How low is your budget!?

200-400

Wow.

eh... the cheapest Dell you can find or a no-name brand would probably be your only options in that bracket.

okay, thank you

if you're willing to use Linux (which is very easy and much better than windows/osx), i recommend an EEE or something similar

My advice was going to be "buy the best you can afford, so it will last longer". However, I think you're in a buy-whatever-you-can-find type of situation.

I would consider just saving up for a better one because with that money you're gonna get a shitty fucktacular piece of junk that is probably already obsolete.



SAVE.

you can get an excellent laptop for $400. don't worry.

have those new solid-state Dells been released yet, or was that just an announcement?



and what you can find might depend on what you mean by decent memory...

okay thank you all this helps me a lot :)

Also (and i know this is kinda silly) but saving up will let you afford a lighter one. No sense in having a laptop if you don't want to/can't carry it with you.



There were several differences that made mine more expensive than the one my sister bought, and that's what she envies of mine the most (size/weight).

Yeah uh, you're just looking for the most basic type of laptop, so it just goes down to how much you're willing to spend.

I always get my electronic stuff from new egg. This laptop is freaking awesome and was only $600, and runs adobe illustrator/photoshop/flash/aim/msn/itunes/500 firefox tabs all at once and doesn't really slow down (unless it's been on all day). I just got a sony vaio that was pretty similar to...







Here's a link to their cheapest laptops







I'd probs save up if I were you, though. Your choice!

oh messed up my HTML. lol.



Link to a laptop similar to what I got



Link to cheap laptops

Just go for the Dell. Assuming you don't throw it around, drop it, or click on any strange links, you should be fine.

keep an eye out for sales pc lappys can be found in (the upper end) of your stated price range



you might look at overstock.com also they have refurbs in that ballpark.



The Acer Aspireone A150 is in the price range (much more usable keyboard size vs. and EEE in my view (typing on an Aspireone even now) blah blah blah $350



However it is quite small 8.9" screen 1024x600 resolution and the atom proc is fine for basic usage but is not a powerhouse by any stretch.... in my case I knew exactly what I needed from the AAO and thus far it has worked excellent for me..but you have to understand what it is and can do and be ok with that going into it.





oh yeah.. newegg.com had some refurb lappys in your price range last time i looked as I recall.

again thank you guys your advice does really help

How long would it take for you to add another $100-$200 to your budget? It is probably going to be worth it to do so. If you get whatever you can afford it might work but it's going to be good enough to last you.

My little sister saved up her pennies and stayed up all night on black friday and got a sweet ass laptop for around 6oo hundred. I forget the specifics, but serious kick assness.

yeah black friday is in like 3 months I'll probably ATLEAST wait until then and see what the prices are

Gonna break it down, since I'm bored.



ASUS EEE - $380-$400

like someone said, would be a good laptop if you really want to go that cheap.

This thing is very small.

target="_blank">Youtube video that shows you it

Normal computers have a harddrive that has a disc that spins around, and thus if you drop it when it's spinning and trying to read something, you can really screw them up. EEE's have a solid-state harddrive, where there are no moving parts, so moving it around when it's turned on is pretty safe (and dropping it is safeR, but you still don't want to do that)

It's only got 16 GB hd space, though, and with an operating system like Windows Vista on it and even just the basic programs, there won't be much room for anything else. Definitely have room for pictures and e-mail and saved chat and stuff, but don't expect to be putting a ridiculous amount of music on it. I've used up 100 gigs of memory on my pc right now...34 gigs being music. But I've also got like the full adobe program CS3 stuff, and tons of other programs. yeah.

They've also only got 1 gb of RAM, which isn't too bad, but isn't all that great either.



the other two cheap laptops on sale at new egg have their own flaws. One has 512 mb ram (which is pretty bad) and the other has 1 gb ram, but only 1.2 rpm processor speed (remember when I mentioned the spinning disc? RPM is related to that. The more RPM you have, the faster it spins, and the faster your PC runs. 1.2 is pretty bad)



So anyway, at the $400 price range, I guess I'd get an EEE? But I probably wouldn't ever do that just because ...I'd rather save and get something better!



Check the EEE out here



$500 price range: Lenovo Thinkpad thing



pretty similar to what I have

intel core 2 duo processor, which is like...the best. Basically, something with, say, 1.5 RPM on a core 2 duo runs better than something else with a different processor that also has 1.5 RPM. ..if that makes sense.

14.1" screen, which is pretty big.

1gb ram, which you could upgrade to 2gb if you wanted, for like $40 or something (really easy, you can do it at home...I knew nothing about upgrading ram and did it in like 2 seconds once I bought the sticks)

120 GB harddrive, so you can fit lots of music and videos and whatever else you want

Only has Windows XP, though.



I mean, you can look around and probs find varying offers that give you different things for different prices. I kind of told you what stuff was, so...you can look for yourself.



CPU type: Intel core 2 duo - the best!

everything else - average



RPM: 1.8 - average

anything less: bad

anything more: good



hard disk: 100gb - probs enough

anything less: be cautious!

anything more: extra room



RAM: 1gb - average, and you can always upgrade to 2gb for around $40!

2gb - awesome

512 mb - nawww.



Also, you can't upgrade the RAM on the EEE, I'm pretty sure.



Too lazy to do any more. Goodluck!



Check me out here

anything less than 100? If you're not storing any music or video, you won't really need to be that ambitious in memory. Depends on what you're using it for.

I'm so tired, that 2nd link is supposed to be after all the Lenovo thinkpad stuff. Not after my whole post.

lol.

FRYS is a really sketchy website, but it's a safe place to buy from







yeah.



also you'd probs be good with like 1gb ram, any processor, and like...at least 1.6 RPM. Just gotta find the right offer!

I'm posting in this thread like it's my job, but checked an old e-mail and saw this from FRYS!

labor day sale







3gb ram, average processor @ 2.0 GHz, 250 GB HD, Windows Vista..



all for $600 after a mail-in-rebate. So if you're going to pay $600, def. get that.

but you could probs manage something cheaper.



also, note, in any post I've said "RPM", replace that with GHz. I'm really tired.



k, whatever. night.

I need to learn how to close my a href.

you should consider going into sales jellyes cause you really will stand on your head to make a sale =p





also if you look at an EEE be sure to check out the Aspireone also cause w/ acer's price cuts it really brings the hurt to the Asus offerings.



the keyboard is really alot more usable (i've used a eee 701 and 901 in the past.. and the AA1 really kicks the EEEs but keyboarrd wise.)