Any suggestions for a used laptop for school.
By sdgilbreath
@sdgilbreath (9)
United States
September 15, 2008 6:05am CST
I've been window shopping on ebay for a used laptop for school. I would like to keep it under $300. I won't need much. I was thinking a 1 Ghz or better processor, 256 mb ram, and at least 20 gb hard drive. All I will use it for is web surfing, email, word processing, and maybe coding Java. Will the specs I was looking at fill this bill? Any suggestions on which brand to get?
2 responses
@codezebra (94)
• United States
15 Sep 08
For web surfing, e-mail, and word processing it should be fine. I don't know about coding Java though.
Honestly, the most important thing I think would be battery life. If you can find a laptop that has a long battery life (2 - 4+ hours) you've found an excellent one, especially at the budget you're looking at.
Still, I know it isn't a deal-killer if the battery doesn't last that long - my laptop's only lasts for about an hour if I use the battery, but I don't use my laptop portably much so it's not an issue.
I do recommend going higher with the specs if you can though. 1 Ghz for example is fine for that stuff, but it will be on the slower side. Not too much of an issue, but something to consider - even basic web java/flash games require better computers to run well... but that's just my opinion.
1 person likes this
@sdgilbreath (9)
• United States
15 Sep 08
Yeah I would prefer something faster. I will probably skip on memory and hard drive trying to get the fastest processor for the money. Then when I have the money I will upgrade the memory and hard drive. It's a lot harder to upgrade the cpu on a laptop than the memory and/or hard drive. Thanks for your advice.
@DukeErkSplee (9)
•
19 Sep 08
Why don't you splurge 100 more dollars and get an EEE PC.
Size of a small book, no moving parts, plenty of power and only $400.
The keyboard does take a little getting used to but it has every feature an ultra portable needs and more.
Plus it comes with linux so Java coding should work out of the box
