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Back to School PC’s
By Admin | August 2, 2007
Yes, it is back-to-school time, so getting the right laptop computer is on a lot of people’s to-do lists. Here we concentrate on Windows-based PCs in the US$800-to-$1,000 range.
You can spend less than a grand and get great quality laptops; $700 can get you a decent setup. Just about any laptop will do for getting facts off the Internet and compiling an A-plus class report, but most students — whether they’re in grade school or graduate school — want more out of their computers. Don’t expect to speed through demanding tasks such as editing video or playing big-name video games for less than $1,000.
Here’s a dollar-saving tip if you buy computer equipment online: Look for coupons from sites such as dealcatcher.com and 4computercoupons.com. These are Web-only coupons — you can’t take them into a store — but they apply at checkout if you buy online from a manufacturer such as Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) or from an stores such as circuitcity.com and newegg.com.
To get the most for your money, figure out how your student is likely to use the computer. (Note: Avid computer gamers will need to spend more than our $1,000 limit.) The junior high schooler who likes to play games and chat with other tweens at hangouts such as clubpenguin.com.
The person who listens to Internet radio while regularly checking out his or her MySpace or Facebook pages, constantly sending instant messages to friends and occasionally watching music videos at launch.yahoo.com and at YouTube . For these users, the laptop’s most demanding job will be handling some short videos, so a multitasking workhorse is a good choice. For example, check out the Toshiba Satellite A135 series, which covers the basics and a little bit more. Expect to pay around $800. The person whose laptop will also be the dorm room TV, stereo, DVD player.
Full-screen video capability and versatility are the focus here, so you’ll have to step up a bit in price. Examples include the Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) dv6000 series, which comes with an optional TV tuner to record shows. Expect to pay around $900 for a nicely loaded version. Also, look at the new Dell Inspiron notebooks (above), which when ordered online come with free upgrades to a 160 gigabyte hard drive and 2 gigabytes of memory, starting at $749. Bottom line is technology moves so quickly that whatever you buy will be obsolete a year from now, so spend within your budget.
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