http://www.dodevice.com/toshiba-a205-s5000...t-on-july-20th/ <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Toshiba A205-S5000 Notebook $398 At Walmart on July 20th The Toshiba A205-S5000 Notebook deal will be available at Walmart on July 20. More information will be posted when it becomes available. The specs included 2 GB of RAM, 120 GB hard disk, CD/DVD writer as listed in the ad plus Vista Home Premium and not Vista Basic. Description * 2GB Memory * 120 GB HDD * Reads & Writes CD?€™s & DVD?€™s * Windows Vista Home Premium * 15.4 inch display</div> Not listed, but confirmed on a few sites: Intel Celeron Processor 540 (1.86 GHz) I know nothing about processors. A lot of these sites are saying that it's pretty weak. Any expert opinions (DENNY)? Anyone know of better offers in a similar price range. I know bestbuy had an offer last month, with 1GB less RAM (which I would upgrade to 2), 40GB more harddrive, and a better processor (Pentium Dual Core)
Celerons are better than they used to be, but they have always been known to be the cheap quality processor. I've always avoided them. I prefer Intel Pentium and AMD processors.
Celerons aren't that bad. People always act like they are shit, but I've had one before and never had many problems. Although I would prefer the Best Buy one you talked about (where you upgraded the ram)
My guess is he meant "any". What are you going to be using it for? As well, I've found my mom's old laptop here biggest problem was overheating. It has a badly designed cooling system, the processor overheats and everything slows down. The laptop gets seriously hot. So we have one of those laptop cooling pads, which extends the time before it overheats by a little.
My sister's laptop got so overheated, the charging cord melted, and we had to yank out the charger. Mostly schoolwork, internet, light gaming, but not looking for a gaming laptop. The bestbuy one sounded perfect.
A Dual Core Processor will allow you to use it longer in terms of adapting to new software (which always seems to demand more horsepower) The biggest factor though is price point
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#1_War_Poet_ForLife @ Jul 26 2008, 09:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>My sister's laptop got so overheated, the charging cord melted, and we had to yank out the charger. Mostly schoolwork, internet, light gaming, but not looking for a gaming laptop. The bestbuy one sounded perfect.</div> They always have deals popping up. As well back to school sales, so if you wait a month they`ll probably have similar deals. From the sounds of it though you don't need anything brand new, especially if you have a friend/relative that has kept good care of their laptop. However if you don't know the person who had it, then it's hard to know just by looking at it if it'll be a good deal. (Battery life, bad cooling system, processor is slow) Vista doesn't seem to have big advantages at this point in time over XP, so if you got an older laptop with XP it wouldn't matter. Schoolwork and internet don't have heavy requirements, unless you are playing multiple videos at once, and are downloading somewhere else. Light gaming as in flash games doesn't need much, light gaming as old games like starcraft, emulators, etc.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#1_War_Poet_ForLife @ Jul 26 2008, 08:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>My sister's laptop got so overheated, the charging cord melted, and we had to yank out the charger. Mostly schoolwork, internet, light gaming, but not looking for a gaming laptop. The bestbuy one sounded perfect.</div> Depending on what gaming you are doing, you will need to look at the video card specs. I don't see them listed here. Any of the current games that have 3d need as much video as you can get. At least 256 MB video mem. When I started playing MMORPG's, I was looking at laptops that easily double the cost of comparable desktops. That was about 3 years ago. Check the video requirements of the games that you want to play before buying.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Jul 26 2008, 10:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>have heavy requirements, unless you are playing multiple videos at once, and are downloading somewhere else. Light gaming as in flash games doesn't need much, light gaming as old games like starcraft, emulators, etc.</div> Have you seen the youtubes of Starcraft 2? There are some sick new units coming. The Terran have huge mech warriors.
My laptop I got for $250 bucks brand new, it was a Toshiba Satellite at Circuit City on Black Friday about 4 years ago. It had a Celeron and lasted about 2 years until the hard drive gave out. Other than that, I had no other problems.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jul 26 2008, 07:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>A Dual Core Processor will allow you to use it longer in terms of adapting to new software (which always seems to demand more horsepower) The biggest factor though is price point</div> Dual core is definitely the way to go. One processor moves around your windows when you drag them, and the other does whatever disk I/O needs to be done. Best yet in a cheap laptop is an AMD 64 dual core. Then you install Ubuntu 64 bit on it and it'll fly.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Denny Crane @ Jul 26 2008, 10:35 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (cpawfan @ Jul 26 2008, 07:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>A Dual Core Processor will allow you to use it longer in terms of adapting to new software (which always seems to demand more horsepower) The biggest factor though is price point</div> Dual core is definitely the way to go. One processor moves around your windows when you drag them, and the other does whatever disk I/O needs to be done. Best yet in a cheap laptop is an AMD 64 dual core. Then you install Ubuntu 64 bit on it and it'll fly. </div> heh, ubuntu. I like CentOS.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Return of the Raider @ Jul 26 2008, 11:28 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (#1_War_Poet_ForLife @ Jul 26 2008, 08:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>My sister's laptop got so overheated, the charging cord melted, and we had to yank out the charger. Mostly schoolwork, internet, light gaming, but not looking for a gaming laptop. The bestbuy one sounded perfect.</div> Depending on what gaming you are doing, you will need to look at the video card specs. I don't see them listed here. Any of the current games that have 3d need as much video as you can get. At least 256 MB video mem. When I started playing MMORPG's, I was looking at laptops that easily double the cost of comparable desktops. That was about 3 years ago. Check the video requirements of the games that you want to play before buying. </div> Yea, to play state of the art games, you always have to look at laptops at lot more expensive. Although the crazy good laptops from 3 years ago, are probably less powerful than whatever he is buying except for the graphics card on a regular laptop. With desktops it`s not as bad. I just never want to spend a lot to get one of those incredible graphics cards. lol I actually have a laptop, but it has windows 95 on it, and it`s like a 500 MHz. It doesn`t even have an ethernet port on it, and 1 USB slot. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Return of the Raider @ Jul 26 2008, 11:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Jul 26 2008, 10:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>have heavy requirements, unless you are playing multiple videos at once, and are downloading somewhere else. Light gaming as in flash games doesn't need much, light gaming as old games like starcraft, emulators, etc.</div> Have you seen the youtubes of Starcraft 2? There are some sick new units coming. The Terran have huge mech warriors. </div> I've seen starcraft 2 previewed for a while. Saw battlecruisers. Some Photon Cannons (I think they were moving around lol). Some protoss flying lazer unit that does more damage as it shoots 1 target. Didn`t see the huge mech warriors though.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Jul 26 2008, 10:42 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Didn`t see the huge mech warriors though.</div> It's rad. It starts out as a building. Then you change it into a mech.
I'm not looking for anything too great right now, since this is only going to be for 3 years. My uncle suggested I get a thinkpad today, and I sat there laughing for two minutes.
I regret not picking up that best buy laptop. It sounded perfect. I'm in no hurry, though. I can wait. I just hope I find a good one by MLB playoff time, so I can post while watching.
Well I'm too cheap for a laptop. Mac laptops are well made though. Desktops though, PC is my preference.
