Looking for $250 laptop

[Daehawk]

Still need a laptop. I need a newer one with built in wifi that is not slow.

All I have is an old old one with XP but only 1 gig ram and it is so slow its unusable now. Need something newish thats not broke in some way. Dont need it for gaming but would be a plus. Walmart has new laptops for less than $300 so surely theres a nice used one out there somewhere for less than $100.

EDIT: Should specify Windows laptop not Apple. Also a i3 or i5 not Celeron and would prefer a video card/chip in it not on board.

If not perhaps you could offer up a brand or model to keep my eye out for on Craigs list?

[Kasey Chang]

Not gonna happen at that price, even used. I can't even find a refurb desktop for $100 (except ancient Pentium 4 and Core 2 desktops). You ain't gonna find a laptop for that price.

[Kasey Chang]

Woot has some $149 laptops, but they're only guaranteed to be at least dual core, which could be as low as Pentium Dual Core, but probably Core 2 Duo.

NO WAY you'll find i3 at $149, even used, much less $99.

[ericb]

Just wait until Black Friday (assuming you're US based)...plenty of entry level machines in that price range that will blow away a two year old laptop in performance. You can probably forget a dedicated video chip in the $100-150 range though.

[Daehawk]

Thats ok. it wont be a gaming machine.

[hitbyambulance]

For used machines, i have never seen an i3 for $150, much less an i5. even Dual Core is going to be a struggle. Just trying to set expectations here.

for Craigslist, i'm a fan of Lenovo ThinkPads. It's not gonna be a gaming machine, but they're great systems otherwise.

[hitbyambulance]

see my post here: http://octopusoverlords.com/forum/viewt ... 7#p2173977

[Daehawk]

Woot has some $149 laptops, but they're only guaranteed to be at least dual core, which could be as low as Pentium Dual Core, but probably Core 2 Duo.

NO WAY you'll find i3 at $149, even used, much less $99.

Newegg is leaking their Black Friday pre stuff. For $299 I could get a i5.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834300249



Intel Core i5 2.5GHz
4GB Memory 250GB HDD
Integrated Graphics
Windows 7 Professional 64bit

[Daehawk]

I may have to go the Newegg / Ebay route but Ive upped my price to $250 hoping someone has something comparable on OO. Id rather a fellow OO'r get my money than a store.......looking for a i3 or i5 , 4 gig ram min, 500 gig hd min, dedicated video or not, good battery, all stuff Id need to charge and use it(backup OS perhaps), and wifi inside. Wear and tear is fine as long as it works.

I had my eye on a Asus Republic of Gamers laptop today with a i7, 8 gigs, nvideo chip for graphics..the works....it was 6 years old and I almost got it....it went past $300 and I quit...it sold for about $360.

[Daehawk]

Been looking at laptops all morning for fun. Not all that fun. I like Lenovo, Acer, Asus, and sorta HP. Ive checked the sites I could think of...the name brand sites, then Newegg, TigerDirect and a few others. but I swear I cant find JUST what I want. I wonder if I called what they would offer?

What I want is 15" screen that must be touchscreen
Dedicated graphics card of some type..prefer Nvidia
A core i5 again Intel

Ive found many that will have 3 of those at the price I want but be missing one of them..every time. I once even found a core i7 with everything but a touch screen for $400. Thats $200 less than the rest i was looking at.

Geebus why is it so tough to find what you want at the price point you want..

[stessier]

At what point might you concede the phrase "it's not you, it's me" will apply?

[gilraen]

What I want is 15" screen that must be touchscreen
Dedicated graphics card of some type..prefer Nvidia
A core i5 again Intel

For under $250? Dude...you can't be serious.

And what happened to the whole "I don't need it for gaming"? You don't need a dedicated graphics card for anything else, really.

[Daehawk]

Nah not all that for $250. I was looking at higher end stuff. Stuff gets more complicated all the time. Best to have a low end of stuff that will cover it....like a dedicated card...even if its low end.

Ended up renting a HP for the wife today because she has some ballgames to watch and needed a laptop right now. Two week rental was $80. Got a AMD quad core with AMD graphics card and 1 tb drive and shit. Wanted her to enjoy it

[Alefroth]

Nah not all that for $250. I was looking at higher end stuff. Stuff gets more complicated all the time. Best to have a low end of stuff that will cover it....like a dedicated card...even if its low end.

Ended up renting a HP for the wife today because she has some ballgames to watch and needed a laptop right now. Two week rental was $80. Got a AMD quad core with AMD graphics card and 1 tb drive and shit. Wanted her to enjoy it

Rent to own?

[Daehawk]

Ya. Places are ripoffs. Im not buying just renting a few weeks till I can get something. She has ballgames to watch that wont air on anything but online.

[Kasey Chang]

There are some "decent" $250 laptops on Woot or NeweggFlash if you're just looking to surf / play browser games / low-impact stuff. Core 2 Duos / Intel graphics 14.1 inch screen and all that. Probably fromer business lease returns. No touch screen, these probably run Win 7 Pro.

[Daehawk]

I got a laptop. I guess I should have updated this.

But I do have a old one that is SUPER slow that I may be into getting parts for. I added more ram to I think 2 gig..all it will hold.....and its no faster. I might try to get WinXP on it. Or maybe a ssd or something. The HD may be bad.

[Pyperkub]

SSD will do the most for you

[Kasey Chang]

SSD will do the most for you

Ditto. Those old machines probably only have like 160 GB HD's any way. A 128GB SSD is cheap nowadays, and will make that thing go much faster.

[Pyperkub]

Saves battery a lot too

[Canuck]

Ended up renting a HP for the wife today because she has some ballgames to watch and needed a laptop right now. Two week rental was $80. Got a AMD quad core with AMD graphics card and 1 tb drive and shit. Wanted her to enjoy it

Wow, this thread. You won't pay more than $250 for the moon and yet you blew 1/3 of your budget on a two week rental? The mind reels.

[Kasey Chang]

FWIW, check Woot.com... they often have refurbs that cheap. You can also find them on neweggflash.com (flash sale site for Newegg.com)

[Daehawk]

I got her an HP for Xmas. I should have spent a little more and got a better one as this one's keyboard will just stop working for no apparent reason. Other than that its been good. She lives on it now.