Barebones Laptop Computer

I bought a barebones laptop computer that would be suitable for Aaron or Darren about three weeks ago. Two weeks before that I recommended the same laptop computer configuration to a co-worker for his daughter in graduate school. Both of the people using these barebones laptops love them and say they are the fastest computers they have ever used. My friend's daughter bought a wireless n card because her school has a wireless n network, but even including that in the price, we spent under $600 apiece for these inexpensive notebook computers (before tax). He was surprised at the price -- He thought on-line prices were always lower.

We both bought the cheap laptop computers in big box electronics stores when they were on sale. We got different brands in different stores but most of the parts inside are essentially the same.

• Intel T5750 Core 2 Duo Processor
• 5400rpm 320 gigabyte hard drive
• 3 gigabyte 667mhz DDR2 Ram
• Intel X3100 Graphics media accelerator
• built in 2.0 megapixel web cam
• built in Wireless G Card
• Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit operating system

• Processor--There is a significant performance improvement from the T2390 to the T5750 for about $50.00. Most of the T2390s were in packages that were way pricey --$1200+ anyway. The next significant step up is another $125. You want other upgrades to take advantage of the improvement. The AMD processors with performance in the same range were in packages $700+. The computers were suitable, but a little slower and more expensive.


• Hard drive -- anything over 160 gigabyte should be plenty. No reason to change. I have seven people storing their files on a 500 gigabyte drive and it is less than 25% full
  


• Ram--32 bit Vista and we don't need more


• graphics accelerator--standard Intel card. Niether person using the cheap laptop spends time in graphics intensive applications


• web cam-- the price was right and it was included. If you are getting a "custom" computer from one of the manufacturers web-sites it would be at most a $25 add-on


• wireless g network card--we both have wireless g routers free from our ISP. If I was buying the barebones laptop computer for a college student I'd probably go for a wireless n card myself


• Windows Vista Home Premium 32 bit--$99 to $150 to upgrade to 64 bit. We don't need more than 3 gigabyte of ram for this level of use anyway

Things have changed a little since we bought these computers. Right now, the price equivalent should be a Core 2 duo T6400 or T6600 processor, 4 GB of RAM and Windows 7. The size of the hard drive will vary and more machines have Wireless N built in. Still though, if you pay more than $600 before taxes, you didn't shop hard enough. That is all I paid for the last laptop I bought. It was intended to be a barebones laptop, but I found one with a bonus decent graphics card for $599.99.

When buying a barebones laptop computer (or any other notebook computer) you need to remember that no matter what you buy, the chip manufacturers and the computer manufacturers will tell you it is obselete in 3 to 5 years max.

They lie, though.

They can't sell you a new laptop computer if you have a perfectly functional one already.

I'm writing this on a seven year old desktop. It was top end when it was new, and it is the slowest of the 5 laptop computers or desktop computers that we have now. It has discrete graphics (128 MB) and what was the fastest mainstream Intel processor at the time. I've upgraded the memory and added a second hard drive. The extra memory and hard drive came out of another computer that failed after 5 years. I haven't loaded the software I use for number crunching, (the most intensive use we make of a computer other than gaming), onto any of the newer, faster computers. Don't need to. I bought one that did what I wanted it to do, kept the files and registry clean and it still does what I want it to do.

You can have the same experience with even a cheap laptop computer.

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