Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Student Laptop.

I'm on my way to Best Buy to purchase a laptop for my son. I know there are tons of savy computer types on this site. Should I get the cheapest one available, Toshiba 2gb for $329 or go a little higher for $499 for an HP with a 3gb memeory HP? He is just going to use if for papers, internet and an online College course. And how important is having a webcam? The Toshiba does not have one. I think they all have Windows 7, now.
Thanks.

Just one opinion - buy as much Lenovo (formerly known as IBM) laptop as you can afford, then add it (and all your home computers) to your homeowner's policy with all peril / full replacement coverage. Hard to beat IBM laptop hardware. Said insurance coverage used to cost around $50 per year for a few home & mobil computers.

Warning: Which computer and what OS posts can tend to be as scintillating as "which oil should I use, and how often should I change it?"

If he gets the IBM what oil will he need for it?

Go ahead and get Windows 7 if you can, if not, Windows XP. Stay away form Vista.

Lenovo machines are terrific. If you cant get a Lenovo machine, pretty much everything else is the same, but stay away from Gateway and eMachines. When you take a look at laptops, it seems the biggest price diffences in laptops nowadays is the size and clarity of the monitors.

Both of those 'puters are good brands Paul and considering what your son needs it for the cheaper one will do. As for a webcam I wonder if the online course requires one, but they can be added later if need be. Just make sure there's good anti-virus software and definitely purchase an external hard drive for backups.

One other thing... what others don't seem to realize is ya never have to change the oil in the new machines. Nope, there's not even a drain plug anymore!!

Macs gotta be a better option than Lenovo.

Right now, I am using a Apple Powerbook and I'm quite happy with it. Open Office is free and it works at least as well as MS office without costing a fortune. Something that could be a huge advantage in school is that OSX boots up much faster than windows.
If you do decide to go with a windows system, get as much disk and RAM as possible.

The Apple Powerbooks look great but are out of my price range. He ended up with an HP.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Laptop+...p;skuId=9545138

We got a Geek Squad extended warranty and a package with antirvirus and a backup disc of everything. I don't know if it was worth $99 but he wanted it. This was his graduation present from last May. Thanks for everyone's input, except for Dog. When I asked where the oil drain plug was, the salesman gave me a funny look.

Since you're saying he's only going to use it for 'papers and internet', I'd imagine he's not taking any programming courses or anything that's going to require any hard-core computing muscle. In that case, the cheapest one will do him fine. Windows7 is better on memory than Vista, so 2GB should run without much problem. Also, memory is cheap. If the 2GB notebook is expandable (to say... 4GB), I'd get that one, and spend $50 on memory and upgrade it yourself. It's easy and cheaper.

On another note... Windows7 is not bad, but if he's not married to Windows, I'd say get an Ubuntu machine. It's free, it's easy to use, it's fast... IMO, it's better than Windows7 for most things (I used to do QA for a BIOS company, so I've 'played with' quite a few OSs ).

Just my $0.02

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see that you already bought one... Looks like a good machine. Hope he enjoys it.

One of my neighbors just bought a used laptop. It's only two years old and has ALL the bells and whistles plus a very good selection of software. It belonged to an insurance company and was likely used by a salesman or adjuster. He paid less than $400 for it. He found it online but bought it locally through a place that specializes in used corporate computers.

Don't forget to get an external drive for back-ups-so WHEN it's stolen he still has his work!