<p>Looking for a laptop for college, so I'll need it for typing papers and the internet.
I'm a business major, I don't know what exactly I'll have to do on my laptop that is business specific </p>
<p>I have an itty bitty budget, so def. no macbooks or anything spendy</p>
<p>Any brand recommendations or specific models would be great!
or any brands that i should stay away from....</p>
<p>Also, what screen size do you think would be best?</p>
<p>THanks for the help!</p>
<p>please let us know what your budget is, it will help us select a good choice for you</p>
<p>If your budget is really itty bitty I would consider buying a refurbished laptop. The low end laptops are junk. A couple of years ago we bought a Dell Lattitude D420 for about $400.00. It would’ve cost over $1000.00 brand new. You lose some of the latest upgrades but for word processing and internet and spreadsheets it works fine.</p>
<p>Don’t totally discount the Macbooks. Apple does offer education discounts for students, and often these deals include free printers or a free iPod. They also offer refurbished models. If those are still out of range Best Buy often has great deals and specials on laptops. </p>
<p>Whatever laptop you purchase I highly recommend you get insurance through NSSI or CSI. These companies offer insurance for students. The coverage is not expensive, has a $25
deductible and covers theft and accidental damage too. My daughter had a drop/water spill on her Macbook and NSSI paid the expensive repair quickly. All she had to do was provide a receipt and fill out a few forms.</p>
<p>I’d second the opinion about refurbished Dell Lattitudes. They are much better built than the low end ones. Google for coupon codes - there are often 15% off codes for Latitutes. You buy them from the “Dell Outlet” site for business, but the coupon codes are on non-Dell sites.</p>
<p>I’d like to keep everything under $500, and I probably will end up just going to bestbuy and looking at the cheapest ones they have. </p>
<p>I doubt my parents would let me buy any laptops over the internet, so I don’t think I could buy refurbished ones from a website.</p>
<p>do they sell refurbished laptops at Bestbuy???</p>
<p>Do NOT go to Best Buy. Almost everything they have is outdated and overpriced. I wouldn’t get a refurbished laptop either though. Try to convince your parents to let you purchase a computer online.</p>
<p>Here is a great deal from office depot, although its 50 bucks over your budget…but you will rarely see these specs for this price in stores or online</p>
<p>MSI i5 2nd gen processor, 4gb ram, 500 gb hdd -----$550
This deal expires tomorrow so you can go check it out in store and see if you like it
[MSI</a> A6400 042US Laptop Computer With 156 LCD Screen Intel Core i5 2410M With Turbo Boost Technology Silver by Office Depot](<a href=“http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/267882/MSI-A6400-042US-Laptop-Computer-With/]MSI”>http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/267882/MSI-A6400-042US-Laptop-Computer-With/)</p>
<p>This is an online price, but you can still check it out
dell new inspiron
<a href=“Computers, Monitors & Technology Solutions | Dell USA”>http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-r/fs</a></p>
<p>What should I look for? The very first thing is find the college’s IT page that describes the system requirements you must match. And, see what links they offer for the sw you need and the security program. Right now, I don’t think this network match up is much of an issue with new laptops, but two years ago, my kid’s roomie got a “best price” early and couldn’t link to the school network. Most sw through the school’s preferred site costs around $80. You can load the disk yourself- no need for expensive Best Buy sales pitches.</p>
<p>We got my #2 a Dell at Staples (similar to Office Depot, etc.) Don’t remember if it was $499 or $550. Great workhorse. In contrast, #1’s Mac needed a graphics card replacement in the first 6 months and the screen cracked soon after (I know people adore Macs, but you can google this issue.) And, being qualified for education discounts for a long time, I have never found a deal on a school’s website that was much of a discount- eg, we could have bought #2 a Dell through the college “deal” for close to 1k.</p>
<p>Newegg typically has really good deals. </p>
<p><a href=“Are you a human?”>Are you a human?;
<p>I just took a quick glance at the first page, and I saw a ThinkPad with Core2 Duo and 2GB of RAM for a little over $400. </p>
<p>In general, you’re probably going to want to aim for:
<p>Academic discounts, especially Apple, used to be legendary in their generosity. A friend working at Apple told me she could get a better deal from her K-12 student’s school than from employee discount :-). Not any more. </p>
<p>We get Dell and HP discount from work, not worth the effort, largely because of games played with a never ending line of models, discounts, coupons, and the like. At the end the discounts are minimal.</p>
<p>Discounts can be had thru the university, but even then games are the name of the day. I was expecting a $1k edu-price on a Dell 6420 thru DD’s college. It made a 2-day appearance on their external supplier list for $1300 (thanks to $300+ of extended warranty) and disappeared again. I gave up and ordered a Thinkpad directly from Lenovo for $1000 identically configured. </p>
<p>Shop final price and features and do not skimp on price. Thinkpads have a great reputation for reliability and good design and ho-hum 1990’s looks. As a high performance computing enthusiast I know my way around assembling my own super reliable desktops, but for some reason college students - DD included - are enamored with these shiny portable devices.</p>
<p>@Smartical why would you suggest such an old laptop? That laptop is at least 2-3 years old. He can get much better hardware for $500 than a core 2 duo.</p>
<p>LAXer25 check out this site regularly and you will find yourself a good deal within your budget, just be patient.
[Cheap</a> Laptops Deals - LogicBUY](<a href=“http://www.logicbuy.com/subcategorydeals/13/Computers/119/Laptops.aspx?order=hottest]Cheap”>http://www.logicbuy.com/subcategorydeals/13/Computers/119/Laptops.aspx?order=hottest)
Try to look for an intel sandy bridge processor (it will often say intel 2nd generation processors on the site). Basically if it is a core i processor and the name of the processor has four digits and begins with a 2 then its a sandy bridge processor.
i suggest you wait until september (unless you will need this laptop for a summer program) so that you can get a better deal.</p>