My current laptops screen is now totally screwed, and a new screen is at least £175 - I need a new laptop for School, but I only have about £300 handy and when I go to Uni I plan on buying a very very very nice laptop with my student overdraft - So all I need is a cheapy to tide me over.

All I need is XP (Vista would be better but meh), although I do have a spare key of XP so I could just install it myself, and the ability to run Chrome and Office (preferably 2007).

So far the cheapest solution i've found is to buy something like a second-hand eee for about £115 and then just add some more RAM and install XP. Is there anything else you think I should look for? I don't understand the eee model range at ALL!

7" is a little small, but i've always wanted a netbook and well it'll have to do 'cuz i'm poor!

Any other suggestions?

Maybe Father Christmas has some nice notebooks - but you need to tell all the elves now or it won't be ready on time

http://www.mcscom.co.uk/product.php?xProd=6479&xSec=63

Those guys sometimes have some good deals.

Or Dell outlet I guess.

Quote from Jakg :

My current laptops screen is now totally screwed, and a new screen is at least £175 - I need a new laptop for School, but I only have about £300 handy and when I go to Uni I plan on buying a very very very nice laptop with my student overdraft - So all I need is a cheapy to tide me over.

All I need is XP (Vista would be better but meh), although I do have a spare key of XP so I could just install it myself, and the ability to run Chrome and Office (preferably 2007).

So far the cheapest solution i've found is to buy something like a second-hand eee for about £115 and then just add some more RAM and install XP. Is there anything else you think I should look for? I don't understand the eee model range at ALL!

7" is a little small, but i've always wanted a netbook and well it'll have to do 'cuz i'm poor!

Any other suggestions?

why not grab yourself the advent 4211, cheap and cheerful. 10incher 280, or get it on mobile broadband deal £20 month

although you can get better, they are also bigger (got a decent Acer 3gb, 2ghz intel something (forgot) for 300 quid (its end of line and refurb but otherwise perfect) i think its a 15 inch that one.

Check with the warehouse, see whats going cheap because believe me, they do look

edit: scratch all that.. nice bargin PB32000

Quote from franky500 :

why not grab yourself the advent 4211, cheap and cheerful. 10incher 280, or get it on mobile broadband deal £20 month

Too young for a mobile broadband contract, and the 4211 is still quite expensive (if I was buying new i'd be looking at the Samsung NC10).

I asked at work today and they said the best idea was just to ask the warehouse guy if he had anything, but he's not here.

If the worst comes to the worst - I'll just toybox a new MacBook

Quote from CSU1 :

Maybe Father Christmas has some nice notebooks - but you need to tell all the elves now or it won't be ready on time

Father Christmas means I have a fully insured car sitting outside. I doubt theres much more room in his Sleigh!



£250 for that laptop is great, but it's £293.75 with VAT + Delivery...



To elaborate a bit:
Screen-size - Must be under 15.4", but bigger than like 5" obviously (although any size isn't really an issue),
Battery - Must last longer than 50 minutes,
CPU - Doesn't matter. Must be able to run XP without being too slow,
RAM - Doesn't matter if I can chuck some more SODIMM's in,
HDD - Doesn't really matter if I can drop SD cards etc in there. Would like enough space for XP, Office, few apps and about 500mb space for work.,
GFX Card - Doesn't matter,
Bluetooth - Would be nice but no deal breaker,
WiFi - Must have some king (even if it's just B standard),
Webcam - Doesn't matter,
Microphone - Would be nice but will pay nothing over £5 extra for it so meh.

I have no problem buying something with or without an OS (would probably wipe it and nLite XP anyway).

ATM i'm looking at second hand eee's, but don't really "get" netbooks. Not sure about the different models etc. Looking to spend under £200 hopefully less. Like I said - I will not be using this for that long. Have no problem with the Acer One and the Advent 42whatever, but it has to be cheap!



My old laptop was great, and as the screen was on it's last legs I had planned to keep it 'till I went to Uni and then buying a cheap-o LCD TV (i.e. a 15-19" one) and then just removing the screen from the laptop and using the TV as a screen, but alas I can't do that either now! Will certainly miss trying to use 1680*1050 on a 15.4" screen though - that was immense!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ASUS-Eee ... ZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

WOW at the price and it's only in the next town from me (like 5 miles).

Did you buy?

screen is too small imo

I'd rather spen the extra few bob on sommit bigger...

the bare minimum in the eee range is either the 900a ore the 901 both based on screen size and that theyre the lowest models with an atom (the smaller size of the 900a is preferable imho)

Jakq, without trying to sound like a tit; try searching for IT sales, Business Sales, Ex-Demo and refurbished laptops and student discounts, a quick search turned up some pricey but attractive possibilities, i'd say an hour or two of searching might turn up some little outlet somewhere in the UK with shed lots of stuff,

Or, go ask your local cumbag what the word on the street is!

Some in USA

Well if you live near a Currys outlet store I would seriously run down there and grab one of these if you can.

Quote :

http://www.currys.co.uk/martpr ... =621236&category_oid=

I work at PC World (with a Curry's next door and actually get 10% off everything) but the ei 1211 is just naaaaasty. I had the "fun" of setting one up the other day and even when you first turn it on it runs like a snail.

Anyway - I bought a second hand modded 701 4G off eBay. It's got XP, 2GB of RAM, 4GB SSD, 8GB internal flash drive, 8GB SDHC card, WiFi Draft-N card and internal Bluetooth (although to do this the stupid owner unplugged the USB ports on the side and for the webcam rather than just soldering a hub in). Best of all - £150 delivered

Was also looking at the eee 701 8G Black/White which can be had with Linux for £149.97 on Amazon - add 1GB more RAM and XP and it'd be a very very nice machine, but it's just too expensive...

Yeah, it's small, but I will just have to deal with it because it was cheap. Would of loved an eee 1000H (my Dad has one) but alas no joy

The 701 is slow, small and has a VERY poor battery. You'll be lucky to get 2 hours out of it. (I have one myself, put ArchLinux on it and put a 1GB RAM stick in. I've tweaked the system for battery life and yet get about 2 hours 10 at most). Personally I'd have gone for a 901, better battery life, faster AND more storage space. Well worth the extra money.

I don't have the extra money, and don't need a battery longer than 50 minutes...

but you will wish youd have chosen the 1024 screen

And BTW - Office 2007 REALLY won't like a 633MHz Celeron ULV CPU