Best Laptop manufacturer?

[eqmassa]

I need a really, really cheap laptop to use to take notes with and type the occassional essay at school. I don't need anything fancy, just something that I can hook up to a printer since it's essentially just a notebook paper/binder/space saver. I really don't want to spend more than $100, which is why I turned to EBay. However, there are thousands of laptops up for auction, and I'm not sure what brand to seek. Obviously, I'll be looking for an older model, and I've heard IBMs are pretty good. Advice would be very appreciated

Barton 2500+
Abit NF7-S
WD SE 800JB
1GB Corsair XMS
Radeon 9800np
Lite On Combo Drive
Case? PSU? Fans? Monitor?

 

[jmecor]

you can't go wrong in getting a PII laptopp at 350Mhz and 128MB of RAM.

<font color=red>If your nose <b>RUNS</b>, and feet <b>SMELL</b>.
Then you must be born <b>UPSIDE DOWN</b>.</font color=red>

 

[jmecor]

IBM is the best or if you're aiming for a cheaper one, get asus.

<font color=red>If your nose <b>RUNS</b>, and feet <b>SMELL</b>.
Then you must be born <b>UPSIDE DOWN</b>.</font color=red>

 

[blah]

""IBM is the best"" - no doud aboud dat.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[RaPTuRe]

I have a doubt about that.

IBMs don't perform - they said so themselves in a press release: Something along the lines of, they don't give their notebooks new and improved drivers, because they prefer the tried and tested ones - i.e. reliability - This of course is concurrent with IBMs strategy. There notebooks are built like tanks (well, really light tanks), and they are most reliable notebooks on the planet.

But I don't personally like the styling, and the performance issue would bug me. You can of course just use hacked or standard drivers, but then they loose the 'reliability'.

No, for me, the price is to high just for a "solid" notebook. Everyone has their own situations though and IBMs certainly fill a vital niche in the market.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[JP5]

I don't think you are going to be able to find a notebook on ebay for $100. Maybe an old 100MHz if you are lucky.

 

[blah]

i don't know, i have 2+ years old A30 p3 with radeon 16 megs and able to play UT on 1024x768 screen, doing divx whole movie in less than 5 hours, running business off of it (it's on most of the time), u name it, and you say it does not perform. what perform then?

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[blah]

""I don't think you are going to be able to find a notebook on ebay for $100"" - he might, but he would be willing to pay extra $100 to someone to speed up the boot time on it each time he boots it up

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[RaPTuRe]

Fair enough, it does perform - but not as well as it could. The hardware that is utilized by IBM notebooks is usually very advanced, but because they would rather stick to the tried and tested drivers, the hardware will often not perform as well as it could. That's all Im saying - You could by a similarly spec'd Acer [just for example] and it would perform better. It's just the way IBM is (My dad worked for IBM for 25 or so years, he tells me that that is the way they operate: They would rather their notebooks perform 'quite' well, but be stable as a rock, than perform brilliantly and crash every 2 days).

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[grassapa]

If its only the driver situation, then eqmassa should judge IBM's price and hardware options only and should care about performance or reliability since you can always change the drivers for graphics card, etc... He can have a outperforming but unstable IBM or a rock solid say... alienware. That is if the driver has the most influence, there could be more things, then I dont know.

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My computer is so fast it proves the theory of relativity wrong...

 

[RaPTuRe]

Yes, but then it wouldn't really be the IBM notebook that he is looking to buy. It is only supposed to use IBM-customized graphics drivers - a lot of notebooks have trouble running with the graphics card manufacturer's standard drivers (being the main cause for system instability).

The other thing is that drivers aren't the only cause/source of reliable/unreliable notebooks. Everything said about IBM still stands. What you are argueing could be applied to any notebook, or even any pc. Just edit the drivers to best suit you... but this is not what I am saying. I am talking 'out the box' performance.

That being said, IBMs are a tad slower even without the drivers having an affect.

Just as a brief example, take CNet's recent review of the IBM T40. It was compared to an Acer TravelMate 803CLi which had an identical CPU (Pentium-M 1.6GHz), same amount of RAM (512MB PC2100), and similar graphics card (ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 32MB[IBM]/64MB[Acer]). In all the tests, the T40 scored significantly lower than the Acer.

In another example, Dell's Latitude X300 with a low-power 1.2GHz Pentium-M cleaned the floor with IBM's offering, that sported a normal 1.4GHz Pentium-M.

Every notebook, in my opinion, serves a specific market niche. It really all depends on what you are looking for. In reality there is not overall "best" - you just have to find the notebook/manufacturer that suits you.

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[grassapa]

yea you are right, I am just saying that he can get the IBM for x reason (maybe he likes the design, maybe he likes hardware combination) and still being able to install performing drivers without thinking that IBM just equals less performance. It all depends on what you do to the laptop.

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My computer is so fast it proves the theory of relativity wrong...

 

[grassapa]

in any case, this discussion is null here because he is looking for a 100 dollar laptop, so the brand is the last thing he should care about, he'd be lucky even if he finds a 100 dollar laptop of any kind.

as they say, beggars cant be chooser

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My computer is so fast it proves the theory of relativity wrong...

 

[RaPTuRe]

Good point. And to tell the truth, I wouldn't even sell my Pentium 133 Compaq Notebook for $100. I swear, sometimes these people get sent to the forums just to annoy us. *sigh* (no offense anyone :s)

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

 

[grassapa]

heh

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My computer is so fast it proves the theory of relativity wrong...