Cheap Laptops

[jabberwock95]

I hate to make two threads so close to each other, but I have a completely different topic I could use some of that excellent help with.

My mum uses eBay quite a lot, and I would like to do schoolwork on the move. We could both do with a laptop. The problem is that my mum resents spending much money on 'computer stuff' (see my other thread).

The perfect laptop would be: Able to handle internet browsing, email and maybe some light games. Also, (this is the hard part) it should be under £500. Secondhand/Refurbushed laptops are a possibility. Any info/links/helpful stuff would be appreciated. Even if it's just to tell me I haven't a hope...

 

[63]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38123&item=6700845959&rd=1

Nothing to spiffy, but it's cheap.. and very light gaming heh :thumbs:

 

[blahblahblah]

Some pointers.

- Stay far away from Intel Celeron Mobile processors (horrible performance). Athlon XP Mobiles are awesome.
- 256 MB of RAM is a must, anything less is reducing the functionality (in terms of performance for word processing, email, etc) of your new laptop.
- Don't expect to play modern 3D games with this laptop. Diablo, Diablo 2 and Starcraft will be probably the most graphical demanding games your laptop will handle.

 

[The Terminator]

prolly get some cs on there

 

[jabberwock95]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=38123&item=6700845959&rd=1

Nothing to spiffy, but it's cheap.. and very light gaming heh :thumbs:

Looked good, but they only ship to the US. I'll try ebay.co.uk.

Stay far away from Intel Celeron Mobile processors (horrible performance). Athlon XP Mobiles are awesome.

Might not be possible on my budget, but worth looking out for. I don't need anything hugely fast anyway.

256 MB of RAM is a must, anything less is reducing the functionality (in terms of performance for word processing, email, etc) of your new laptop.

Thanks, I was wondering what amount of RAM I would need as a minimum.

Don't expect to play modern 3D games with this laptop. Diablo, Diablo 2 and Starcraft will be probably the most graphical demanding games your laptop will handle.

Yesterday I was looking at a laptop with a 300Mhz processor. I'm really not expecting to play HL2 on this thing. By 'light gaming' I was thinking more like HL1...

Thanks for the tips all!

 

[blackeye]

Don't expect to play modern 3D games with this laptop. Diablo, Diablo 2 and Starcraft will be probably the most graphical demanding games your laptop will handle.

I got an old laptop that I was able to play cs (1.5) and warcraft 3 at 1024x768 resolution. It was a 497mhz celron and 128mb of ram. (8mb s3 savage graphics card.) If your only playing half life 1 then a 300mhz will probably be fine. The minimum for half life was 233mhz. Counterstrike is 133. I also got age of mythology running on that laptop. (The game stated it needed a 16mbs graphics card but I was able to run it fine) When im using windows xp it only eats up about 80mbs of ram, 100mb when I got 15 windows open in IE. At the bare minumum you should get 256. You will be able to play RTS games no doubt. If you ever plan on playing more modern FPS then you should probably get a mobile athlon or pentium m. You can get some really good deals on laptops though, ebay would be the place to start.

If you arent getting top of the line parts make sure you optimize your system to hell and get every last drop of performance out of it.