Gently Used Laptops

[GarthM]

I'm looking at gently used laptops. Anyone have any opinions/comparisons on the following manufacturers? I've been out of the hardware business to long to have followed this stuff.

Any info is appreciated.

Dell
HP
Acer

Cheers

Garth.

[hoolio]

Generally speaking they are going to use most of the same components, assuming you are purchasing relatively newer models. The only thing that might separate them is build quality. If in doubt between two models, I suggest taking the one that has the most remaining warranty.

Depending on what you are using it for and if you plan on upgrading to Vista, you will want to go with 1 gb of memory. I don't know what you are limiting yourself to financially, but try to get a Core Duo, even a low end one will give you significant performance and energy saving boosts over preceding (P4) or competing products (AMD Turion, still a good choice).

Those are my only suggestions.

[Colby]

Garth,

I would stick with the name brand, Dell, HP. Parts are easy to get for a long time.

[Thom Panikorn]

Compare to other "brand" name, Acer is problably cheaper. It's wellknown back home in Thailand. I bought mine "tablet" Acer in 2003 and have no complain. My wife bought one last year and my buddies at the restaurant also have Acer.

Thom

[jeffc]

how much cheaper are they used? Dell offers a great warranty and their new laptops are often very well priced especially if you just want one for email, web, etc.. Acer is lower end and again good deals can be found at Costco, FS, etc. Costco has the best return policy if anything goes wrong. I'm just not sure for the price difference, going without a warranty is worth it.