Most durable, longest lasting Laptops?

[BigDan3131]

I need to know what is the best laptop for my needs. I plan to start my own mobile comp servicing company and I need to find a dependable long lasting laptop that is in the 300.00 usd and under range. I know this means used and or refurbs, but what speed will be best with etc. I only plan to use this to download drivers and support software and then transfer it if I come across a totally buggy machine. If I find it necessary to reformat I can try and save their files to the lappy. I would think a PIII 800 Mhz would be a min speed but, can these older lappy's be upgraded memory and optics wise?


So give me a model and name and I will google for a while

 

[ozzlo]

You could probably get ahold of a cheap pentium-m laptop for around $400

I would Recommend IBM

I would not recommend any laptop which uses a P4

also one of those 20 GIG portable hard drives would do very well for what you describe (since you only need it for storage space...)

 

[LmpPns]

You can probably find a decent Compaq Armada M300 for under 50 dollars. Pentium 3 era. If you buy an older laptop be prepared to buy a new battery along with it as well, as laptop batteries usually do not last too long and older ones, especially like on the M300, will not hold a charge very long if at all.

Honestly I think you should just fork out another 200-300 for a newer laptop, if you plan to do serious file transferring you will definately want something with USB2.0, which older laptops will not have. Though an external HDD or even a USB flash drive would do the same trick, and you wouldn't have to worry about batteries or anything.

I'd just wait for a good deal on a basic Inspiron for under $500.

 

[damarble]

If you want something indestuctable look for Itronix. They cater to the likes of fleet and military. The Panasonic Toughbook is similar too.

I'm still using a old P3 Inspiron 4000 for web browsing and it's held up really well, although I have babied it, only been dropped once. 8? years old now and still nothing broken. It's pretty easy to get into and work on/upgrade too. I think it's still worth about $200 now and would do what you're asking fine. I've added wireless and USB 2.0 cards to mine to keep it useful.

 

[smekta3]

http://www-132.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/s...1&catalogId=-840&langId=-1&categoryId=2576396

You can get a t23 for $325 that has been certified, so no guess work that might come from ebay and it probably will suit you well.

 

[BigDan3131]

TY for the info guys and gals if you are either lol.