A "good" lappy?

[slavik]

I'll be working during the summer and will need a laptop during the hours that I work (I will lifeguard, so I will have times of nothing to do)

What I need in it is:
-long battery life (6-8 hours or more???)
-light/small (15"?)
-built-in wireless

that's pretty much it since I will only be doing some minor compiling and maybe text processing email stuff.

Also, looking for as cheap as possible (500USD or less possible?), please recommend families of laptops, company, whatever.

[D3Fan]

A few to check out are the Dell 1200, 600m or x1. Worth noting. Another great place to look is in there outlet section used and refurb there some very good deals there.

[slavik]

What was that site where you could buy the parts and assemble it yourself?

maybe that could be cheap?

[SkyDog]

Originally posted by slavik
What I need in it is:
-long battery life (6-8 hours or more???)

You're likely going to need multiple batteries to run that long. More than four hours of battery life is generally considered very good. To get the best battery life with good performance, I'd suggest you look for a laptop based on the Pentium M (aka Centrino) CPU -- not to be confused with the Pentium 4-M processor.

If your price range is sub-$500, I'd suggest you save up some more money. Used Pentium III laptops often sell for more than $400 on eBay.

Like D3 mentioned, you can sometimes find some good bargains on returned/refurb units in the 'Dell Outlet' section of Dell's web site.

[kent1146]

You'd be very hard pressed to find ANY laptop under $500 that is worth owning. All other specs you can do, but the $500 price tag pretty much eliminates them all.

How about $500 worth of books? That would keep you occupied all summer long. And you can't beat the battery life and portability of a book.

[slavik]

I hate books :P

forget the battery life then ...

I want something small,light and cheap ... is there a laptop with like a 12" LCD???

I also noticed that some 14"LCD cost more than 15" LCD laptops ...

EDIT: I was thinking, would it be possible to build something like a "laptop" for cheaper? (regular PC but really flat)

something inside of a 1U case? (1U cases are 1.75" "thick")

EDIT2: noticed that it wouldn't be possible

[PCJ]

Originally posted by slavik
I'll be working during the summer and will need a laptop during the hours that I work (I will lifeguard, so I will have times of nothing to do)

What I need in it is:
-long battery life (6-8 hours or more???)
-light/small (15"?)
-built-in wireless

that's pretty much it since I will only be doing some minor compiling and maybe text processing email stuff.

Also, looking for as cheap as possible (500USD or less possible?), please recommend families of laptops, company, whatever.

The smaller/lighter, the more expensive. there are a few lappys that hit 8 hours, but they go for 2000 or more.

[coolqf]

Originally posted by PCJ
The smaller/lighter, the more expensive. there are a few lappys that hit 8 hours, but they go for 2000 or more.

FUJITSU and IBM laptops are really good at hitting 8hrs with only basic use, as surfing the web, MS Word, etc...

[slavik]

I've realized that getting a laptop for upto 1kUSD isn't worth it for me, so I'll put that towards modding/upgrading my desktop ^^ (Venice, with WC, etc.)

Also, IMO it is possible to build a 300USD laptop, just nobody wants to do it ... (Linux based, P1-2 based with 9nm, 14" LCD, 64MB System Ram, 16MB Video Ram)

[proxops-pete]

Office Depot has sale on HP lappies... w/ Sempron 3000+ for $500 AR (really $600 after taxes and shipping). Nice deal imo... sure it's a bit heavy and doesn't last/meet your time needs... but heck! It's a great deal...

[kent1146]

Originally posted by slavik
I've realized that getting a laptop for upto 1kUSD isn't worth it for me, so I'll put that towards modding/upgrading my desktop ^^ (Venice, with WC, etc.)

Also, IMO it is possible to build a 300USD laptop, just nobody wants to do it ... (Linux based, P1-2 based with 9nm, 14" LCD, 64MB System Ram, 16MB Video Ram)

You can buy a used (or an old unused) laptop for $300, sure. But I go back to my earlier comment... laptops under $500 aren't really worth having.