Anyone Computer Savvy?

[Arsenal Forever]

I need some help.

Hello everyone.

I am interested in buying a laptop from eBay, to be used for browsing the internet, instant messaging, downloading some songs, and perhaps some VERY small scale games, no need for some superpower graphics card.

I would like to keep things
What specs should I look for in a laptop meant for this? Any particular brands I should look for?

What else would I have to buy? I don't have a large house and most of the usage would be in my bedroom, not too far from directly above my home's desktop computer. I use a Linksys Wireless-B 2.4GHz router, an older one, probably 2004 or 2005. I have never used it for wireless purposes. Would I need to buy a new one? Anything else?

Thank you for any and all help.

[nevets88]

craigslist.org

I ask to see the laptop in person, test it out, and drop the cash.

I've bought a laptop, mac mini and many others this way on the cheap.

[wolverine318]

I sell Dell Latitudes for $250, P4 2.0GHZ, wireless, 1gb ram, 60gb hard drive. Great for surfing the net. I dont have any now though. But something like this setup would be good and on the cheap for a laptop to surf the net on. This would only be good for older games. Nothing great. I play things like sim golf and simcity stuff on mine. No way in playing an action game, I play starcraft and warcraft on it too. It just has an intel video card, generic.

[Arsenal Forever]

I sell Dell Latitudes for $250, P4 2.0GHZ, wireless, 1gb ram, 60gb hard drive. Great for surfing the net. I dont have any now though. But something like this setup would be good and on the cheap for a laptop to surf the net on. This would only be good for older games. Nothing great. I play things like sim golf and simcity stuff on mine. No way in playing an action game, I play starcraft and warcraft on it too. It just has an intel video card, generic.

I PM'd you, check it out.

Thanks for the help so far, any more is appreciated as well.

[ugapug5150]

I second the craigslist suggestion. If you could spend around 450-500, I'd say head to Best Buy as they had some good closeout/clearance models this week. As far as the wireless, I would upgrade to a G router, as they hold a signal better than the B will. You can even pick up an N spec router for 100 bucks now.

[cpht]

You might want to spend the exta $$ and buy a new one with a warranty. I think mastercard will double the warranty length if you use the CC to buy it too. I've used my warranty twice in the past 9 months. The Toshiba repair guys fixed/replaced whatever and called me when its ready to be picked up. Both times I had it back in about a week. BB used to take months for some things to get repaired.

Also, fire it up before you leave the store and look for dead pixels. The warranties didn't cover anything less than 5 or so, unless they were close together. Basically, read the fine print and make sure it works before you leave the store.

[johnti006]

I agree about purchasing new. I see issues with laptops at work all the time and I would be much more comfortable buying a $499 Dell laptop with warranty.