Guaranteed - the father wants to make some money on the deal.
He can’t build a laptop with anywhere near the quality at anywhere near the price of what you can get from a major manufacturer. Laptops will break down, and at least if you buy a Dell, Gateway, or HP, you have someone to turn to.
You should be able to get by spending 600 or less.
If you want to avoid Vista, and who doesn’t?, you can order
a laptop with XP Professional installed for an additional $100 upgrade fee.
So many people are demanding an alternative to Vista, Dell
got Microsoft to allow the swap....strangely, but accurately called an “upgrade”.
Don’t know how long this deal will be available - check with Dell.
Unless there is a demonstrable NEED for a laptop, I’d tell him no. Get him a desktop that will accomodate whatever homework he needs that stays in his dorm, or bedroom or whatever.
There’s far too much emphasis on packing around a laptop for taking notes, etc. during class. Don’t go there. Listening to a lecture and writing notes by hand is a better way to drive things into your head. I did this in college and it works far better than having a toy along to help facilitate this. It’s another “middle man” along the way from lecturer to your brain.
Like I said, unless there is a real NEED to have a laptop, I would tell him no.
Ebay by the way, has lots and lots of choice used, refurbished systems for under $300. I just bought my mom an HP desktop with a 64 bit 2.6ghz dual core CPU, 3 gigs of ram, Vista Home Premium, 19’ wide screen LCD, new keyboard, mouse, and all cabling, disks, books,etc. for $232 + shipping. All like new. WAY more machine than my mom needed, but WAY less money than she was ready to spend.
EEEpc’s are refurbished and available for under $190 all day on Ebay. Don’t buy anything new to take to college. Shop yard sales. You can often find computers in the trash because they have a virus, or have never been cleaned and defragged and have slowed to a crawl. A good cleaning and they’re good as new.
the parents of this student who want to build their son a laptop would be better off making a tin can , putting beans into it and sealing it up.
Go buy one for Pete’s sake! The would be smart if they went to computer repair place to see if they had any re-manufactured ones all cleaned up for sale. Generally these places give out a warranty, too. I have two laptops and that’s how I purchased my Dell Latitude with Windows XP Professional for $350.00 with a warranty. My other one is a larger screen Toshiba which works perfectly fine and I bought that at Wal-Mart.
Good grief. Just get a good used one for $400 on craigslist.
I just bought a HP 550 with XP installed for $600.00 delivered from PC Connection.com
Free shipping, had it in my hands in 4 days.
Office Home& Student edition costs $150 at Staples.
My son just bought a screamin’ Dell for $869. Itcomes with Word. Why does he need Vista Office?
Best bet is to find out the requirements, shop around, and be aware of the discount Microsoft gives students.
Not having read the entire thread, lemme say that I’ve been worried that the clever computer industry would think of a way to eliminate the PC clone makers by inventing some technology that runs only on laptops which are virtually impossible to clone or build yourself. We’re almost there, laptops and the bloody VM dominate.
I’m more knowledgeable on software than hardware, but a buddy brought in some catalogs to work a few years ago, and I added up the numbers...(I would have expected him to do the work)...it looked to me that it would be very difficult to make money at building your own computers and then reselling them.
I would recommend against it. The guy you buy it from might not support it once the transaction is complete, especially if your kid is going to college some distance away.
A laptop should last a college kid at least 4 years. Maybe support isn’t what it used to be? I really can’t speak to that.
I’ll chime in.
MSi is a company that makes high powered DIY laptops. Basics of the laptop are assembled and you choose a few components.
Do a google search for “MSi DIY laptop” or something similar. There are even DIY laptop sites.
Bigger question. Are you going to shell out for .... Windows?
Does this guy sell bridges and swamp land too?