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laptop wanted

Started by Elizabeth Weber, 2005-07-10T23:57:02-05:00 (Sunday)

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Elizabeth Weber

A friend of mine is looking for a laptop, here's what she's said she's looking for:
QuoteI want/need a laptop. As you know, I am broke. So I can't spend a lot. I want something that will be able to handle both a wireless card, and plug into the internet manually. I don't know what- if either- will be available to me in Mexico. But I want the wifi for here in the meantime. I'd also like it to be able to handle iTunes. In my delusional mind, I plan to have an iPod before I move. How else can a music person survive? I only have shitty, scratched CDs and I'd have to take them with me? Not to mention my discman is dying. So someone told me then that the laptop would need Windows XP. And even looking at used ones, I'm still facing $400 or so.

I'm posting this to see what others can tell me. Where's a good place to look online? What about companies that get rid of outdated puters? Does anyone know anyone getting rid of one? Any help or advice you can give would be appreciated.
~Elizabeth Weber

Michael Kennedy

I'm in the opposite situation- I need a 17" laptop that does NOT have an OS on it. Anyone have a sugegstion for me in that case?  Best Buy had a Gateway w/ a 17" screen for $1400 that looked nice and is top on my list, but I'd love to save a few hundred and NOT get the Windows Media Center OS on it.  My current one didnt have an OS, but that company is now defunct.
"If it ain't busted, don't fix it" is a very sound principal and remains so despite the fact that I have slavishly ignored it all my life. --Douglas Adams, "Salmon of Doubt"

Kade P. Cole

I have an Apple iBook that I am looking to sell. I was hoping to get about $500 for it. It has a 12" screen, DVD drive, wireless, wired Ethernet and 56k modem. I think this would be perfect for your friend. Email me if you want more info.
Kade
--------------------------------------
Most people HAVE to use a PC.
I GET to use a MAC with OS X!

Michael Kennedy

Quick question- why did you want a laptop with a 12" screen to begin with?  My priorities on a laptop begin with screen size.  My current one is 15" and I could not get one with a smaller screen.  17" will be my next one and 19"+ will be the size of the one after that.  :)

I just don't understand the appeal of 12" laptops at all.
"If it ain't busted, don't fix it" is a very sound principal and remains so despite the fact that I have slavishly ignored it all my life. --Douglas Adams, "Salmon of Doubt"

bill corcoran

Quotemek2600 wrote:
Quick question- why did you want a laptop with a 12" screen to begin with?

because the rest of the laptop is about 12" too.
-bill

Peter Motyka

Quotemek2600 wrote:  My current one is 15" and I could not get one with a smaller screen.  17" will be my next one and 19"+ will be the size of the one after that.  :)

Laptops with that large of a screen are hardly convenient to tote around when on the go.  I could see a large screen if you anticipate chaining the thing to a desk...  I just recently bought a laptop, a Compaq v2135US w/ 14.1inch widescreen.  I'm a sucker for high resolution displays and this one suits me quite well while maintaining potability.  I frequent WiFi cafÃÆ'Ã,©s and bring my laptop to work and campus.  I can't imagine how much hard it would be to carry it along if it had a 17 inch display bolted to it.

I guess it depends what your needs are, but I find it hard to rationalize a lugable with a huge monitor.  If you notice, most of these monstrosities are deeply discounted by online vendors because they have not been selling well.
SIUE CS Alumni 2002
Grad Student, Regis University
Senior Engineer, Ping Identity
http://motyka.org

Michael Kennedy

Quotebecause the rest of the laptop is about 12" too.

So your keybaord is about 3" smaller than mine as well?  Ick.

QuoteLaptops with that large of a screen are hardly convenient to tote around when on the go.

How long do you actually carry yours around?  At work it was only about 5 mins I'd actually carry my laptop (and most of that was the slow elevator) and I used mine a lot at SIUE with the wired conenctions in the library and still didnt mind carrying it from class to class in my bookbag (even with an Intellimouse Explorer in the bag).

I can see the desire for the smaller ones a bit, but I'd rather carry that extra weight on my back for a few mins and be rewarded with extra screen real estate in the long run.

QuoteIf you notice, most of these monstrosities are deeply discounted by online vendors because they have not been selling well.

I have noticed so I'll be buying myself a new monstrosity as soon as I can.  I can't afford to suffer with my tiny 15" much longer.  ;)
"If it ain't busted, don't fix it" is a very sound principal and remains so despite the fact that I have slavishly ignored it all my life. --Douglas Adams, "Salmon of Doubt"

bill corcoran

Quotemek2600 wrote:

So your keybaord is about 3" smaller than mine as well?  Ick.

first of all, that's not true.  any good 12" laptop has a full size keyboard.  15" and 17" models typically just have a larger border around the same sized keyboard.

secondly, keyboards are already far too large to begin with.  seriously, look at all the wasted footprint on a desktop keyboard, as well as all the keys you use infrequently enough that they could easily be replaced with a combo or overlay.  i actually *want* a smaller keyboard.
-bill

Matthew Thomas

Maybe its just me, but why even bother to lug something around if you don't have to?

My point as a lesson learned the hard way:
I used to have a notebook, and I'll be the first to admit, I was probably (more than) a little uppity about owning it; it had a 15" display, dvd drive, 802.11, 30 gig hd ... I was proud of it because I bought it with my money.

Anyway, the thing weighed close to 15 pounds. Just by itself, that's not too bad, but when I was also carrying power cables, network cables, a mouse, a game or two, ON TOP OF things I should have been carrying: books for the day, paper, pens, and the semester's worth of notes; lets just say the whole thing got to be a bit heavy...but I got used to it after doing it almost every day for nearly two years. Near the end of doing this, I think people made fun of how much crap I was carrying around just to get through the day;

So, I took a hard look at what I was using this thing for. For me, it was just a custom place to work, along with some hard drive space.

most of my 'custom places' were in the computer labs at school, where I was surrounded by computers, and having my personal one (while it did make me feel special) was rather redundant.

So I got an iPod, enabled it as a drive, left the 20+ pounds of notebook crap at home, and any time I did school work, I just worked off of that drive, whether it was connected to the computer at home, or whether I had to plug it in on one of the machines in a lab. (That's what they're there for anyway)

To make a long story short, have your friend take a good hard look at what she's going to use the lappy for. If its just for checking email while on spring break in Cancun, and then as a custom place to work at school, just buy an iPod, and ignore the email while on break. If its a bit more important than that, have her take a good look at her surroundings, free public computers are a lot more available today than they were 5 or 10 years ago, and she may be able to get away with carrying a usb drive.

But, if after all this suggested consideration, she still wants to get a laptop, may I pass on one bit of advice that I didn't listen to (and I wished I had): Get a tablet PC. She may be thinking "I don't need that".... trust me, if she is going to lug that thing *everywhere* she will need it and want it, and after six months of heavy use, will wish she had it.
Superman wears Jack Bauer pajamas

Kade P. Cole

Ok sorry it took me so long but I finally have the specs for my Laptop. It is an 12.1" iBook Dual USB model. It is a G3 500MHz, with 384 MB RAM, 12.1" LCD, 10 GIG HD, 400 MHz Firewire, and DVD-ROM drive. It also has a built in 56K Modem, 10/100 Ethernet and Airport wireless (802.11b) card. I am looking to get $400 for this if anyone is interested. Please send me email if you need more info or have questions. It has a fairly new battery that usually lasts for two hours and the charging power cable.

Official Apple Specifications:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=43092
Kade
--------------------------------------
Most people HAVE to use a PC.
I GET to use a MAC with OS X!