Cheap/2nd hand netbooks? UPDATE! Bought Bargain Samsung N145 Advice Please?

OnAndUp

I am Considering! buying a netbook, I have only ever had desktops before and to be honest it probably would not be used that much really unless I go away somewhere - but I thought it would be really handy to have as a back up too.

So.......I naively thought maybe I could pick something up second hand on flebay for £50-70 but when I looked most of them seem to be going for £100+ except for the cheap 7" ones from Hong Kong. When I looked at new ones this at £160 seems to be the cheapest and has pretty good reviews, but I heard emachines were crap and best avoided?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B004O6LQM2/ref=s9_simh_gw_p147_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=137TA442Q6KB98R1PJN3&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

Any thoughts, ideas?

Thanks!

RussJK

Keep an eye on the Argos ebay outlet, can often get them for the £135 mark, also keep an eye on hotukdeals.com.

Before buying one, definitely try them out in a store. I don't know how anyone can stand the 10" screen and low resolution. Mine is 12" with 1366x768 resolution, so the HD video card was quite worthwhile. I got it for <£220 from the above site over a year ago.

OnAndUp

Thanks will keep an eye on those!

OnAndUp

I would like some of you experts advice please!

I was VERY lucky :j to be able to get 2 brand NEW! netbooks at bargain prices in the Carphone Warehouse Clearance the Samsung N145 Plus @ £117.50 and the Samsung N250 Plus at £130.

I want to keep the best one for myself and my friend is having the other if they cough up the cash! Or if not flebay! The specs seem very similar to me, I like the look and feel of the casing on the N250 more but it seems a “rare” model which concerns me a bit would I be more likely to have problems with it? Where as the N145 is really common and currently @ £206 on Amazon!!

Here are the specs:
http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php/140203/samsung-n250-plus-netbook-intel-atom-n450-166ghz-1gb-250gb-101-inch-wsvga-non-gloss-led-backlight-lan-wlan-bt-webcam-windows-7-starter-integrated-intel-gma-3150-graphics?jssCart=27c547c54d4474204c616112210af901#section_specification N250 Plus

http://www.oyyy.co.uk/product.php/130656/samsung-n145-plus-netbook-intel-atom-n450-166ghz-1gb-1-x-1gb-250gb-101-inch-wsvga-wlan-windows-7-starter-intel-gma-3150-dvmt-128mb-black#section_specification N145 Plus

Obviously the price difference is only £12.50 so doesn't really come into it. Which do you think would be the best for me to go with?

Also they came with free Bullguard Version 9 Anti-virus is this worth using or should I just stick with ones of the free ones like Avast that I’m currently using?

I would be really grateful if anyone can help me because I’m dying to get it up and running but don’t know which one to pick at the mo!!

RussJK

I'd stick with the N250, but there's not a great deal of difference between them other than the N250 can use DDR3 memory. Just pick the one you like the most.

Get rid of Bullguard, install Avira or Avast. I tried Avast on my netbook for about two months (and 4 or so months on my laptop) but strangely Avira was quicker for both, probably because I also insist on using Malwarebytes Pro.

Use PCdecrapifier & Startuplite to remove bloat:
http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/startuplite

Then Revo Uninstaller to uninstall anything else you don't want:
http://www.revouninstaller.com/start_freeware_download.html

Start > MSCONFIG > Startups tab, to untick anything else you don't want/need autostarting, using these two sites and google as a guide:
http://www.systemlookup.com/lists.php?list=2
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/startups/

After that, see Closed's thread for anything you missed: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849
or Black Viper's site for suggestions on trimming services for speed if you're confident.

free4440273

it's okay/ even better is this and what I have / HP Mini 210 /

OnAndUp

Thanks RussJK! You are always really helpful and quick to answer too!

I'm definitely leaning towards the n250 it just feels nicer to me - which is very technical I know lol!

But I just don't feel as confident in it as it because it seems an odd model strangely they both have manufacturing dates of October 2010 on them but the N250 isn't anywhere on samsungs website!

Has anyone else got the N250?

OnAndUp

free4440273 wrote: »

it's okay/ even better is this and what I have / HP Mini 210 /

That's very PINK!!

I think? I read some people had that model for around the £120 price too!

OnAndUp

Thanks! - never heard of the PCdecrapifier (great name!) will have a go of that on this pc too.

spakkker

N250 has an extra usb slot , a card reader and bluetooth built in . Both specs say ddr2 memory.

OnAndUp

At the moment I'm probably only going to be using it for web browsing and to put my music onto it do you think I would still benefit from upgrading the RAM from 1GB to 2GB?