is this a good deal for a used laptop you reckon?

[DevO]

hey again all! its great to check in here and see glowing reviews of new years far and wide, and to see that the music is flowing like the slimy green mysterious ooze in ghostbusters!

i'm in the market to buy a used laptop, if'n i can find a good deal on one. so i turn to you, the skanks, to advice me on this possible purchase. heres the specs... Actually heres the whole message:

I am selling a Compaq 2100. This computer is about a year and a half old. It is in perfect running order. I am only selling it because I upgraded. I will also throw in a 110 gig eternal HD and the leather bag for the Laptop. The battery is still top notch. It gives about two and half hours running a movie and a bit more when just using basic programs (internet etc).

Specs

Pentium 4 1.8ghz

Ram 512 expandable to 1024

HD 30 gigs

15 inch screen

Wireless internet compatabile

CD/CDRW/DVD combo

S video (never got it to work for me but I am not very computer savy)

Resolution 1024 x 768

Pics and specs are here

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/HP_Compaq_Presario_2100_series/4507-3121_16-21271063.html?tag=sub

Looking for $750 (Cdn) for the laptop or $810 (Cdn) for both the laptop and hd

He said prices are negotiable too.

[DevO]

c'maaaannnnn someone here must know computers...

[payce-ley]

dunno there KevO, but happy new year buddy! still out in the westland, I assume... breath some air for me when you get a chance

never had a compac or a laptop so have nothing really valid to say cept maybe if the guy is close by visit him and ask him if you can sit down and try it out... if you need to run any big programs like photoshop or illustrator try those and make sure the system can handle it... if you want the external hard drive make sure it works, try everything a few times... don't suck a lemon

if you have the money and like the way the computer runs and think you trust the guy selling it then maybe

actually, you should see what sort of deals Basher, here on the board, can scare up for a laptop... found me a really nice monitor a few weeks back... easier to trust new than used, especially if you don't know the seller... plus warranties and all that, worth looking into even if just for the sake of talking buddy down in price

here's a nice new laptop from Dell with pretty much the same specs as the one you're asking about and its only a couple hundred more than that guy is asking... and they offer a payment plan... bet there's lots more deals out there if you search more than the half minute I just put in

cheers Kev, have good times

(edit to add: Dell seems to change their deals daily... the system I linked up last night was $1,099 and had slightly different specs... if you think you might go through them I'd check their site every day for up to a week and watch for a super-deal then jump on it)

Edited January 6, 2006 by Guest

[ollie]

FWIW, I wouldn't buy anything made by Compaq.

[phorbesie]

care to elaborate?

[ollie]

Maybe things have changed but I remember Compaq using proprietary software and hardware which made them more difficult to troubleshoot and/or swap devices. I don't have anything specific against them, just enough bad experiences that I would avoid them given other options.

KevO seemed pretty desperate for an opinion so I gave him what little I got.

[bouche]

compare that to the laptops on Futureshop.com

There's a refurbished one very similar for $650 here

Seems like an ok deal. But you could get something similar with a warranty brand new.

[snarfmaster C]

Hi KevO!

That sounds like a fair deal

I bought a laptop about a year ago - looked around and Dell was the cheapest by a couple hundred for the basic system I was looking at. I believe their deals change every week - I went for the cheapest of the cheap and bought it when they had the free upgrades that I wanted. I think it cost me just over 1000. Still runs beauty, no troubles yet at all. I don't remember the specs on it, but it's a really powerful system - came ready for wireless internet too. Mostly, though, I use it to watch movies in bed (yes, progress on my masters is going very slowly)

No experience with Compaq.

That's all I know.

Hope all is well for you!

Ontario sends it's love

[DevO]

Thanks mates, much appreciated! I'll likely pass on that used laptop and go for a new one. My parents are coming out here for a visit in about 6 weeks so I think I'm going to get them to bring one over. Overall I'm getting a bad feeling about Compaq, from your comments and other peoples'.

My mom was on the phone with DELL the other day, talking to a lady about a specific deal. She asked the lady if they would ship to Korea.. The lady suddenly became very short and bitchy. Apparently DELL has some kind of trade problems with Korea. But the crazy thing is she wouldn't even answer my mom's questions after that, let alone sell her a computer! My mom even said "well maybe i'll just buy it for myself then" but she just cut her right off. ouch!

ps - paycely, i'm not in the west now but in the far east!

[payce-ley]

then eat some spicy food for me and also go for a moped ride in the countryside (and I'll breathe some air for you, haha)

cheers buddy

[SaggyBalls]

i've been using pretty much the same laptop my friend erin lent to me when she was gone to scotland for a month. It's fine. don't expect to have it run flawlessly - but when it does you'll be impressed. a good deal i'd say.