02/22/09 02:33 - ID#47858

Need Computer Advice

Iâ€™m looking for a new (refurbished) laptop computer and have been checking out some stuff on e-bay. I could use a little advice from some of you incredibly knowledgeable folks regarding some basics. Iâ€™ve been looking at Dells, primarily at the D600, 610, 620â€™s with the Windows XP Professional OS but they have really varied configurations. I need to know what folks recommend regarding the following:

What is the minimum speed you recommend for a processor?

What type of processor do you recommend? (i.e., Intel Core 2 Duo; Intel Core Duo; Intel Pentium Mobile; Intel Pentium 4, etc.)

What Processor Config do you recommend? (i.e., Single Core, Dual Core)

Minimum RAM recommended?

Minimum Hard Drive capacity recommended?

Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

theecarey writes at 07:02:24 02/22/09 - Comment #45830: I'll be due for a new lap sooner than I'd like, so I too am getting ideas now of what I should/shouldn't get. I need to bookmark this post and the answers/advice- great stuff, peeps!

tinypliny writes at 05:47:21 02/22/09 - Comment #45826: Oh and if you are a classical music (lossless) junkie just get a decent big hard-drive and save some money for an external mammoth harddrive. This reminds me I need to ask for advice from (e:strip) on this very issue. :D

tinypliny writes at 05:38:51 02/22/09 - Comment #45824: Wow - nice summary (e:heidi). :) I have very little to add (and probably useless biased trivia, but here goes)

a) I don't like Dells. They have died on me in the past. I prefer Toshibas. I have had good luck with all my Toshibas. They are pricey - but not as pricey as some of the Dells for the same features. That being said, a ton of people are moving toward the tiny and ultra-portable and inexpensive EEE pcs. You may want to check them out. (e:heidi) has a cute little EEE that she says works great for her purposes. On the flip side toshiba come preloaded with a TON of junk software that I inevitably strip down. Its time consuming and sometimes, when you are in a hurry, its not worth the hassle. For eg. my latest toshiba came preinstalled with Vista - that I didn't like and it wouldn't take Xp. So I had to create a slipstreamed XP disc modified for this particular laptop. :::link:::

b) What do you need your laptop for? That should guide your decision on what bells and whistles you need.

c) Do not get AMD processors. Again, I have had awful experiences with them. Stick to Intel.

d) Get 2.0 GB RAM or above. Don't even think of anything less regardless of what OS you are going to put on your comp.

e) To be on the safe side - the biggest hard drive you can afford. They fill up faster if you are a movie-music-photo pack-rat. :)

heidi writes at 03:44:16 02/22/09 - Comment #45820: I like XP Pro... you need 1 gb RAM minimum to run it, 2 GB is better, 1.5 completely tolerable. Essentially, if the RAM isn't expandable to 2gb, the motherboard is so old that the processor will be too slow. (In other words, the exact processor speed isn't all that important.) If you go with Vista, avoid Basic, Home Premium is nice. You'll want 3 gb RAM for it or at least have 2 gb with the option of upgrading the RAM later. Pentium 4s are probably out of date by now.

Harddrive size depends on what you do with it - if you plan on storing a lot of photos/media, you'll want something bigger. My 3 year old Toshiba laptop has a 100 gig hdd that is usually close to maxed out. If the machine you're looking at has a 40-80 gb hdd, it's too old and will not meet your needs for very long (unless you are literally looking for a surfing-only stupid box).

In my experience, Dell laptops are overpriced for the technology you get. I don't know how or if that plays out in the secondary market. If you're not going to be using it all day everyday, then an Acer might be an appropriate cheaper option - and might be affordable new.

Create a spreadsheet that will let you compare the specs of each machine that you are considering. You'll need to track at least these aspects:
- OS
- brand
- model
- processor type
- processor speed
- RAM installed
- RAM max (you'll google search the specs of the model if it doesn't tell you)
- hard drive
- other stuff important to you: card reader? bluetooth?
- price

I recommend checking tigerdirect.com for refurbs also. This will help you clarify what specs are most important to you and what range you want to look at.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask more questions.