Looking for a budget laptop

[DumbstixLars]

How much do you have to spend on a laptop? eBay can be your friend if you know how to work it, and if you don't mind waiting 2 months for the Live Cashback 10% rebate.

I'm kinda stuck with Newegg because I have an account with them. I'm trying to keep it in the $400-$650 range if possible, if I buy from the Egg I have 6 months to pay it off. Plus I only have about 2 weeks left to get one (if I have to go Europe, I probably won't know for sure until a week before).

 

[mjw21a]

I reckon Asus lappys are usually good value, come standard with a 2 year warranty also....

EDIT: Sorry, didnt see the above comments.

 

[Essenar]

I'm in the same situation, I decided to just get an MSI Wind and modify it.

I'm not a big fan of Vista on laptops and you can't install Windows XP on a lot of them. Reason being no driver support.

Plus there's a huge modding community behind every netbook so you can really maximize the performance of it. Comes with bluetooth, a replaceable wireless card, can install standard 2.5" sata hard drives on it.

The only thing is no internal DVD drive, but I don't usually use disks on the go. I hardly even use disks at home. Nothing a 2gb flash drive can't fix!

 

[DumbstixLars]

Well I went ahead and ordered a refurb'd HP, but then canceled the order cause I got cold feet. What do you guy think about this Lenovo?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146451

 

[Ethre]

Can't comment on the machine by itself, but FYI, a friend of mine grabbed a lenovo last year (in case you don't know, lenovo bought IBM's comp division). He liked the laptop fine, but one thing you should know is that they do NOT give you vista disks/reinstall media (or at least didn't). You have to use their hard drive partition thing (which means you're in trouble if there are disk problems) or order a set of disks from them.

He had MBR problems, and I think it was $50 for the disks or something like that

 

[DumbstixLars]

Can't comment on the machine by itself, but FYI, a friend of mine grabbed a lenovo last year (in case you don't know, lenovo bought IBM's comp division). He liked the laptop fine, but one thing you should know is that they do NOT give you vista disks/reinstall media (or at least didn't). You have to use their hard drive partition thing (which means you're in trouble if there are disk problems) or order a set of disks from them.

He had MBR problems, and I think it was $50 for the disks or something like that

Noted, thanks for the info.

 

[DumbstixLars]

OK, just found out for sure I'm going over seas so I torpedoed the budget and bought this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220336

Its way more then I wanted to spend, but the specs and warranty made it seem like the best choice. I don't want to have to upgrade anytime soon so I went with what I thought would be the most for my dollar. Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[mjw21a]

Very nice dude. Asus make excellent lappys. You should be happy with it.

 

[EchoTheDolphin]

Can't comment on the machine by itself, but FYI, a friend of mine grabbed a lenovo last year (in case you don't know, lenovo bought IBM's comp division). He liked the laptop fine, but one thing you should know is that they do NOT give you vista disks/reinstall media (or at least didn't). You have to use their hard drive partition thing (which means you're in trouble if there are disk problems) or order a set of disks from them.

He had MBR problems, and I think it was $50 for the disks or something like that

Very few manufacturers put out the recovery cd's anymore. Regardless, the same manufacturers include software that allow you to create your own, which is good because you can get rid of the bloatware and make a clean recovery CD/DVD.

*EDIT: Great choice on the lappy OP, maybe a little overkill, but ASUS makes a great system!

 

[Ethre]

Nice choice there.

Very few manufacturers put out the recovery cd's anymore.

Its not common to at least get the Vista disk anymore?

 

[mjw21a]

Nope, unfortunately not.

 

[Ethre]

Ouch. I guess I've been lucky getting the Dell then. It seems crazy to me that they wouldn't at least give you the vista disk.

When's the machine arriving?

 

[DumbstixLars]

Ouch. I guess I've been lucky getting the Dell then. It seems crazy to me that they wouldn't at least give you the vista disk.

When's the machine arriving?

I don't know yet, I ordered it yesterday @ about 4:30 but they haven't sent me a tracking # yet. I probably won't get it until Monday I'm sure.

 

[DumbstixLars]

Got it today, it sure is fast. Screen is super clear, I really like it, seems real solid. Glad I didn't buy a cheap laptop.

 

[Ethre]

Congratulations. You will probably find this one lasting (technologically) longer than a cheap one too. Of course that means you don't get a new machine in two years . . .

Have fun on your trip.