monobeg

Hi all,

I'm hunting for a new laptop and was hoping someone could help me.

I need something to use on weekends and in the classroom when I'm away from my desktop (which is getting old and needs some upgrades...but that's another story).

Requirements: Power enough for basic tasks and the occasional video/game, WiFi, 15"+ screen. CD burner and DVD reader are important, unless they make a big price difference.

I was going to get a refurb, but they seem to be no cheaper to me.
They're all marked down ~50%; but it seems that is 50% off the sale price 4 years ago, and they're similarly priced now!!!

Question number 1: Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places. Anyone know good refurb sites?

I've found the Acer Aspire AS3004WLCi at Circuit City for $600AR +tax (http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer-...oductDetail.do)
It would be more than adaquate for me, but I have some concerns:
- Battery life is reported at <1 hour by a lot of reviewers. If this typical for laptops? Is there a cheap way of increasing battery time (external generics/in-car adaptors etc)? Is it the processor's fault?
- AMD Mobile Sempron 3100+ processor: never heard of Sempron before. Any good?
- HDD is reported as slow


Has anyone seen better than the Aspire AS3004WLCi for a similar price? Sould I sacrifice some RAM/HD space for a more power-efficient processor?

PLEASE...any comments?????

ckfordy

go to www.dell.com they got some good cheap laptops.

lee101

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...=iB120S2&s=dhs

thats got all you wanted, apart from the screen size, but it is new and everything else is pretty good on it, so it would probably be worth sacrificing the .9 inches for that system

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My PC: Core2Duo E6300 @ 1.86 Ghz, Asus P5v-VM DH , 200 GB Maxtor SATA ,2GB (2*1GB Kingston DDRII), Radeon x1650 Graphics (256 mb), 2* Acer 17 inch TFT's, Windows Vista Home Premium
Server: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ 256 Mb Ram, 8Gb IDE for o/s, 2 * 250GB SATAII for storage, Ubuntu Server 7.10

LaptopExtreme

It should be enough for your tasks. Of course, not a lot of people are fond of the battery life of the lower models from Acer, but you're still getting more bang for the buck. If you slap on another hundred or so, you may be able to find a Centrino system that'll give you significant boost and extended battery life. In the $600-$700 ballpark, you'll be able to find Acer, HP/Compaq, and Toshiba at your disposal. I believe the IBM R series will fall into that price range, too.

monobeg

Is a celeron any better? I thought they were about the same. I can get a similar celeron for about 100 more.

I'd get a Turion direct from compaq if not for the $70 shipping fee!

ckfordy

a celeron is much worse dont get it. get a pentium m or a turion.

monobeg

But they're so expensive

There's a good deal at circuit city, but its still $850+tax!!! Can't find much cheaper without having to fork out huge $ for shipping. Maybe I'll just part with $850. Sigh.

tractorboy

i have to agree that dell is probably the best.

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alanuofm

check out the compaq v2000z if you want a value computer with a decent processor