2nd-hand laptop PCs: Any particular brand(s) to avoid?

[tom k&e]

Well, seing as I'm bored, let's have a look shall we?

And for the love of god use 2k rather than 98.

Now that's relevant to the OP, and advice I think few people would disagree with. And the response?

for the love of god use xp

ffs you archic muppet use a modern system

Which is both wrong, and insulting, but y'know, I'm a reasonable kind of guy, so my response is...

2k & xp are fundamentaly very similar, most of the differences are cosmetic. They're windows 5.0 & 5.1 internaly

Which, as you'll note, still isn't attacking anyone, but garf decided to respond with

not really the difference is that developement on 2000 stopped a long time ago the developement on xp has not yet stopped ... security wise xp is better as it has been patched 2000 hasn't...

Which we've established is nonsense. The advice he stop posting here was partly for his own good (seeing as by ignoring it and continuing to dig he's ended up looking a bit silly), and for everyone elses, seeing as it's hardly the first time he's posted utter rubish here, to the potential detriment of the entire community.

 

[editor]

Well, seing as I'm bored, let's have a look shall we?

Shame you were too bored to actually answer my question. Oh well....

 

[mauvais]

Well hasn't this got a bit silly again

I second the suggestion to use 2K over 98 or XP. It'll be an older, less powerful machine, so it makes sense to me.

 

[pinkmonkey]

Well hasn't this got a bit silly again

I second the suggestion to use 2K over 98 or XP. It'll be an older, less powerful machine, so it makes sense to me.

As long as you don't want to use a webcam with your Skype - as we found out the other day. I'm no fan of XP (we run xp pro on the laptop and 2K pro on the desktops)- but I'm finding it does has it's advantages over 2K.

 

[mauvais]

Yeah, I suppose. There's a few other things like that; for instance, DVD playback becomes a bit more complicated. Depends on your priorities I suppose.

 

[jæd]

I do like a thinkpad. Dell I find are a bit sh#tty.

Preferred strategy: get an ex-corporate laptop from a refurb specialist like www.sterlingxs.co.uk - then replace the HDD with the biggest one you can afford, and consider putting more RAM in.

Yep... Though my trust Dell stuff has gone down now that we've two laptops DOA. But generally if lasts more than two weeks it'll last for a while...

Install Ubuntu on it.

What, and play russion roulette with wireless drivers...?

 

[UnderOpenSky]

I'm going to be investing £250-£350 in a secondhand laptop, mostly for the portability as compared to my desktop, but also because I'll be visiting loads of relatives later in the year whose photo-archives I'll be raiding for pictures of my ancestors, so I want to be able to scan the photos in situ rather than carting boxloads of the buggers back to south London.

Spec I'm considering is something along the lines of 256mb/20gig/1mhz-ish, and Windows 98SE or 2000pro for an OS (mostly because I've already got licence numbers for them) although I may experiment later with a Linux distro.

I've heard various rumours/myths/urban legends about particular brands being unreliable or fragile or a "rip off", so anyone have any warnings or cautionary tales?

If you can afford a little more for £370 you could get this Acer new. I've had an Acer laptop for two years and think they are good value. You'll get a year's warrantee as well and a legal copy of XP.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Thanks for everyone's input.

In the end I settled on an IBM Thinkpad T23 PIII 1133mhz, 40gb/512mb running Windoze 2000 Pro, well within my price range.

 

[mhendo]

Sounds like a good deal. Have fun with it.

 

[kevvv]

actually you should use Windows Millenium Edition as it's obvious from the name that it'll be very well supported until the end of the millenium




oh, hang on, or was that supposed to be the end of the last millenium?



(I'll stop posting in this thread forever!)

 

[rich!]

What, and play russion roulette with wireless drivers...?

No - just buy the cheapest wireless dongle Maplin have - it'll be a zd1211 which is pretty well supported...

 

[ViolentPanda]

actually you should use Windows Millenium Edition as it's obvious from the name that it'll be very well supported until the end of the millenium




oh, hang on, or was that supposed to be the end of the last millenium?



(I'll stop posting in this thread forever!)

Having seen a normally calm and stoic mate reduced to violent anger at his computer for the two days he had Windows ME as an OS, I reckon I'll give it a pass, thanks!

 

[mhendo]

Windows ME.

An experiment proving that Microsoft could actually get people to pay for the privilege of having malware on their computer.

 

[GarfieldLeChat]

Windows ME.

An experiment proving that Microsoft could actually get people to pay for the privilege of having malware on their computer.

mistake edition

 

[Iam]

Muppet's Edition.