which second hand laptop to buy?

Bluebell Wood · 29-09-2010 11:07am #1

Hi, I've been looking on ebay for a cheap second hand laptop, and I really don't know which one to go for.

There are quite a few reconditioned Dell c610 for between 140 and 180 euros (the more expensive one have about 1.6ghz and 1gb ram, hard drive, the cheaper ones less....I don't really know much about what these numbers mean, except that they refer to the speed, so I figured it might be better to pay slightly more for the faster version)

There's also a dell insperon 1300 for 130 euro....I've been looking at dell as I have a dell PC which I've had for about 5 years and haven't had any problems with it, but I'd go for another make if someone would tell me which ones are ok. toshiba seem to be quite cheap on ebay...is that because they're c**p?

Here are a couple of other models I've been looking at: TOSHIBA T9000, Dell Latitude D600, Dell Inspiron 2650

Are these laptops I'm mentioning ok, or not? I have very little money to spend, so please don't tell me that I could get a decent new one for 'only' 500 euros, as I've read on some of the other threads here. It has to be less than 200, preferably closer to 100 euro.

I need something that I can instantly access the internet, with a DVD drive, and something that isn't ridiculously slow. I download a bit of music, though not loads....other than that, it's mostly for facebook, ebay, a bit of word processing and photo shopping my pictures.

Any advice would be appreciated

bhickey · 29-09-2010 1:22pm

In general the Dell Latitude D5xx or D6xx range are good. They're also sturdy and easy to get parts for which means a 2nd-hand one might be okay.

Something like this looks alright. 7 mins left ....

Bluebell Wood · 29-09-2010 2:19pm

Is the Dell D6** range much different from the C6** range?

bhickey · 29-09-2010 3:00pm

Bluebell Wood wrote: »

Is the Dell D6** range much different from the C6** range?

The D6** models are just a newer range, C6** would probably be a bit too old for comfort and poorly specced compared to the D6** models.

Bluebell Wood · 29-09-2010 3:09pm

would that mean they'd be a lot slower? The C6**s were quite a bit cheaper (the one you quoted went for 200 sterling, plus postage from the UK...I was looking at the C6**s in Ireland at about 160 euro). I really haven't much money to spend.

bhickey · 29-09-2010 3:16pm

Bluebell Wood wrote: »

would that mean they'd be a lot slower?

Yep and that's why they're so much cheaper.

€200 should get you a decent 2nd-hand laptop and you need to try and get something decent. Remember that you'll probably have no warranty whatsoever left and laptops can be very expensive to fix.

Bluebell Wood · 29-09-2010 3:50pm

so you reckon anything in the D6** range? Is there any others that you'd recommend that I should find in that price range?

bhickey · 29-09-2010 4:03pm

Bluebell Wood wrote: »

so you reckon anything in the D6** range?

Pretty much yes.

Is there any others that you'd recommend that I should find in that price range?

They're the only ones that are recent enough and sturdy enough that I'd consider buying one second hand.

bonzodog2 · 29-09-2010 4:37pm

I have a C610 myself, and find it OK, but I don't do gaming. Its fine for browsing, downloading movies and playing them and mp3. One downside is it only has USB1.0 port, and only 1, so I use a 4-port PCMCIA USB2.0 card. Mine has 512MB RAM and 1GHz CPU. It gets quite hot on the underside, and the fan can be noisy when it kicks in.

which second hand laptop to buy?

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