Looking for a laptop

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freefalling

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#61305 13-May-2010 21:51

Hi,

I am after a laptop and need some help from people that know the market a bit better than me!

My two biggest problems are 1. Keypads - Who really needs a keypad on a laptop? Well surely your average laptop user doesn't so why do so many come with them these days? 2. Width - it seems laptops keep getting wider, probably due to unneeded extras like keypads, and 15.6" wide screens.

Okay and, maybe a third... Cost. I don't want to go over $860 really...

So, at first I had found a Lenovo G530 for $800. Then I orded it and "Oh wait we don't have it". Same story with the next 5 people I tried. So I am giving up on it.

But it had everything I needed and that is this:

2ghz Minimum. 160GB HDD minimum. DVDRW. Wireless. 56k modem. 3 USB 2.0 ports minimum. S-Video would be preferred but VGA will do. Intel 4500 graphics or better. Width 35cm or less preferred. PCMIA card slot prefered. Under $900.

Trying to steer clear of Acer and Gateway.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a laptop that would suit?

Cheers.

heavenlywild

5091 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 901

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#329955 13-May-2010 23:00

Plenty available:

http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/computers/notebook-computers/pc-notebook-computers/toshiba-l500d-00v-no...

http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/computers/notebook-computers/pc-notebook-computers/hp-cq42-140-presario...

http://www.noelleeming.co.nz/computers/notebook-computers/pc-notebook-computers/acer-em627-202g32mi-...

freefalling

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#329960 13-May-2010 23:12

Not to be rude but, did you actually read what I posted?

You suggested a toshiba, with a keypad - I guess I didn't stated I did not want that, but I thought I had implied it pretty well.
You suggested an Acer - I thought I made myself clear in trying to avoid these.
You suggested a compaq, which does not state it has a modem and is only 1.9ghz and not even dual at that - Which is kinda going against what I specified.

Thanks for your input, but... yeah...

heavenlywild

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#329970 13-May-2010 23:36

Fair enough, however, when you are looking to only spend $900, it is very hard to meet all of your requirements.

freefalling

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#329971 13-May-2010 23:45

Very true! I feel I have exhausted all options that your average home user can do. Just wondering if anyone else knew of anything out there.
Very dissapointed about the Lenovo. Such a great price but all the stores were useless and I can only imagine they were all listing the exact same computer so when one was sold... they all went.

Thanks for trying though!

heavenlywild

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+1 received by user: 901

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#329972 13-May-2010 23:50

I think it comes down to what you need the laptop for. If it is for Word processing, e-mails and web surfing, you won't need a very fast processor.

michaelt

425 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#329973 13-May-2010 23:53

I ended up buying a second-hand laptop from trademe, as I couldn't find a new one with the specs I wanted (most importantly, 1920*1200 res screen).

My main problem with the one I bought actually is that it doesn't have a numpad, whereas I'd find it very useful.

You'll be very hard-pressed to find a non-widescreen laptop these days.

$900 is quite restrictive in New Zealand, most new ones will be either netbooks or very basic budget machines (usually with single-core Celeron's or low-end AMD CPU's).

Dell has the Inspiron 15 starting at $850, but it'll be at least $1000 with a dual core CPU. You might be able to get an EPP discount on that though (dell.co.nz/epp).

Mighty Ape

Shop now at Mighty Ape (affiliate link).

freefalling

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#329974 14-May-2010 00:03

Cheers,

Had been looking on trademe for ages but actually only tonight found a few decent things in my price range! Need to investigate it a bit more though.

Thanks.

freefalling

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#329985 14-May-2010 00:46

Good spot. I think I actually have looked at that before. I really didn't want to spend more than $800 to be honest, but upped to $900 just to see if there were any options someone could come up with that might make me consider it.

Thanks for bringing it back to my attention though, it's definitaly a nicely priced good little laptop that I will keep in mind. Will see how these trademe ones go first!

Cheers.