laptop question

I hope this topic isn't in the wrong place or that it shouldn't even be posted here . I know this website isn't for reviews of a particular machine but I didn't think it would hurt to ask . PLease delete if I'm out of line ! Here's the laptop I'm looking at . I want to save money because I just want a laptop for the occasional time that I'm out of town . I'm not a techie or a hard corp web surfer so this laptop seems like it's up my alley and it's actually $499 today at Bestbuy. Thanks for any advice !

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...t&productCategoryId=cat15157&id=1172881524655

 

Jim, that's not a bad deal at all. If you are trying to squeeze the last bit of value out of your money, you might go over to teh Dell Small Business site. That's where I picked up a similar laptop (Inspirion 1501), with much the same specs (AMD Turion 64 dual-core, DVD burner), but with a gig of DDR2 RAM, and an adapter, with tax and shipping, for $578. I also got a Radeon graphics card as well. LIke I said--your laptop is a good buy; if you are trying to squeeze every last bit of value, you might compare what you can get at Dell's Small business site too, before buying.

Others more knowledgeable about hardware might be able to compare the two dual-core processors--I honestly wouldn't know which one is better.

 

Looks fine to me - except that it has Microsoft Vista instead of XP.
That is all you are going to find on new laptops today.
If it comes preinstalled you will be fine and ok. It is just people are finding that if they want to (????) upgrade to Microsoft Vista a lot of the hardware ( try 85% ) will not work with Vista. If you have a laptop you cannot pull out parts and put in other parts . In your case you will be fine.
Toshiba is a major very reliable brand. I do not know of the newer budget laptops and what the verdict is. Laptops used to be meant for business and portability. They were very high end components that had to endure rigors and have data integrity. ( i.e always work). They were very expensive. In the last number of years budget laptops have arrived. Some of this is due to the fact that mid range components are more than acceptable now . Others are due to the fact that these budget laptops are not the same. You could drop an old toshiba from the ceiling ( some would say) and be ok. Not so with these budget laptops. Go to a big box store and look at the eyes of women ooging the laptops. There is some fantastic fascination with laptops, The answer is always the same when you ask them why on earth if they did not need portability , or space saving they bought that stupid laptop when the laptop is hard to work on ( small keyboard , and impossible ./not worth it to fix / expensive to fix) laptop ?

The answer is always the same "Because it is soooooooooo Cute ". I feel as if want to slap some sense into them.

Most of these laptops are placed on a desk where they never leave and the battery is toast due to fact that the laptop is plugged in 24/7. The most most of these people do in most cases is play solitaire , do email and maybe messenger to their friends. If that.
This is a very nice laptop. I would be interested to know what the experiences are of budget Toshiba laptops. If you want or need more ram for Vista it can be easily added. Ram goes up and down in price . The prices are very volatile. Just wait for a time when the ram price drops. Ram is easily and inexpensively installed. It is just a module. I do not know this computer however with the size of the laptop you will probably have a number of ram slots (2 ?) . This means that you use smaller ( read cheaper) ram that other laptops cannot use for sufficient amount of ram if they only have one ram slot. Better deal .
Remember they went to the moon on 8k. A megabyte is a million k. Overkill by any measure.

 

Thanks for all the great input everybody! I thought about Dell and have an XPS 400 as my desktop but I'm hearing awful things about Dell delivering on their promises . So far I haven't needed them but I was thinking about staying away from them this time but I will check out their Small Biz site . Bestbuy has another laptop that seems like a much better deal for just $100 more but it's a Gateway . I haven't heard much good about this brand . It already has a gig of ram and twice the hard drive at 160 gig . It's normally $750 and I confirmed this by looking around on the web at the various mail order houses . It's hard to beat Bestbuy when they sell for this price and give you 6 months interest free financing .
As far as memory cards go Visionof , it appears that you're correct - prices are cheap right now . They have a 1 gig card for only $60 - I was surprised . But the Gateway still seems like a much better deal . Any input on this brand folks ? Gracias!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...ategoryId=pcmcat103700050027&id=1173577987667

 

Hi visionof,
Could you explain why the battery is harmed if plugged in?

I've had my laptop since the middle of January and spends all of it's time plugged in, even when moving around the house or out on the porch.

And didn't buy it because it was cute But I know what you mean.

Regards - Charles