A good used laptop ? All advice gratefully received !!

richardvc

Apologies for another laptop question but I can find out loads of info about new laptops but little or nothing about buying a good used one !!

My other half needs a laptop to occasionally work from home.

We have sussed out her requirements and they are the following -

1. Wireless
2. Min Windows XP
3. Able to connect to Skype
4. Built-in webcam
5. No need for much memory (we don't need 320gb for instance - I'm sure 80gb will be more than enough) as she will be working primarily on spreadsheets and word docs without the need to back it all up as she will be directly dialing into her PC at work
6. 17" screen

She has no need for great graphics etc as this will be only used as a workhorse and will spend more time in the drawer rather than out !!

The reason we are thinking down the used route as we don't want to pay for an all singing / all dancing model when it will only be used for basic stuff AND we have a cracking Asus desktop !! I'm sure we can pick one up for say £150 that will suit her needs.

Any help and advice would be gratefully received especially with regard to where we should look and any makes to embrace or avoid !!

Thank you in advance.

sharkie

you seem to want newer features at old redundant prices

Even today a large proportion of laptops do not have webcams, 2.5" 320G drives have only been around for a few years plus 17" was not that popular and expensive at the time.

putting the terms into ebay may give you the item(s) you are looking for?

GoodLuck!

techubuntu

Have a look at Acer Direct

(sorry I cant hyperlink it, new user etc)

They have lots of models that would fit the things you are looking for. They're refurbished, but grade A1 are fine, and they come with a 12 month guarantee.

I'm using an Acer Aspire One 751 to type this and its perfect.

Built in web-cam, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM

The only difference is I run Linux, but there are XP versions

Cost me around £165 delivered.

Donnie

techubuntu wrote: »

Have a look at Acer Direct

(sorry I cant hyperlink it, new user etc)

They have lots of models that would fit the things you are looking for. They're refurbished, but grade A1 are fine, and they come with a 12 month guarantee.

I'm using an Acer Aspire One 751 to type this and its perfect.

Built in web-cam, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM

The only difference is I run Linux, but there are XP versions

Cost me around £165 delivered.

What does an Acer Aspire One have to do with this thread?

From their website: Please Note: All Refurbished Laptops include a 3 month warranty held with Laptops Direct.

You have to pay £15 extra to get 12 months.

Donnie

This Toshiba Satellite L350-21Q fits your description, for £284. As to your assertion of £150.....dream on.
That the domain of private sellers. You can take your chances there.

Specification here. (Refresh page in link by pressing F5 if necessary).

Lil306

Your best bet is to look at places like eBay, local papers and yellow pages...

Some shops will sell them refurshed or 2nd hand for a decent price but you may have to compromise on specification.

I bought my laptop from eBay for £90, it was a Compaq Evo N610c... man I love it...

Anyway, it came with something like P4 2.0 CPU, 256MB Ram, ATI Graphics and 40gb HDD

I've upgraded it to 1GB Ram, (CPU is fixed into M/B) and will be whacking in a bigger hard disk at some stage... albeit I have to repair the damn DC socket...

One thing to note, when you buy 2nd hand or refurb'd laptops you will probably find the batteries are poo and either need calibrating or don't last any longer than 20 mins on full charge. So budget around £60 for a spare battery.

Here's the searches you should look for on eBay

CPU - 1.7GHz+
HDD - Any size
Price - £120
Processor - Dual Core, Core 2 Duo, Pentium 4, Pentium 4 HT, Athlon XP
RAM - 512mb

There's a nice selection I saw after looking quickly for ~£100 which can be upgraded for cheaper and would make a nice laptop

Here's one for you.... (1GB Ram, 80GBB HDD, 2.53GHz CPU).
Doesn't have a webcam but you can buy a USB one for a tenner

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Toshiba-Laptop-1GB-RAM_W0QQitemZ270533098215QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_Laptops_EH?hash=item3efd077ae7

richardvc

Thank you all for your advice - it is much appreciated !!

I have this morning given her the benefit of your advice and she........

went and bought the refurbished Toshiba from Argos on ebay !! (thanks Donnie) - She felt happier buying with a warranty and she's ended up with a good quality laptop for less than £300.

Another satisfied customer !!

richardvc

Donnie - I hope you read this !

Got the laptop yesterday and it is excellent.

The webcam is first class (had a chat with rellies in NZ) and the wireless is lightning quick !!

Donnie, really appreciate your help - thank you !

Donnie

I have and I have the warm fuzzies.

You might want to uninstall some of the unnecessary gunk(software) that comes for 'free' with the laptop and runs at Start Up.

I removed all the Google stuff and some of the Toshiba stuff. The various DVD players supplied are quite useful though. I also removed McAfee (via Add/Remove Programs and then followed up with their Removal Tool) and replaced it with ESET Smart Security 4, though you might want to wait until the trial is up before you think about it.

Starts up and shuts down quite quickly and runs nicely. Bargain.

richardvc

Eset security 4 - any good ? If so, how much ?

We have the Mcafee on our desktop and it has been great so I set up the 30 day trial with plans to get something like AVG etc etc at the end of it.

Donnie

richardvc wrote: »

Eset security 4 - any good ? If so, how much ?

We have the Mcafee on our desktop and it has been great so I set up the 30 day trial with plans to get something like AVG etc etc at the end of it.

I use ESET Smart Security 4 as it's relatively light in use. I haven't tried any of the freebies of late. Not so sure about AVG though. So many reports of Trojans getting through, but that could be inexperience.