Performance ... (bit of newbie)

highguyuk

Hey,

Looking at buying a laptop for my OH for University. Found one, 256mb and 500mhz pentium 3.

I dont really know much other spec about it, still learning, but is this performance any good?

zombiecazz

What will your OH be needing the lappy for? will it just be wordprocessing or is there a need for statistical analysis?

Needs directly relate to specs needed

highguyuk

Mainly word processing, few graphs, internet access ... nothing too taxing ...

viru.doshi

Heylo,

I really wouldn't bother with a P3 500Mhz, would be pretty much worthless in a couple of years in case you were thinking of reselling after he graduated.

I bought a laptop with a 1.3Ghz processor in 2001, sold it on ebay this year for £460, I paid £1100 in 2001, just to give you an idea.

Check out the Dell website, the do some great deals often so worth a look there.

movieman

Still, if it's used then it shouldn't cost much in any case: certainly a 500MHz P3 should be plenty enough unless you plan to run Microsoft Super-Word 3D or whatever the next version of Office will include.

Heck, I used to do word-processing on a 4MHz Z80... I'm still amazed at how little real improvement we've seen in common tasks from CPUs that are over a thousand times faster.

The downside, I guess, is that if an old laptop breaks down parts may be hard to find.

albertross_2

You can get a second hand Dell with that spec for £200 or so, or a new one for 300-350. This spec is perfectly acceptable for most tasks..

I would recommed 512 Mb as a minimum amount of Ram, as XP needs this amount to run smoothly.

https://www.crucial.com sell cheap ram upgrades, and they are easy to fit.