How do you buy a laptop and not get taken on extras???
January 5th, 2010 | 
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Hi and welcome to my blog,
I opened this blog to help anyone who is preparing for his SAT.
I remember myself when I started - I was so lost and in such a panic.
Luckily I got this great SAT guide that helped me a lot . So study hard and good luck!
I want to buy a laptop so that we can use it on the dining room table, or in our rooms. I keep looking and can’t find one that looks like it’s worth buying unless it’s over ,000. I guess I don’t know what I need, and what I don’t need. I want it to be fast enough to surf the web…and for the kids to do school work on, other than that, just what ever games they play online, and to print pictures. What would y’all suggest? I want to spend between 0 and 0 tops! OH- and we have a cable modem now, do we have to cancel that and go with a dsl? I’m confused.
Thanks!
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Based upon your comments it sounds like a refurbished laptop might work fine.
Surfing the web only requires 128MB RAM. CPU power does not really matter, as your connection speed is more important. As far as games go you need to check out the Minimum Systems Requirements for the games your kids want to play. You can find that out by going the game manufacturer’s website. Printing picturers only requires a printer and these days most printers use a USB port, which older laptops have. Your cable modem needs an Ethernet port to connect it to the laptop and an Ethernet cable.
Once you have checked out the games requirements you can decide if CPU, RAM and needing a graphics chip are important.
Then search Google for "refurbished laptop" and check out the vendors that sell these older laptops. You can probably spend less than $500 and get exactly what you need.
If people talk to you into buying what sounds not needed, don’t do it. They give you useless crap just to make money. Buy the Laptop, the insurance for it, a wireless internet card and nothing else.
dell inspirion e1505
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/entnb_e1505?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
base model at $ 639 should be good enough 4 u
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=E1505S1&s=dhs
just gotta check 4 configuring …
1. 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLife™
> add $ 10
2. 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
> add $ 65
3. Integrated Sound Blaster® Audigy™ HD Software Edition
> add $ 25
totals to $ 739
cable modem is just fine, will plug in direct to u’r builtin "Integrated 10/100 Ethernet" port (cat 5)!
no need 2 change 2 dsl
best part is the operating system,
win xp media centre 2005
which is simply great and perfect 4 u’r application
… maybe a remote would be great
lemme check price
Remote Control for Windows XP Media Center Edition
> add $ 29
if u wanna watch telly too
TV Tuner w/ Remote Control
> add $ 130
u can record too
>> lemme know if u need help choosing from menu
> lemme handle u’r confusion
and u’r question was EXTRA’s
>> i can explain each extra, why i recommend
u can buy, without any of these extra’s
… just so u get a better system 4 u’r needs !
I think a laptop in the $500-600 area would suit you. Since you won’t use it for gaming or anything like that, you don’t need great speed and visuals. If i were you, I’d buy a toshiba such as this http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2275812 or an hp such as this http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PRODUCT&PROD_ID=1938420&cid=25608&fp=F
.
It seems like you know for what you are going to use the computer, the next step is to decide on what specifications you want and then shop around for the best price. You can get different laptop specifications at http://www.comprec.com and then get prices for a computer from different sources that closely match that specification.
As for the DSL/cable modem question, they are interchangable, any computer should work with either one.