Cheap Laptops

Izdaari, that looks like a good laptop for the price. But why go to Linux? If you are not playing high-tech games, Windows 7 is an excellent, stable system. And it includes a free anti-virus that updates automatically.
 
Vince Massi said:
Izdaari, that looks like a good laptop for the price. But why go to Linux? If you are not playing high-tech games, Windows 7 is an excellent, stable system. And it includes a free anti-virus that updates automatically.

Actually, playing the state-of-the-art games is WHY I use Windows 7. It works great for them! But no laptop, except expensive ones designed for it, have the hardware to run those games. It's strictly a desktop thing, at least on my budget. I agree that Win 7 is good, IMHO the best Windows so far (I haven't yet tried 8 ), and very stable.

I use Linux on whatever computer I'm NOT gaming on, because it works great for everything else. Very few good games run on Linux, at least without a lot of work. And in some flavors (like Mint) Linux is about as easy to use as a Mac... well, after you have it set up, that part can be a little geeky. It runs well on lesser hardware than makes Win 7 happy too. As configured, the HP laptop I linked has only 2GB RAM, which kinda sucks for Win 7, but would be fine with Linux. I like that Linux is open source and can't be controlled by Microsoft, and that all the software is free. I mean legitimately free, without having to steal it.
 
I recently read a well-written article AGAINST cheap laptops. The author argued that a cheap laptop is superior to other computing devices (desktops, tablets, cell phones, etc) in only one area--doing serious work on a portable device. But cheap laptops often have small keyboards and screens. He advised laptop purchasers only to buy the larger-sized laptops.

Actually, that's what I have always done when buying a cheap laptop, but it is worth pointing it out.
 
Vince Massi said:
I recently read a well-written article AGAINST cheap laptops. The author argued that a cheap laptop is superior to other computing devices (desktops, tablets, cell phones, etc) in only one area--doing serious work on a portable device. But cheap laptops often have small keyboards and screens. He advised laptop purchasers only to buy the larger-sized laptops.

Actually, that's what I have always done when buying a cheap laptop, but it is worth pointing it out.

Personally, I can't function on ANY laptop keyboard or screen.  I have a Lenovo Thinkpad W540 that was provided by my employer.  I can't use it unless I can plug in a keyboard, mouse, and external monitor.  I could probably deal with the screen at a lower resolution than the default, but I despise laptop keyboards and track pads. 

 
Rogue, believe it or not, it might help if you worked without wearing glasses (assuming you wear glasses). No joke, you are actually close enough to the monitor that some people see better without their glasses.
 
Vince Massi said:
Rogue, believe it or not, it might help if you worked without wearing glasses (assuming you wear glasses). No joke, you are actually close enough to the monitor that some people see better without their glasses.

Actually, I'm farsighted, so I need glasses to see anything up close. 

The default resolution of the 15.5-inch screen is 2880 x 1620.  I need a microscope to see the text on that screen!  No kidding -- if you saw it you'd know just how tiny everything is.  ;) 

I changed the resolution to something more manageable and increased the font size.  So it's usable now, but I still don't like it. 

I have two monitors at work, and I hook them both up there.  I have a large monitor at home, and I use that one with the laptop.  That's how I manage. 

 
Vince Massi said:
I recently read a well-written article AGAINST cheap laptops. The author argued that a cheap laptop is superior to other computing devices (desktops, tablets, cell phones, etc) in only one area--doing serious work on a portable device. But cheap laptops often have small keyboards and screens. He advised laptop purchasers only to buy the larger-sized laptops.

Actually, that's what I have always done when buying a cheap laptop, but it is worth pointing it out.

I actually really love cheap laptops. I used to have a great HP laptop that i bought for just $120 with 40GB of storage.

That is an amazing cheap laptop. It can play GTA Vice City smoothly, PES 2009, The Settlers 4 and many other old games.

But i broke it because i didn't know that its keyboard is the one that works as thermal paste.

I'm actually planning to buy that same laptop for just $50 but with GPU that still needs to be re-balled. Cannot wait.
 
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