Want to buy cheap laptop - what do forum members recommend?

[etrexuser]

Want to buy cheap (meaning very affordable) laptop because family memebers are routinely using the more expensive laptop on the internet at home.

I have ordered the 12.x lts from Canocial CD disk. I would like to find an affordable laptop on eBay or maybe Amazon that will atleast run that version of Ubuntu, play YouTube Videos, & Thunderbird eMail, and ofcourse has a built in feature to connect wirelessly to the home network. A working battery is not required as I can plug it in the wall.

What are the recommendation by form members (like minimum chip and memory) or any links to anything you see on eBay (or somewhere). I'm somewhat partial to "buy it now" on eBay.

[idoitprone]

Want to buy cheap (meaning very affordable) laptop because family memebers are routinely using the more expensive laptop on the internet at home.

I have ordered the 12.x lts from Canocial CD disk. I would like to find an affordable laptop on eBay or maybe Amazon that will atleast run that version of Ubuntu, play YouTube Videos, & Thunderbird eMail, and ofcourse has a built in feature to connect wirelessly to the home network. A working battery is not required as I can plug it in the wall.

What are the recommendation by form members (like minimum chip and memory) or any links to anything you see on eBay (or somewhere).

It depends, those are not heavy task and you might be better fit buying a laptop with ok cpu, fast harddrive, and good ram
try to get a 7200 rpm hdd because its faster
DDR3 is current ram standard


AMD fusion laptops are cheap
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_1?rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Aamd+fusion%2Cn%3 A!493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A565108&bbn=541966&keywords=amd+fusion&ie=UTF8&qid=1337296579&rnid=541966#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D565108&field-keywords=amd+fusion&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A!493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A565 108%2Ck%3Aamd+fusion (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_n_1?rh=n%3A172282%2Ck%3Aamd+fusion%2Cn%3 A%21493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A565108&bbn=541966&keywords=amd+fusion&ie=UTF8&qid=1337296579&rnid=541966#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D565108&field-keywords=amd+fusion&rh=n%3A172282%2Cn%3A%21493964%2Cn%3A541966%2Cn%3A5 65108%2Ck%3Aamd+fusion)

Becareful catalyst drivers because amd driver is not as good as nvidia.
At least they are getting better and continue to push for open source. One day I will not have to worry about graphic drivers

If you want to fork over another 100 then buy intel ivy bridge computers or last gen i5s
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_kk_2?rh=i%3Acomputers%2Ck%3Ai5+laptop&keywords=i5+laptop&ie=UTF8&qid=1337296767

[oldos2er]

Moved to Community Cafe.

[kurt18947]

I think it depends on what you want your machine to do. I bought a Thinkpad X61 tablet off Ebay -- core2duo, 1 GB. RAM, no hard drive $127. Had a 7 or 14 day return. I had a second RAM stick and spare hard drive. Works great for web surfing, office stuff, Flash videos. IMO you don't need the latest i7 wonder machine. An all-Intel laptop increases the odds of it 'just working' IMO though .

[etrexuser]

I think I'm looking for something dirt cheap, so I will probably get something off eBay instead of even the $359 prices on Amazon. All I need is a basic laptop that can play Youtube videos, run Ubuntu, useThunderbird eMail, and ofcourse has a built in feature to connect wirelessly to the home network. This computer won't be a primary computer used for any major tasks, as I will still be storing my photos and important files on the other computer.

I guess I need to start with a discussion on the minimum requirements of Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS for a laptop.

[oldos2er]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/SystemRequirements

[Fajfi Pri]

I would recommend getting something with specs that will meet your needs, but is also something you can upgrade.

My current laptop (Dell Inspiron M5030) has only 3gb RAM, and a like 320gb HDD. I can upgrade the RAM to 8gb relatively cheap, and the HDD to whatever.

[sammiev]

I love my Toshiba Laptops but all Intel based. Make sure you buy what suits you and meet your needs.

[mamamia88]

Are you in America? I suggest going to http://slickdeals.net/ and typing laptop into the search field.

[drawkcab]

Cant go wrong with a thinkpad.

[F.G.]

you may want to look into getting a 'no-os' laptop, as they should be cheaper than one with windows. i've have and had previously toshiba satellite pro's and they have both worked pretty well and been quite cheap (my current one i've had for several years and has survived some serious abuse, having been around more countries than you can shake a stick at, backpacker syle, and without a case, as well as having had a full imperial pint of cider poured over the keyboard at one point and is still working (having said that it could really use a clean)).

i know in my office they use lenovo thinkpads and i think some people do consider them an industry standard because of their reliability (and i've been led to believe that the military use quite a lot of them), and both my mother and brother have both owned several thinkpads and been very happy with them. they seem durable, and reasonably priced.

good luck with your search.
oh yes, and if all you want is cheap, freecycle or craigslist can probably provide a free second-hand one.

[ubiquitin.jf]

I'm normally an AMD fangirl but for the best "out of the box" experience with Ubuntu you'd be best getting something with an Intel graphics chip (which tend to be in cheap machines), purely so you don't have to mess around with drivers.

[wolfen69]

Sandy based are pretty reliable. I've been running that so far with no probs.

[wolfen69]

Buy a second gen i5, and make sure all is intel. No probs.

[asifnaz]

Buy an "asus eee pc: super cheap , reliable and play well with Linux