Good Cheap Laptops

[JsutTechy]

So I've been thinking of upgrading from my old laptop and getting a much better one. But I'd still like to stay on the economical side. So my questions for you are where and which? First off where's a good place to look? I mean should I be checking stores for refurbished or should I just go the eBay route? Which is more reliable and best money-wise usually. Secondly which laptops should I be looking for, and maybe ones to stay away from. Any that are real bargains that will suit my needs and some that are real problems.

I'm looking for something to do some internet browsing, possibly Photoshop if possible, running some decent games, some basic stuff. Some things I'd like to have would probably be an ethernet port, cd drive (burner would be nice if at all possible), atleast 1 usb port, and a decent videocard.

[neb1211]

How much are you willing to spend?  You might want to look at Toshiba laptops.  We sell them at the store and have had good luck with them so far.

[DevilMB3017]

Honestly, I recommend Dell for laptops.  In my opinion, they're great.

[mipadi]

Honestly, I recommend Dell for laptops.  In my opinion, they're great.

Ugh. Working in tech support has taught me never to buy Dell laptops. They come in for servicing a lot, 28% of Dell laptops are returned to the factory, and the batteries are horrible.

[DevilMB3017]

28% that's insane.  I have a couple friends who love theirs, perhaps they are lucky.

Oh well, I'm out of ideas,

[acemaverick1381]

My Dell is just fine. My battery gets almost 4 hours of life, and thats even without the upgraded battery. The only issue I have had with mine so far is that the power adapter died. But that was my fault because I had it plugged in, without a surge protector during a bad storm. I am lucky that I didn't fry it. (The sad thing is that I didn't know it was storming. Endless hours of coding concentration leaves you oblivious to the rest of the world  )

I would just go and get a ThinkPad. My friend and I have had old ThinkPads for quite some time, and they are really nice workhorses. (If you want a real workhorse get a Sun Sparcstation, but thats a "desktop") My ThinkPad with a 233 does just as fine running Slackware 9.1 than my friends 500mhz desktop running Slackware 9.1 The only issue is that ThinkPad had some troubles awhile back when it came to their hdds, and stuff, so just be sure you get a model that wasn't from the early 90's.

[neb1211]

I would have a agree with Mipadi.  Dell's computers are horrible.  We work on more Dell computers than we do our own computers.  Quite a few of the dells we work on have hardware problems.

[JsutTechy]

I hear "Dells from hell" other than from ace

I think I might just go between IBM and Toshiba at the moment. And I'd like to spend somewhere around $200 and lower if possible.

[acemaverick1381]

Dells are no where near as good as IBM's. I dunno though. I have never had an issue with my Dell, but most people who buy Dell's don't exactly know what they are doing with their comps I guess.

[JsutTechy]

That or yours is really nice and you got lucky.

[neb1211]

That or yours is really nice and you got lucky.

Since when is being part of 78% lucky?