- Re: buying my first laptop- powerbook, toshiba, fijitsu?
- Posted by Bill on July 12th, 2003
May I suggest:
1. Research the software you will use (Office/Music) and purchase it.
Strongly suggest buying from ebay auction to keep the price down.
2. Buy reconditioned ThinkPad from IBM site for < $1K.
3. Install the SW and take it for a test ride. If you don't like it,
return it for a refund less a few bucks for shipping and use this
education you just paid a few bucks for to try another laptop.
Good luck,
Bill
P.S. Be sure to know the type of network the college you plan to attend
uses and purchase the proper NIC for your laptop. Also, you're not lost
and this isn't life threatening. So, take a deep breath and you will
find that experience will come with time and for a price.
- Posted by kjakja on July 13th, 2003
Shouldn't consider any but Centrino, 1.6, 60gb, wide screen. Latest are
around $2000. Portability and 5-6hrs charge.
"Bill" <wecjr1@theworld.com> wrote in message
news:3F101719.5EAF434E@theworld.com...
- Posted by David Chien on July 14th, 2003
Don't worry about this one. You can easily pickup new Office XP
academic for <$150 as a student from the college bookstore; older Office
97 (still perfectly usable) for <$50 from www.ebay.com; OpenOffice.org free.
You can easily buy a Dell Inspiron 1100 today for $749 today + MIDI
card that'll run 100% fine, and cheaper than a used IBM. Many more
laptops were blown out around Xmas time for $400-600, so don't overspend.
Keep in mind that PC prices drop 50% or so every year (based on past
15+ years of PC prices), and laptops from last year aren't worth
anywhere near the prices of newer, cheaper laptops.
Depreciate older models, then compare. You'll find that new ones
today are almost always the better buy.
For ~$1000 you can do the www.fatwallet.com/forums/ -> Hot deals deal
on the Compaq X1000 and get a wide-screen notebook even.
Always a way to try notebooks to find a nice one; stop by a store
first to see how the basics like keyboard feel and screen look before
buying. Otherwise, almost anything made today will run MIDI fine.
Don't worry about this one. The typical 10/100 built-into almost all
laptops today will work fine with almost all college networks. this is
really a non-issue IMO.
