Laptop Question

[sprinkle0420]

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So yesterday at work, they announced they are getting rid of some surplus equipment and are selling 2003 Inspirion laptops for $150. Do you guys think I should go ahead and buy one or should I just wait and buy a brand new laptop for pharmacy school this Fall?

 

[tootoo30]

So yesterday at work, they announced they are getting rid of some surplus equipment and are selling 2003 Inspirion laptops for $150. Do you guys think I should go ahead and buy one or should I just wait and buy a brand new laptop for pharmacy school this Fall?

Not enough information. Give us the specifications on the system, then I can give you my opinion.

 

[confettiflyer]

haha yeah, this isn't a car, specs please

Man for $150, I'd take it apart and turn it into a nice digital photo frame to mount on a wall.

 

[sprinkle0420]

This is the email they sent:

Laptops for Sale:
2 Inspiron 1150 2.8 GHz 512 Ram
4 Inspiron 700m 1.60 GHz 512 Ram
6 Inspiron 600m 1.80 GHz 256 Ram
7 Latitude D500 1.3 GHz 1GB Ram
9 Inspiron 600m 1.80 GHz 512 Ram

Please note that all laptop batteries are in need of replacing and run $135 through Dell.

 

[pcproduct]

$150 seems a bit much for those laptops. For just $100 more, you could go to Walmart and pick up a brand new netbook. They have better specs, smaller size, much bigger hard drive, and great battery life.

 

[confettiflyer]

$150 seems a bit much for those laptops. For just $100 more, you could go to Walmart and pick up a brand new netbook. They have better specs, smaller size, much bigger hard drive, and great battery life.

man what netbooks are you looking at, usually they're the 1GHz Atom + 1GB of RAM. I have a netbook, I wouldn't recommend it if you have to stare at it/type longer than 2 hours at a time.

Those are actually not too bad for $150...if I were a little strapped for cash I'd pick one up and maybe upgrade the RAM a bit and swap out the HD. You'd probably need to get a new battery since a 6 year old battery probably doesn't hold charge. It'd make a nice desktop, how about that?

Actually, now that I think about it....this might be more of a hassle than anything. Advice to the OP...unless you plan on tinkering with it under the hood, spend $500 on a new laptop. I'll look for deals for you.

 

[tootoo30]

Those laptops won't do you any good for all the notes and files and software that you will need for pharmacy school, but I would still buy it as a spare or to just to go on myspace or facebook for. That's a really small HD, but you could ugrade the hardrive and upgrade the memory if allowed. You can also get a battery real cheap on ebay. After all that, lol you could have bought a new one.

HTH

 

[slight365]

You need to judge how bad off they are and how much use they had over the years. I wouldn't get a battery from Dell. Get the model and punch it into fleabay and you'll come away at 1/2 to 1/3 the price.

Depending on sizing and outfitting (and if they even have wireless cards), they might be good for something to knock around and throw in your backpack and keep the nice one at home.

 

[confettiflyer]

Here's a start:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...ID=37&Code=SL500_INTEL_US&hide_menu_area=true

Lenovo ThinkPad SL500 -- $499 + tax
Intel® Celeron® Dual-Core Processor T1600 (1.66GHz 667MHz 1MBL2)
15.4" WXGA LED AntiGlare
160 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm

Not a fan of the gigantic screen (it'll be heavy to lug around), and processor is a bit slow (but at least it's dual core), but for <$500 and from a reputable brand, this would be great if you're on a budget.

 

[IrishRxMan]

I'd not go for a used laptop, you don't want it dying on you and needing repair in the middle of the semester. I'm one that takes notes on my laptop instead of printing out the slides and writing on them, so being without a laptop would kill me. Either way, just make sure you get good backup software and a decent sized external HD. I'd recommend getting a portable one so that way you can backup wherever, whenever. If you look on buy.com you can find some really good deals on high capacity portables.

 

[sprinkle0420]

Thanks everyone for all your input! I think I will forgo purchasing one of the laptops offered at my work and just try and find a good deal on a brand new one before the semester starts.

 

[charfdorn]

Thanks everyone for all your input! I think I will forgo purchasing one of the laptops offered at my work and just try and find a good deal on a brand new one before the semester starts.

When you graduate, these computers will be 10 years old. Would you want a machine from 1999 right now? If you go this way, you will need to buy another computer before the end of school.

 

[gotmilklol]

I'd go with this latest technology thats available

 

[dumbguy]

if i were you, I would NOT buy those laptops. 2003 may not seem old but it is. I have a laptop that was released around that year. It is too damn slow. 512mb of memory is too little especially when you are using a lot of applications. You can't use the latest technology with those specs. You won't be able to run smoothly Windows Vista or even Windows 7 when it gets released later this year. I just tried Windows 7 RC on my desktop with 256mb ram memory and boy is it SLOWWWW.

One other thing about buying a laptop is to buy one that is light-weight. You don't want to chug around a heavy laptop on your shoulder around campus. I know because I've tried it before. You will get shoulder and back problems, and sweat profusely during class.

2 most important things I look for in a laptop as a student is:
1.) is it light?
2.) does it have lots of memory? You might think who cares that you have to wait seconds to minutes for applications to run. All those seconds and minutes do add up. Don't waste your life waiting for an application to run just because your laptop has too little memory.

 

[Sparda29]

I'm getting an Alienware 🙂

 

[slight365]

I checked out the local computer stores last night. One can get a nice mini-laptop + a nice full size for about 1k and above. Not shabby at all. Of course, prices can go down and up depending on outfitting, but one can easily get below 1k for both.

If you're just looking for email, then perhaps get a blackberry or other type of cell phone with internet connectivity and see if you can get a combined anywhere plan for the laptop and the phone.

 

[thephoenician88]

if you're just looking for email get a netbook or a small laptop, but saying that a blackberry is sufficient for emails is just not feasible. How can you type out emails with that small keypad?

r u going 2 type like that all the time? lol

 

[confettiflyer]

if you're just looking for email get a netbook or a small laptop, but saying that a blackberry is sufficient for emails is just not feasible. How can you type out emails with that small keypad?

r u going 2 type like that all the time? lol

spirivasunrise posts on SDN with her blackberry, it's surprisingly sufficient...and only idiots use shorthand like that, drives me crazy.

 

[Passion4Sci]

spirivasunrise posts on SDN with her blackberry, it's surprisingly sufficient...and only idiots use shorthand like that, drives me crazy.

wut r u talking abt?

I post on SDN on my iPhone all the time.

It is a little more cumbersome and slow than on a full keyboard obviously, but it works well.

 

[koercive]

to OP, save up 400-600 bucks , and you can get a pretty good laptop

slickdeals.net is a good place to bargain hunt


for me, I am gonna get a new laptop - a good video card is a must, but it might distract me from studying so I'm gonna have to rethink this one

 

[confettiflyer]

wut r u talking abt?

I post on SDN on my iPhone all the time.

It is a little more cumbersome and slow than on a full keyboard obviously, but it works well.

My cousin works for a fortune 500 consulting firm, shorthand drives him NUTS when people use it within the intranet instant messages. He recently asked me if it's a generational thing...I said I don't know anyone that would actually DO that. Makes me sad.