Daughters Off To College

I was wondering if anyone had some good sites to buy some decent but not leg breaking laptops? Although my daughter deserves a great gift for graduating, the economy isn't allowing that with my budget....I'm lookin to spend 500-600 for a laptop...is that possible?

some of the specs I would like, is xp for the os, 40 gallon harddrive, 14-15 in screen, dvd/cd drive...and the other basics...can it be done and if so, what sites do you all use for purchasing computers/equiptment?

thanks for any help

 

I was wondering if anyone had some good sites to buy some decent but not leg breaking laptops? Although my daughter deserves a great gift for graduating, the economy isn't allowing that with my budget....I'm lookin to spend 500-600 for a laptop...is that possible?

some of the specs I would like, is xp for the os, 40 gallon harddrive, 14-15 in screen, dvd/cd drive...and the other basics...can it be done and if so, what sites do you all use for purchasing computers/equiptment?

thanks for any help

Its more then possible.. you may have to wait and watch the sale papers but the stores will be pushing laptops for college kids.. My son has just finished his 2nd year of college and we bought him and myself a Toshiba laptop for less then 500 bucks at Circuit City. You may have to wait till july to get the sales but they will come..

congrats on getting one though high school and into college. My son is an only child and it was just like Kindergarten all over again when he went off to college.. It was real difficult for about a week.. now he is back home and I can't wait for him to leave again LOL...

 

awww that empty nest is a killer ...specially for an only child I bet...but, this is my 4th daughter to head off LOL...still got one at home..the baby! who turned 13 yesterday ....but I have my kids overnite alot, as well as my grand babies...thanks for the info nags!! I'm gonna watch for sure...all my other girls bought their own, and I just gave them money..this daughter is getting her laptop from me then I feel the money was well spent

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3701098&SRCCODE=WEBGPROD

Check this computer out. The downside is limited storage space (only 2GB, something I would have killed for in high school, but now I can fill it with an hour of downloading). It's super energy-efficient, though, and can run for a very long time on the battery. I do not have one, but I've heard great things about it.

 

TY sir! that's way cool..I think ill get that for my daughter whose still in middle school for her bday...great for homework etc...TY for the link also...gonna search it for the 40 gallon see what I can find

 

HI Shawnie, Dell has the Insprion 1525 on their website for 499. It's got an 80g hard drive, but it has Vista. It might be worth checking out.



We got my daughter a laptop for her graduation last year, she loves it and it's a must for college. We instant message almost every night, it's a great way to keep in touch.

Some universities also have student discounts for laptops, so check with the college she will be attending.

 

ty very much lucy!! and ya, most I'm finding has vista as the os...not sure I'm keen on that tho...

 

It did take some getting used to, but I like it, I just have the home basic edition.

 

We just got a Dell Inspiron 1526 at Best Buy a couple months ago and It's a great computer. It did come with Windows Vista, but I wiped that off as fast as I could format the hard drive and installed Kubuntu on it. Dell has a lot of models and I really like their computers.

I avoid Toshiba like a plaque. Their laptops have a couple of major weaknesses that I found when I got one of their paperweights.. one is the hard drives fail easily (mine lasted a whole 9 months) and the other is weak soldering of the power connector to the motherboard. That breaks pretty easily. The video strip was connected to the motherboard with the flimsiest pins I've ever seen. But the total lack of customer service was the kicker with them. I'd definitely say 100% Dell.

 

there is good and bad in any brand.. My sons best friend had a dell that lasted 3 months.. our toshibas has been going strong one for 2 years the other one for almost a year.. no problems.. We had a sony that was ..exchanged it for another sony that was even bigger .. I was a glutten for punishment and went for yet a 3rd sony exchange that didnt disappoint me.. it too, was .. had a HP that was good but a compaq that was ..

in my opinion laptops are only good for one thing... mobility.. desktops, for me anyway, is the only way to go. We have 6 computers going at anyone time here at home.. 3 laptops.. 3 desktops (we all have one of each of our own) and its a shoot as to if they are good or not.

by the way.. again in my opinion.. vista bites!!!

 

I've never had any problems with a sony computer...

Vista bites, XP bites, '98 bites, etc... It's just that each one bites a little more than the last. And people just keep buying it up. Aside from my OS, there is nothing Microsoft on my computer. I scrap Office and download Open Office (an open-source word processing suite). Pretty much everything else can be replaced by an open-source program, as well, and I do this to stick it to Microsoft as much as I can.

 

I've never had any problems with a sony computer...

Vista bites, XP bites, '98 bites, etc... It's just that each one bites a little more than the last. And people just keep buying it up. Aside from my OS, there is nothing Microsoft on my computer. I scrap Office and download Open Office (an open-source word processing suite). Pretty much everything else can be replaced by an open-source program, as well, and I do this to stick it to Microsoft as much as I can.

I agree with you on microsoft.. I didnt know there was such a thing as "open source" programs.

I always say my next computer will be a Mac.. The cost of a mac is so much more that I hate to dive in without first test driving one.. and so far I can't get anyone to give me one to test drive

 

My daughter had a problem opening an assignment from one of her professors, I told her I use open office, so she downloaded it and had no problems opening the assignment. Best of all, it's free!

 

So true! Nothing microsoft on our computers. Kubuntu makes PCs worth using and frees them from the chains of windows.

I've never had any problems with a sony computer...

Vista bites, XP bites, '98 bites, etc... It's just that each one bites a little more than the last. And people just keep buying it up. Aside from my OS, there is nothing Microsoft on my computer. I scrap Office and download Open Office (an open-source word processing suite). Pretty much everything else can be replaced by an open-source program, as well, and I do this to stick it to Microsoft as much as I can.

 

Open Office is like Microsoft Office, but I think it doesn't suffer from as many bugs.
Then there's Scribus, which is a desktop publishing software similar to Publisher.
GIMP, which is the equivalent of Photoshop.
There are others, too, but those are the ones that I use.
The point of open source software is that you've got a whole bunch of computer nerds (I'm a nerd, too, so I'm not making fun of them. It's just the term I use), each of whom works on a little bit of the code. Anybody can edit it (similar to Wikipedia), so if a particular bit of code doesn't work, or if someone tries to slip malware into it, others are likely to catch it. It's a work that's constantly in progress, unlike Office, which pretty much has stagnated. They make some visual changes to convince you it's better, but it's really as garbage-tastic as ever.

 

I'm loving all this info with progs n pc's ...I'm shopping for myself now too!! ty everyone!

 

GIMP is WONDERFUL!!! I use it all the time.
Open Office is good too. I use that all the time too.

 

Hmmm... I must check on this and ponder the situation...

 

Congratulations on your Daughter going to College Shawnie! I bet with her knowledge, she'll know just where to find the perfect laptop )

 

It's great how much open source software is out there.

 

not sure if its open source software, or smat peoples that give me the info I need x

MM ...x~~!!!! she is brilliant, she has her mom buyin her a laptop

 

I'm late here but just thought I'd chime in and say Vista isn't nearly as bad as it was when it was released. It's gotten a lot of bugs worked out and is now 'fine' in my standards.

 

I agree. Now that SP1 has come out, it's quite stable. But if you do get a machine with Vista on it, be sure it has 2 GB of ram. The 3D interface really needs it. And DDR2 ram is unbelievably cheap now. If it only comes with 512 MB or 1 GB, then order the ram online. Newegg.com is a great online computer store or Tigerdirect.com. I've bought lots of stuff from both stores and never had a problem with either store.