About Lauren Bennett Expertise I am a computer science major and my dad is an Electric Engineering, so my life has revolved around computers. For as long as I can remember, I have been buying and selling computers. I tend to travel a lot, so I have always had a laptop. I have bought 5 of them for myself, and bought around 30-40 for friends and family. I have dealt with the good and the bad of various version and brand names. If you are in need of buying a laptop, feel free to contact me and I'm sure I will be able to guide you into purchasing the laptop that will be the best fit for you. I will custom build you computers for you to choose from so you can get an exact idea of what to go and buy when you do it yourself and so that you have an exact price. However, I am in the USA and am only knowledgeable about computers here in the US. I do not know about foreign currency or the quality of computer brand names outside the US.
Experience B.S. in Computer Science. Buying and selling for years. Assisting friends/family.
Question QUESTION: My wife is not interested in any computer function other than receiving and sending emails. Is there a laptop type machine that won't require us to buy a lot of capacity she won't use?
Thanks for your advice.
Sandy
ANSWER: I'm sure I can find you something. I have a few more questions to ask you first. Are you specifically wanting a laptop or would a desktop be okay? Sometimes desktops are cheaper than laptops. Also, were you wanting a warranty with the computer? And how much were you looking to/hoping to spend?
Let me know and I'll start searching and get back to you with what I find for you!
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QUESTION: She wants a laptop. I don't know about the warranty. What's your advice? We saw a Compaq notebook at Staples for sale at $449 with 512 MB RAM and an 80 GB hard drive. Seems cheap to me, but I wonder what you think.
Answer Just keep in mind that it does not include any sort of warranty. The one downfall to laptops is that if something breaks on them, you can't fix it yourself (where you can rip open a desktop and do whatever you want). A warranty adds a few hundred dollars to the final cost if you want it for a few years. Personally, I always recommend a warranty on a laptop. A warranty includes 24/7 technical support, any parts that needs replaced, and the labor to fix it. I've had hard drives replaced, LCD screens replaced, keyboards replaced, etc. It is nice knowing that if anything hardware related goes wrong, there is someone there to help you out and get it fixed.
HP (Compaq) is the second best computer brand name out there, slightly behind Dell. However, Dell's current line is a bit more upscale that HP and therefore a bit more expensive. That HP would work fine for what she is wanting to do with it.
I checked and I could get her a desktop with a 15" flat screen LCD monitor for the exact same price, if she so desires.
That $449 computer would suit her fine for just checking e-mail. It is certainly on the very low end and will probably be phased out soon because of all the recent advances, but if all she is doing is checking e-mail, then the computer suit her perfectly fine. Most current and up to date computers run about $1,500 right now.
I like Staples and that computer would work fine for her. My vote is to go with it! I found one with 512 MB of RAM and an 80 GB hard drive on www.hp.com for the exact same price so it seems that Staples is not trying to rip you off assuming the othe other specs are the same.
Let me know if you have any additional questions!!
