I could really use a new laptop. A friend at work just bought a new one. He knew I didnt have one so asked me if I wanted to buy his old one. I am using it now. He told me to take home and use for a few days and see if I liked it. It looks like new. It is Acer 5100-3949 Turion 64 Mobile Technolgy MK-36 (2.0 GHz 512kb L2 cache)-15" 80gig drive 1.50 ram.Has vista with 32bit, which I read somewhere was a problem. How much would be the limit to buy. Thanks anyone who can help with some information.
You can get a brand new computer for around $325 if you stalk the Sunday sales or around the same price you can get a refurbished one from Dell outlet (which is very reliable). If you wait a few more weeks, you'll be able to get one preloaded with Windows 7 for that same $325. Windows 7 is much better than Vista, this benchmark shows that it is about 28% faster using Firefox in Windows 7 versus Vista with SP2. Firefox speed in Vista and Windows 7
32-bit Vista will limit you to around 3-3.5 gigs of ram maximum. If you wanted to use older hardware (webcams, etc.), drivers are easier to find for 32 bit Vista than 64 bit. In everyday use the difference between 32 and 64 is not major. AMD Turion processors do not have as good battery life / weight combination as Intel chips - in other words, battery life can be good if they have made the machine heavy and given you a big battery, but if they make the machine equally light as an Intel one it will have worse battery life. An 80 gb hard drive is small by current standards, but if you need more space and are willing to carry around an external drive it is easy to get a big external drive cheap.
If you can afford $325-400, I would wait and get a machine with Windows 7. If the money is tight, and you can save $100 and get that laptop for $225 or less, it should do most tasks perfectly if you don't need maximum speed and the hard drive space and weight/battery life isn't an issue.
autumnrain
New Member
posted: Oct. 10, 2009 @ 7:53p
I think he said he wanted around $250. I was considering offering around $175.
autumnrain
New Member
posted: Oct. 10, 2009 @ 8:04p
Thanks for the great reply. It helped me out a lot. I have been on and off the laptop a few times today to see what I liked. It does look brand new, however it feels kind of cheapish. The plastic around the keyboard popped off a little but snapped right back. The screen is sharp looking. The sound is very low at max. Im not too worried about the 80gig that would be fine. Im a little concerned why the wireless seems to be a but slow. There's no works or word on it. I see something called open office.org? Im sure I can get office on it. I have a laptop that I cant seem to get working. At startup it tells me the system32/drivers/ntps( not sure exact) file is missing or corrupt. I tried to do a restore but no good. Thats why I thought maybe I would consider this one the guy at work was selling. I really like that this acer doesn't seem to get as hot as my other one. I never used vista before as the other lappy has xp. I wanted to make sure the 1.50 ram in this laptop would be ok. Well thanks so much for the great reply. Will think about it over night then make a decision. Im leaning towards holding off. This way for 325-400 I would at least have some kind of warranty and windows 7. If I could get this for 150 I would do so but not sure its worth the chance at a higher price.
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