decent netbook for nice price

J

Just An Average Joe

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I'm going to be studying abroad over the summer. I'm going to need to have a computer for very basic things, like office software and email/internet. I defiantly do not want to take my 15" macbook with me. It's too valuable and to large given that I like to pack in such a way that I can comfortably carry everything I had with me. Is it reasonable to look for a netbook for about $200? I could go higher, but I need to be able to lose/destroy this thing without it being the end of the world. I know nothing about netbooks, any suggestions will be appreciated.

Edit: I'm not against a used netbook. I will most likely not run it under Windows in any case.
 
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I would say to check Craigslist.com in your area. Lots of people are getting rid of their netbooks. You should be able to get a nice one from $150 to $220 ish.

I can say, you will love it. I have a netbook that I use with my 15in MacBook Pro and I still use the netbook a good amount.
 
Craigslist is a great source for "cheap" hardware (in terms of pricing) but you still need to be wary of people trying to rip you off. The sweet spot for most Netbooks (used) these days tends to be $225-275 or so, and you'll find most of them being Asus Eee, Acer Aspire One, and sometimes Dell mini Netbooks (if you can find the Dell mini 10 for under $300, it's a nice one - and I mean the original model).

Considering you can get nice laptops with 14.1" screens for $200-300 on Craigslist as well, that might be a better solution - I recently grabbed a Dell Latitude D630 (their business class laptops are Latitudes) with 4GB of RAM in it, a 250GB drive, a Core 2 Duo T7200, and a great 14.1" 1440x900 screen for $225, with the original 6 cell as well as the extended 9 cell battery, and it's still under the 3 year warranty too. Not everyone will find such deals but, it sure as hell doesn't hurt to look. :D

If I had seen this ad a few hours ago, I might have jumped on it:

http://lasvegas.craigslist.org/sys/2169988359.html (I don't think it's the dual core Atom model, however, but even so, for $200...)

Suffice to say you can find some great deals, you just gotta look for 'em.
 
Thanks guys. As I mentioned, I'm totally illiterate when it comes to netbooks, are there any specific characteristics to look for? or strenuously avoid?
 
As an update, a used 11" Acer Aspire One came into my possession for the cost of a new power cable ($10 on Amazon).
It has 2 GB RAM and an Intel Atom 1.33 GHz CPU.
I replaced the boated OEM Vista that was installed, with XP Pro and I'm really enjoying it.
 
So, you got a busted Netbook that wasn't busted and just needed a new cable or power adapter? BONUS!!! :D

Could probably run Windows 7 on that somewhat nicely, believe it or not. Windows 7 scales itself vastly better on low end hardware than Vista could ever hope to, but if you're happy with XP on it, that's what matters.

Congrats...

ps
Just for shits and giggles, if you have a 1GB USB stick around, you might try playing with Ubuntu Netbook Remix (Ubuntu NMR) sometime, it's pretty cool on Netbooks as it's gutted of a lot of useless stuff and more tailored for the rather small(ish) displays on Netbooks (in terms of their resolution). Use Unetbootin to move the ISO contents (download that from ubuntu.com of course) to the USB stick and you can then boot the Netbook off the USB stick and it won't muck up your XP install. Pretty cool even if you're just playing around, can't hurt to learn something in the process and get more experience with multiple OSes.
 
Craigslist is a good starting place. Just becareful and KNOW what you're buying. I bought my HP DM-1 2010nr off CL for $100 bucks. It was used 6 weeks. It came with 2GB of DDR3 and I since upgraded it with 5GB DDR3. It's not a bad "on the go" netbook all for under 200 bucks :)
 
Just An Average Joe said:
I'm going to be studying abroad over the summer. I'm going to need to have a computer for very basic things, like office software and email/internet. ...
Click to expand...

You can get some cheap refurbished laptops directly from Dell here at DFS that should be able to handle those basic computing needs. They aren't particularly nice or awesome laptops, but some of them are in your price range. Given that you are looking at purchasing a used netbook/laptop as a companion to your nice Macbook, it seems like something you might be interested in.

I did a quick search for laptops with 2 GB of RAM and Core 2 Duo processors, but there are other options as cheap as $219 if you don't narrow it down.

Dell Latitude D430 -- 12.1" screen -- 2 GB RAM -- Core 2 Duo -- XP Pro -- $270

Dell Latitude D620 -- 14.1" screen -- 2 GB RAM -- Core 2 Duo -- Vista Business --$257

Personally if I were in your shoes I'd just buy a Thinkpad x120e, but you won't be seeing those for under $300 for a while. If I absolutely had to keep the cost down, I'd go with a refurbished D420 or D430 from Dell. The D620 & many other models are mid-sized and you already have a nice laptop in that size range, might as well go with something more portable.

Edit: Well I was late to the party, I read further down the thread and noticed the poster saying that they got an Acer was also the OP, my bad.
 
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