Low-end Laptops?

cryingpoet writes: "I remember the good old days, before everyone wanted a cell phone or PDA, back when you could buy a used laptop for $80 (USD). Now all the affordable laptops have hit the recycling bins as raw materials for new screens. To make matters worse, the state of the economy has driven companies to stop upgrading and keep all used laptops "in-house." Most used laptops run twice their cpu clock speed in dollars [$ = MHz * 2($/MHz)]. Auction prices seem to be worse than that of wholeseller. So I come to you, /.ers, in the hopes that there are still some used laptop deals to be had. Is there such a thing as a low-end used laptop anymore, and where?"

Comments

there's always a deal to be found...

[thitcho]

as long as you can run faster than the security guards at Best Buy.

Re:there's always a deal to be found...

[Cheetah86]

You might also need to run faster than the salespeople too... 'Hi, it seems you're stealing this laptop right now. Would you like a 3-year warrantee on it? It will protect it from all normal wear and tear...'

Ebay

[spookysuicide]

I know this is a really obvious answer, but I've bought two used laptops from ebay, and got pretty great deals on both.

Also they gave every 7th grader in maine an ibook this year, and those kids usually go down with one punch. :)

Truck Stops.

[Latent IT]

I kid you not. T&A (Don't mock the name!) travel centers sell low end laptops to truckers, and they also sell these internet access cards that allow them to check their e-mail and to basic web stuff at any of the other T&A truck stops. The card includes minutes, both for the internet access, and the cost of making the phone call from the truck stop, but the laptops they sell on the side, and I've seen them being sold from $100-$250.

They're really the greatest places - you can also buy TV's that'll fit in your truck, portable fridges, and tv dinners in cardboard boxes that'll heat themselves up! (Sterno included.) Every time I'm driving cross country it's the only place I stop, and you know when you're getting close, because they advertise on CB channel 19. (Which isn't exactly legal, but hell, nobody cares, and truckers love 'em.)

Oh yeah. They also have mechanics on duty, showers, 24 hour decent resturants, and all the jolt you could want.

Low end laptops are tough...

[iPaul]

That's nirvana - picking up a low-end laptop and running Linux on it. After all, Linux runs find on modest hardware. And, the latest laptops have all this freaky hardware which doesn't seem to want to run with Linux.

The reality is that laptops aren't all that cheap. They have components (namely the battery) which tends to crap out fairly early in life. I've tried to do the same thing. Find a cheap laptop I can use (even if it's still plugged in) to do usefull stuff.

Unfortunately I don't have a good answer for you. The prices for the used stuff aren't great. They have parts that are lighter and tend to break faster. They have slower bus speeds and clock speeds than desktops. They tend to take less ram (used may only accomodate 256 Meg), they have small, expensive drives, and both ram and drives are expensive to upgrade. They have very limitted resolution screens (especially used).

If you need a box, I think you might be better served with used desktops on shear price. If you need the protability - I would look for a less expensive but new laptop. I don't think used saves you much when you look at what you're getting.

Re:The Real Problem With Cheap Laptops

[darkwiz]

If you can't get the batteries cheap, refurbish the ones you have.

Odds are that if you crack open the batteries, inside will be an array of standard or nearly standard NiMH or NiCad cells. Even if you have ones that look like elongated AA's, you can replace them with AA's and the machine should still work properly (charge, boot, etc), but the battery life will likely not be as long.

Note: do NOT use NiMH batteries in a NiCad notebook unless the MFG supported those. The charging circuit will probably not properly recognize the full charge (delta V method).

NiMH cells go for $2 a piece, and you should be able to get a working first try for less than $20.

Megahertz Don't Matter...

[omnirealm]

... when it comes to buying a used laptop. Your GHz machine will be of little use to you if there are dead pixels, sticky keys, bad batteries, malfunctioning drives and/or ports, etc.

A few months ago, I picked up a used laptop from E-bay. It was from a reseller who purchased refurbished units from Dell which were on a corporate lease. There were tons of them selling at once, and I got a decent PIII for under $600. I was only moderately satisfied, as there were problems that couldn't be fixed (one of the PC-Card slots doesn't work and the left Ctrl key works only half the time, but the battery is still good). Some advice that I can offer from this experience includes:

• Don't trust the warrantee. No matter how good it sounds on paper, they will probably do more damage to your laptop and return it to you in worse shape than it originally was in if you do send it in.
• Don't be afraid to swap out parts yourself. Especially the keyboard. If you need to replace a broken part on your laptop, consider getting a "dead" model for less than $100 and using that for the parts.
• Figure in the cost of a new battery when you browse for a new laptop. More often than not, the battery that comes with the laptop will be useless.
• Ask specific questions about the laptop before buying it, like "Are there any dead pixels?", "Does the keyboard work perfectly?", "Do all the ports work?", "How long does the battery last?" The more questions the seller can't give definite answers on, the lower your offer should be for the laptop.
• Make sure the vendor is reputable. If they have a fly-by-night Yahoo E-commerce deal going on, beware. If the company web site has a picture of a big building with the company name on it, it's probably safer than "some guy" selling his laptop.