Re: laptop inspiration ideas

shivrM (shivrmansguarded_at_hotmail.com) wrote:
: Hi.
: I'm looking for a new laptop to take with me to grad school in the fall.
: Where do you guys get the best prices? Do you find them online and have
: them shipped? What's the best model going for the best price right now?
: ... I'm at the beginning of my research. Thanks for your time.

What are you going to be doing with it? Just writing and surfing? Or heavy lifting, like gaming? Can you get by on a slower, vastly cheaper chip? Is light
weight important? (It certainly would be to me in college.) Do you need all the multimedia stuff onboard, or can you get by without it inside.

On the higher end is the Dell Inspiron 7000, which is heavy, has a huge screen and all the goodies built in. $2400-$3700. On the low end is an IBM Thinkpad 560e, 166mhz chip, pretty thin and light, (but not the thinnest nor lightest) The CD-ROM and floppy are external and the modem is PCMCIA. But PC Zone is selling a package of refurb PC, refurb CD-ROM, 28k modem, spare battery and case for $900, which is about the best deal I've seen running.

Cheap but all the stuff internal? Winbook XL, I think, $1000, all included, but a small drive (1.6G, i think ). Other cheap methods are the Compaq refurb outlet (compaqworks.com), Sony Factory Outlet (got the address around here somewhere.) Microwarehouse (warehouse.com) always seems to have a steady supply and good deals on "last year's model".

Get a fix on pricing by going to pricescan.com and searching by price. The older, really cheap stuff listed is usually out of stock.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
 John M. Higgins
 Broadcasting & Cable Magazine
 higgins_at_dorsai.org
 v)212-337-7024/f)212-337-7028
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Received on Thu May 27 1999 - 18:04:01 CDT