BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Dec 15 - 03:10 PM

I bought a Comprq laptop on ebay for £31.00 in November, it is fantastic, bargains to be had there.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 28 Dec 15 - 01:07 PM

Do you regularly empty your recycle-bin, use the disk clean-up utility, and defrag your HDD, mg?
Also you could use a cleaner, such as CCCleaner, to tidy up your registry, start menu, yadda yadda yadda.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Stanron
Date: 28 Dec 15 - 11:25 AM

mg, in what way is your laptop dying? Is it just getting slower and slower? A new hard drive and / or operating system should cure that.

Linux should be fine for genealogy but may not cut it for movies or advanced gaming.

Don't forget Linux is free, most of it's software is free and it's not targeted like Windows by virus and malware creators.

Anything you do online can be done with Linux and modern Linux systems are not using your buying preferences to try to sell you stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Dec 15 - 01:05 AM

I think I read during the year that Sony is getting out of the laptop business.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Dec 15 - 12:57 AM

I used to love computers from Lenovo, the Chinese company that bought out the PC division of IBM; but then they followed the trend and started loading their computers down with "bloatware," software packages which try to sell you things and slow your computer in the process. Hewlett Packard is the king of bloatware, and now Lenovo comes second. I had a Sony Vaio that I just loved, but that was ten or fifteen years ago - I'll bet they're still good. And Samsung is very good, but may be a bit pricey because it is well-known for quality. I really like my Samsung Chromebook and tablet.
The laptop brand I like is Toshiba. Good, solid computers with very little bloatware.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Dec 15 - 10:29 AM

I use an HP desktop, I've had several over the years. Asus is a good brand of laptop also.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: gillymor
Date: 27 Dec 15 - 08:52 AM

I also like HP laptops, I'm on my second one right now and my wife recently bought one from the HP store on sale for $215. It's the later model of mine with 6 gig of memory and a CD/DVD drive. Some real bargains pop up at the online HP store from time to time.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 27 Dec 15 - 02:46 AM

You might like to consider something from Hewlett Packard. HP is not a very 'glamorous' or 'trendy' brand - but their products appear to be well made and dependable. I've got a HP Ultrabook - admittedly an expensive device, which cost more than than you appear to want to pay, but it's the best computer that I own. When I first bought it, about 2 years ago, it came pre-loaded with Win 8.1 but now it's been upgraded to Win 10. I never really saw what the problem was with Win 8.1 and Win 10 seems fine too.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Dec 15 - 12:48 AM

My next door neighbor had a Lenovo that just "up and died" also. I wouldn't get one, myself.

I have a slim solid state Sony Vaio computer that I've had to purchase an external DVD drive for. And I store data in my various cloud accounts, it doesn't have a lot of storage on the computer itself (I added a high-volume SD card to improve it, but it still is small compared to desktops with lots of space for internal drives).

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: cnd
Date: 26 Dec 15 - 11:45 PM

With new computers they've stopped putting the cd drives in them to make them thinner/lighter, so it'll have to be either external cd or an older one (probably 1 year or older)

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 26 Dec 15 - 10:39 PM

thanks acme..i think i am going to wait until it totally kicks the bucket..might have a cou0le of months left in it...or not. i like the idea of lenova...had a good one at work and then it just up and died...lenovo..

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Dec 15 - 10:45 AM

I don't know if this will be a durable link:
Clearance computer priced low to high at Fry's

If it doesn't retain the search items, go to http://www.frys.com and search on laptops, choose clearance, and sort them low to high.

This knows that the store I typically shop in is in Arlington, Texas. I don't know if you can find a store near you, but if you find a computer here and can buy it call and see if they'll let you pay over the phone then I will pick it up and ship it to you.

I haven't looked closely - there will be all sorts of stuff here. There may be reconditioned ones, so you would get more computer but someone else used it first and before it is sold it is checked out and set back to factory settings. If you use software like Open Office instead of Windows products, you'll have a lot of functionality.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Dec 15 - 06:49 AM

I bought a used Lenovo 2½ years ago for 299 GBP and it is marvelous. Quad core, 128Gb SSD, DVD (reader only) so bought external for 30GBP which I can use on the other 3 PCs. It had 3 months to run on factory warranty!
The thing was: my local computer shop only sells used PCs he would chose for himself and for Laptops that is mostly Lenovo.

On a curious aside I have an eSATAp 1Tb external also which doubles as USB3 (Laptop only has eSATAp which is equivalent but about 3/4 speed of USB3) so I would recommend getting USB3 if possible and avoid Win8 (or even Win 10 just yet). Win7 Pro is the best option still, IMNSHO.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Dec 15 - 09:50 PM

Also, you will probably need an external CD/DVD drive.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 25 Dec 15 - 05:51 PM

For the Mudcat newbies, you may add that you live in Washington State and that 250 is US-$. New laptops in that price range are available, but you should make sure that the performance suffices for the kind of "movies" you want to do.

Subject: RE: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: mg
Date: 25 Dec 15 - 04:33 PM

The angel came down and said no dell. Also no netbook or Chromebook.

Subject: BS: Need recommendations for cheap laptop
From: mg
Date: 25 Dec 15 - 03:36 PM

My dell is failing..will not buy another dell. This was my sister's used one. Willing to buy used but will do locally. I moist scrape the bottom of the barrel in price..under 250. I am m9stly going to do genealogy, movies etc. Prefer dvdcd. I want most reliable..don't need a lot of speed for power. Have amazon prime.