air gap between the bottom of the machine and the desk. Occassionally, blow out (gently) accumulated dustbunnies from the machine (DAMHIKT...)

Best,

hdtran
 
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