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wirate
August 19th, 2010, 07:52 PM
I got some 250$ at hand and I want to buy a laptop. I will be browsing the web, using office applications and coding for the next four years (hopefully on the same laptop). Should I go for a used one? people say their batteries are useless. Tell me some place to buy online.
thanks

whiskeylover
August 19th, 2010, 07:56 PM
You can buy a cheap laptop from ebay. But since you're in Pakistan, you'd have to find an ebay equivalent for your country.

As for batteries, a new one costs around 100 bucks in most cases. If you're going to be plugged in for extended periods of time, you can unplug the battery and run on AC power to extend battery life.

wirate
August 19th, 2010, 08:38 PM
So its true that the batteries in old machines dont last

wirate
August 19th, 2010, 08:40 PM
Many come with bundled Windows. I dont want it. Will that make a difference to the price?

whiskeylover
August 19th, 2010, 08:45 PM
So its true that the batteries in old machines dont last

Not sure. But if the battery is new, it should give you atleast a couple of years.


Many come with bundled Windows. I dont want it. Will that make a difference to the price?

Not sure again. Trying doing a price comparison. If you're buying used, then try bargaining.

oldsoundguy
August 19th, 2010, 08:47 PM
First off cheap and good will not appear together in any laptop description.
Remember, you are locked into a unit that, with the exception of maybe a hard drive, cd/dvd drive and memory, is NOT upgradable.
Built in obsolescence is the name of the game when it comes to laptops.

Second, no, there is no "discount" for not having Windows on a computer. They will cost the same simply because the computer maker gets a bunch of money for all of the trial ware they load with Windows. Since that does not exist in Linux of any form, the maker still has to make that money SOMEWHERE.

LowSky
August 19th, 2010, 09:42 PM
Laptop Batteries tend to last between 1-3 years.

$250 isn't going to buy much and used can be a gamble. I would suggest saving about $400-500 to buy a brand new one.

brokenromeo
August 19th, 2010, 10:14 PM
Too bad you don't have Walmart there, I recently bought a decent Acer laptop for $298, which I now dual boot between Windows 7 and Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit...works great.

MasterNetra
August 19th, 2010, 11:38 PM
First off cheap and good will not appear together in any laptop description.
Remember, you are locked into a unit that, with the exception of maybe a hard drive, cd/dvd drive and memory, is NOT upgradable.
Built in obsolescence is the name of the game when it comes to laptops.

Second, no, there is no "discount" for not having Windows on a computer. They will cost the same simply because the computer maker gets a bunch of money for all of the trial ware they load with Windows. Since that does not exist in Linux of any form, the maker still has to make that money SOMEWHERE.

Actually they wouldn't cost the same, if their is no trials and junk the windows machine would cost more on the same hardware, sense the windows OS actually cost money and Ubuntu and most distros do not.

Nick_Jinn
August 19th, 2010, 11:52 PM
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-5517-5086-DVD-RAM-Widescreen/dp/B002UQ7L2M/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1282258213&sr=1-1

This looks like a totally decent laptop for $275 used.

Acer Aspire 5517-5086 - Athlon 64 TF-20 / 1.6 GHz - RAM 2 GB - HDD 160 GB - DVD?RW (?R DL) / DVD-RAM - Radeon X1200 - WLAN : 802.11b/g - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - 15.6" Widescreen TFT 1366 x 768 ( WXGA )

Shipping will be extra.