Buying a new laptop - $400

Cadriel

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Hello. Recently my old laptop of about 3-4 years' fan has completely given out, along with a lot of its old hardware. Considering the touch-pad is peeling off and its missing several keys, I've decided its time to get a new one. But, I don't have too much to work with. I'm looking for a fast laptop that preferably has a lengthy battery life and can run programs that involve streaming video relatively quickly. I'd like to do this for about, $400 or less. If that's not possible, show me some of my best options for under $400. I'm not looking to play high-graphic games on it, or use it for business purposes, but rather a laptop I can do things I usually do on my home computer like check e-mail, stream movies. I don't relatively need a large storage space. Since I haven't even thought of a laptop in 3-4 years, I don't know all this new stuff. I bought an $800 Toshiba Satellite years ago but it seems you can get that sort of thing in a $300 one now. Regardless, If you know any laptop that I can buy that fits those standards, please tell me! Also, I'm not the biggest of fan of refurbished laptops, and I'd prefer to buy it at Best Buy/Circuit City something like that other then having to order it online... Thanks for your consideration!

PS: I love thin laptops, but not really want to sacrifice speeed or something for it ! :p
 
I say just go down to your local store and let the sales associate do their thing. Your computer needs aren't too demanding and if you change your mind, you can take it right back to the store.
 
I wouldn't let a sales associate tell you anything tbh - They're salesmen primarily and technicians on their days off.

Your requirements don't seem to match up too well with your budget. It's hard to find a high spec laptop with a good battery life, let alone for a low price. I'm going to go ahead and recommend a netbook of some sort. They tend to have around 1GB RAM and run 7 these days - Usually have Atom or AMD Fusion processors and are designed basically for exactly what you're taking about - browsing, email and a bit of media.

Newegg.com - ASUS Eee PC 1015PEM-PU17-BU Blue Intel Atom N550(1.50GHz) Dual Core 10.1" WSVGA 1GB Memory 250GB HDD Netbook
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG NC110-A02 Blue Intel Atom N455(1.66GHz) 10.1" WSVGA 1GB DDR3 Memory 250GB HDD Netbook
Newegg.com - DELL Inspiron Mini 1018 (iM1018-4034CLB) Clear Black Intel Atom N455(1.66GHz) 10.1" 1GB Memory 250GB HDD Netbook

If you went down to a Best buy, they'd probably try and rinse you for an XPS because you said 'stream movies' or some expensive junk like that.
 
Thank you for the information. Perhaps a Netbook is the better way out. Which of those three would probably be my best option? And another question, after I went to Best Buy they didn't say netbooks could play regular quality youtube videos that well. Is that true? Because I plan to do a bit of video-watching.
 
of my little knowledge im pretty much positive they could play normal quality, maybe not 720. but like i said in my name, im noob so dont hold me to it.
 
Think about how long Youtube has been around for - and how long video sharing in general has been around. Netbooks are just as powerful (in some cases, more powerful) than alot of low-end laptops on the market anyway. The ATOM chip provides the same 'Intel Mobile Graphics Express Chipset' that most Core i's do, it's as-good-as. It won't handle any/many games that well, but it sure as hell can handle Youtube.

The Atom is hyperthreaded (has a virtual second core) so the performance is at worst equal to that of a Mobile Celeron. Best Buy guy is talking out of his pooper me thinks.

Also, when it comes to laptops - i'm a Samsung fan. some people prefer the feel/warranty of a Dell. The most popular of the three is probably the Eee PC, because Asus have good rep for making good lappies.
 
this may help may not but i have a 4 year old toshiba satallite with a mobile intel 965 express family chipset and it runs 720p videos.
 
Yeah good example IknowLITTLE

Ability to watch youtube videos is almost entirely dependent on your internet speed these days, hardware is never really an issue for youtube. The system requirement for running youtube videos is basically Flashplayer. the hardware requirement is so low they dont bother publishing it, 99.9% of computers can surf youtube with minimum problems.

My dad has a 15 year old Pentium II Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop with 128MB RAM and a graphics card to pointless i don't think it needs any driver besides the generic one. The OEM sticker on the bottom, and the 'Windows 98' Sticker on the top, suggest that it originally ran Windows 98 SE. This runs XP now, and Youtube isn't a problem.

Im sorta glad I didn't get offered that Geek Squad job now, lying to people isn't really my scene.


Ah, found the required spec for Youtube, with a little googling

Youtube said:
In order to watch videos on our site, make sure you have the following minimum system requirements:

General System Requirements:

Adobe Flash Player 10.0.22+ plug-in
Firefox 1.1+, Internet Explorer 7.0+, Safari 1.0+, Google Chrome, or Opera
Broadband connection with 500+ Kbps


PC Specific Requirements:

Platform: Windows 2000 or higher with latest updates installed
Processor: 500MHz or faster
RAM: 128MB or more
Video Card: at least 64MB of video memory
Sound Card: at least 16-bit


Mac Specific Requirements:

Platform: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher with latest updates installed
Processor: 1.83MHz Intel Core Duo or faster
RAM: 128MB or more
Video Card: at least 64MB of video memory
Sound Card: at least 16-bit

I draw your attention to the published speed of the Mac requirement, 1.83MHz - Typo much?
 
I'm sure I have a big enough connection speed to get it then! I do have a few games but they will be put on my home computer. Also, is it possible to play DVDs on it if I invest in an external Disc drive? Thanks. I've always thought about a netbook, they're so tiny and cool.
 
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