Where are the cheap used laptops

[richlevy]

I gave my 3-year-old laptop to my son for college. I like having a laptop to take on trips for surfing from the hotel room, storing and editing digital photos, etc.

I was considering getting a cheap used laptop and loading it with Linux/FireFox/OpenOffice etc. The cheapest new notebooks after rebates start at $450 with Windows installed. When I look online for used notebooks, they appear to start at almost the same price.

Where are the really cheap used laptops? If I'm using Linux and Firefox, I don't expect to need much processor speed.

[xoxoxoBruce]

A friend bought one on ebay for something less than $200, with shipping. No manual and a few keys were dead but a good price.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

A friend bought one on ebay for something less than $200, with shipping. No manual and a few keys were dead but a good price.

I was looking over at Ebay and I came to the following conclusion.

Most used laptops are sold with 30 days on most everything, except the battery, which is sold 'as-is' and usually untested.

If the battery is dead, it's another $75 to get a new one. Most of the laptops use older memory like SODIMM, so any memory upgrade can cost $50-150. I did say that I was going to use Linux, but even Linux and Firefox might not run well on 128MB.

I find myself creeping towards that $450 mark where I can get a new tested laptop with 512MB-1GB of memory, 80GB hard drive, 1 year warranty, etc. It seems that laptops retain their value better than Hondas.

For $100 I might take a chance, but at $200 the cost of new vs. used is too close to ignore.

Manuals aren't a problem, since most major brands are available for download, but I'm curious as to how your friend will work around the dead keys, unless he intends to always use an external keyboard.

[mbpark]

Firefox on 128MB with Linux? Hahaha . 256 is a minimum if you want to run any browser these days, esp. with Flash 9.

You can also get the memory you need from eBay or Newegg, and spend maybe $60 for 256MB if you shop right. Many of the older laptops will take 256MB in a single slot (and I have verified this with an IBM Thinkpad 600Mhz Celeron that could only take 256mb). 256MB PC133 SODIMM chips can run between $40-$60 if you know where to look.

If you go for an old Dell Inspiron 4100, you can shop around and find a deal under $250 for a PIII with 1Ghz and 256MB RAM. That laptop is more than capable of running Ubuntu Linux well. It also has an ATI Graphics accelerator on it, which is much better than the integrated graphics on most laptops.

The same laptop will also run XP admirably well. I just pieced together one of those models for a customer out of parts. Total price was under $250 with a 40GB HD and 512MB RAM. We used an old Dell we had lying around for the screen, battery, and keyboard, and bought the memory ($100 for 512MB from Newegg.com, and $40 for the 40GB 5400RPM HD from them) and HD online. We bought the HD caddy for $5, and the motherboard for $60 from eBay. You can buy an 80GB HD on eBay for a much cheaper price, I am sure.

The machine works like a champ, and it has a 1.2Ghz PIII chip, which is better than many P4-M or Celeron (P4-based) chips.

My advice? Don't buy memory from any big-box physical store and get a Dell from eBay . Newegg, Coast to Coast Memory, and eBay offer excellent deals on memory. I've even used memory from Newegg in servers (one dual Opteron and one P4) and have nothing but good experiences with them.

Thanks,

Mitch

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by mbpark

I just pieced together one of those models for a customer out of parts. Total price was under $250 with a 40GB HD and 512MB RAM.

That's my point. You already had an old laptop to start with and knew that the battery worked. I would be buying the laptop and accepting an 'as-is' battery.

I just expect a larger difference in price considering the difference in CPU, drive, etc between a 4+ year old used and new machine.

[mbpark]

The only thing I found was the price for the memory. The only place I'd expect to pay above $60 for 512MB RAM is one of the big box stores that marks it up double.

The only thing we had was the screen and battery.

However, I priced out several of that model for under $150 on eBay, and the batteries are around $75, unlike the one for my Powerbook, which ran $130 from Bundy in CC.

With regards to the price difference, the $600 or $700 laptops actually have CPUs in them that are equivalent to much older laptops. A Celeron M or Sempron and integrated video will make a modern laptop seem like a 3 year old laptop with a Pentium III or 4 CPU and discrete video.

[richlevy]

I may have a winner here.

Features: CPU: Intel Pentium III-M 1.0GHz Processor Hard Drive: NO Hard Drive (HDD caddy is included) Memory: 256MB SDRAM LCD: 14.1" Color LCD Networking: 2 PCMCIA Slots, 10/100 NIC Video: 16MB Radeon Mobility Sound: Onboard Ports:

• 1 PS/2
• 1 Serial
• 1 Parallel
• 1 USB
• 1 10/100 NIC
• 1 56k Modem
• 1 S-Video Out
• 1 SVGA
• Sound

Media Drive:

• 1.44MB Floppy Drive (hotswap)

Reg: $139.99
Sale: $118.99

I'm pricing compatible hard drives on Ebay at $30-$60 with shipping for 20-80 GB drives. UBUNTU and OpenOffice do not need anywhere near that much storage, but as a vacation laptop I can store pictures on it. The only issue would be the 1.5 MBps transfer rate of the USB 1.1 ports.

Anyone have any opinions on this?

[mbpark]

At $10 for a decent USB 2.0 Cardbus Card, it's worth it.

[richlevy]

Well, I was too late for the $118 laptop. I figured it would have cost me about $50 to add a CDROM and hard drive to it.

After a few unsuccessful bids on Ebay, I bought a more expensive laptop from the same company.

Dell Inspiron 8100

CPU: Intel Pentium III-M 1.13GHz Processor
Hard Drive: 48GB Hard Drive
Memory: 256MB RAM
Display: 15" Color LCD
Networking: 10/100Mbps NIC
Audio: ES1980 Maestro-3 PCI Audio
Video: 32MB nVidia GeForce 2 Go/MX Ultra
Ports:

* 1 PS/2
* 1 Serial
* 1 Parallel
* 2x 2.0 USB
* 1 10/100Mbps NIC
* 1 56K V.90 Mini PCI Modem
* 2 PCMCIA Slots
* Sound

Drives:

* 48GB Hard Drive
* 24x CD-ROM Drive
* Standard 3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Drive (hotswap)

Includes:

* AC Adapter
* Power Cord
* Battery

With sales tax the total came to $261. Shipping was free, and most of the laptops on Ebay cost $35-40 to ship. So I got this at the same cost as if I had paid $225 on Ebay.

Since the place is in PA, I paid sales tax. However, this does mean that it will be delivered tomorrow.

And now my dilemma. I didn't expect to be buying a PC with this much power and a dedicated graphics card. In theory this PC will run many of my game programs if I install Windows XP on it, and it has a COA (certificate of authenticity) sticker on it, so I can legally install XP on it if I can get my hands on a disk.

However, I really wanted to get off of the Windows merry-go-round and move to Linux to simplify security and not have to worry about dropped support for XP when Vista starts to mature. Right now my Virus scanner is a huge drain on my CPU. While I will install some kind of firewall for Linux, it's not going to be anywhere near as intensive as what I use to protect my Windows PC.

Still, I am so tempted to carry my some games with me on vacation. I really don't want to play around with dual boot. So I will stick with my original plan and go with Ubuntu or KUbuntu (any opinions on which is better?) and try to stay away from the dark side of the force.

I am concerned with getting the Maestro-3 sound card and NVidia card working on Linux. It looks like there are issues with Ubuntu and Maestro. I was hoping that one benefit of an older system would be that the drivers would be worked out for most of the popular hardware.

I found the ALSA project page for the ESS1988 (mine is 1980). I'm hoping I don't have to go to that much trouble.

BTW, there is some damage on the PC. The PC is under warranty and the first thing I will test is the NIC card, so I will know quickly if it's cosmetic or not. If it's not, the PC goes back. If it is just cosmetic, out comes the duct tape.

BTW, the ports are USB 2.0, so no worries there. Wish me luck.

[Ibby]

That looks more like an Inspiron 4000 to me - but the 4000 is one of the trustiest computers out there. My laptop is a, like, 6 year old Insp. 4000, still in working order (sans left arrow key). The screen sometimes needs a good smacking to work right and the mouse has a tendancy to wander off sometimes, but its still a really reliable comp.

[LabRat]

WooHoo!!

Just found out the bossman ordered my new Dell Latitude D630 laptop last Friday. (While I was taking the afternoon off, heh)

It has a wireless card, so you'll have do deal with me on the weekend now too, once I track down places I can log on...mwa ha ha ha!!

[Yznhymr]

I use Intechra...last 3 laptops from them. I got good customer service and they rate the quality of used laptops and provide comments related to wear. Better success with them than eBay, so willing to pay a few dollars more...