Can you help me find a laptop?

[Cloudy]

I need one, but I'm on a fairly tight budget. I just spent $400+ on books and fees for college and now I only have roughly $500 to work with. What I'm looking at right now is refurbished laptops - but are they worth it? What should I get? What's a good site to buy from? I vaguely recall a site selling used & refurbished laptops being posted here before, but it slips my mind at the moment.

Anyway, I really need a decent laptop to do schoolwork on. Any suggestions or help would be appreciated greatly!

Here's some sites I was looking at:
http://www.usedlaptops.com/300_499-refurbished-laptops.html
http://www.usanotebook.com/hotdeal_page.php

[stalker145]

If you have a military installation near you, try that. There you will find two options, generally: DRMO (Defense Reutilization and Marketing Organization) where you can usually get good stuff dirt-cheap, and (in the case of a Navy/Marine Corps base) the NMCI (Navy and Marine Corps Intranet) resale activity. I used the latter and, in the last year, picked up a Micron Transport GX2 (which works 100% with Ubuntu) and a Dell Latitude C640 (which works OK with Ubuntu) for $350 each.

Then there are the countless internet sites, of which I have no experience with.

I know there are no Navy or Marine Corps bases in Arkansas to speak of, so your best bet will probably end up being the internet...

[Cloudy]

Yeah, there aren't. There's an Air Force base about 2-3 hours away though, although.. not the same thing. I don't know if I could find anything near there.

[Quillz]

I got a new Dell Inspiron E1405 for $800. It had a 120 GB HDD, 1 GB RAM, CD/DVD burner and a 14.1' glossy screen. Also, it is fully compatible out of the box with Ubuntu. I can run Beryl and everything.

[Cloudy]

That's cool, but I'm working with only about $500 or so. I've thought about getting a credit card and purchasing a $7-800 laptop, but.. there's bill payments and all that crap to deal with, and my family has a bad track record with that sort of thing..:(

I don't know, though.. I could do it. I'm sure I could make enough to cover whatever difference there is..

[Quillz]

That's cool, but I'm working with only about $500 or so. I've thought about getting a credit card and purchasing a $7-800 laptop, but.. there's bill payments and all that crap to deal with, and my family has a bad track record with that sort of thing..:(

I don't know, though.. I could do it. I'm sure I could make enough to cover whatever difference there is..
If you go with Dell, you can get a B130 for about $500. It's an entry level notebook, so don't expect any dual-core processors, but it still gets the job done, and I imagine it could run Ubuntu fine.

[Stew2]

Another option is to look for a local store that sells used or refurbished laptops. Some of them have pretty good deals and then you get a chance to check them out to make sure everything works and there are no surpises. I picked mine up on ebay but had to do a few repairs to it. Good luck on your hunt! :D

Regards,
Stew2

[mips]

http://www.spintradeexchange.com/ibm_thinkpad_notebook.htm

[Cloudy]

Total n00b question, but mips, what's "No COA"?

[shining]

Total n00b question, but mips, what's "No COA"?

I see one that could match: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COA

[Cloudy]

No Coat of Arms?! DAMNIT!


>_> <_<

[meltingrobot]

COA = Certificate of Authority = Basically a Windows license, if you have no plans at all to use Windows, it doesn't matter.

[botezuma]

I could use an advice on buying a laptop. My top chioces now are a System 76 series (2Ghz core 2 duo, 1Gb RAM, 80Gb 7200 rpm, nVidia GeForce GO 7600 with 256MB VRAM, dvd rw, bluetooth, mic, cam&everything else=$1650) or a HP dv6000t series (2 Ghz core 2 duo, 1Gb RAM, 100Gb 5400 rpm, 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7400, lightscribe dvd-rw, bluetooth, mic,cam &everything else= $1460) 1 year warranty both. both sound really good... Please help.

[mips]

Total n00b question, but mips, what's "No COA"?

As someone else mentioned above it comes without a preinstalled OS/Windows. Ain't that great ?!

Go for either of the $450 models (P/N 2366-41U), the one comes with Windows2000 if you need it and the price is the same. Take your change and slap another 256MB or 512MB in there and you have a really good lappy (256MB with fluxbox or a lite DE would be great)

[mips]

I could use an advice on buying a laptop. My top chioces now are a System 76 series (2Ghz core 2 duo, 1Gb RAM, 80Gb 7200 rpm, nVidia GeForce GO 7600 with 256MB VRAM, dvd rw, bluetooth, mic, cam&everything else=$1650) or a HP dv6000t series (2 Ghz core 2 duo, 1Gb RAM, 100Gb 5400 rpm, 256MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) Go 7400, lightscribe dvd-rw, bluetooth, mic,cam &everything else= $1460) 1 year warranty both. both sound really good... Please help.

Sytem76 sells rebranded Asus laptops, you will save yourself a small bundle in shipping & customs duties if you just brought an Asus locally.

My personal choice would be Hp though.