My husband recently landed a new job. Yeh! we are so excited! He will get at least 40 hrs a week (he has only been gettin 35 between two jobs) and will be making more on the hour. The extra income will allow me to go back to school next year. However since I have two young children and can't afford both school and child care (my husband works nights so he can watch the kids if I scheadule alot of classes duing the middle of the day) I want to do as many classes online as possiable. However my computer is about at the end of its life so I really will need a new one to do this. My computer is an HP and is only 1.5years old. (a laptop) My last computer was also an HP and only lasted 3.5yrs before I couldn't even turn it on anymore, it was a desktop. Do you have an computer that works well? What is the brand. I can't spend to much on one (no more then $650-$700). And because we have limited space right now I would prefer a laptop.
LOL Christina G. I had a Best buy credit card. I had to pay it off and cancel it because it was bad for me! I love electronics to much.
My husband does computer repair and he says that the ones that hardly ever have any problems are the Toshibas and the Vaios, specially Toshibas. I've personaly have had 2 Toshibas in the past 10 years.
Good luck with school!!!
Wow, I think your 1st step would be to take your laptop in somewhere where they can back it up and then put all the software back on it. At 1.5 yrs old it is doubtful that you need another one. I have an HP that is over 3 yrs old, and it is true that sometimes it gets bogged down and runs slow. Fortunately I am married to a "tech geek" so he takes care of it by backing everything up and then re-loading everything. After that, it's just as fast as new. It's worth a shot anyway. Even if it costs you $100 it will still save you money.
If you still think you may need a new computer down the line, then you can set up a little savings fund for it and put a little money in every month. Then when your laptop finally does need to be replaced, you have the money.
I've had 2 Dells so far, the first one lasted 6 years, we still have it plugged in and just use it as a photo album and to play cards on, and my current one is 5 years old, it's kinda FULL of stuff and a little slower than I'd like but still runs good.
If you go to the Dell website you can customize your own computer and it shows you the price changes as you add in the things you want. They have a pretty good help service if you have questions.
My husband got me a refurbished HP Pavilion for $400. It's great!
I have a Dell Inspiron Laptop I got when my daughter was a baby (she's 5 now) and I have very little problems with it. And it's purple, which is extra awesome. :-)
We have 8 year old Dell laptops in my classroom. Work horses. New ones run 600-800. Be sure to up the RAM, and get a higher RPM static hard drive, the larger the better (or consider adding an external to move files to and great as a backup). Another consideration is having one with an internet port (in case the wifi doesn't connect, AND, a "land line" always causes the machine to run much faster). Our Dells have wifi but with them being 8 years old, we run them on internet "land lines" to up the speed.
Have you tried getting the HP you have serviced? With our desktop, we had great results by having a PC guy clean it out (physically -- because of all the dust that accumulated -- and logically). We then upgraded our anti-virus software and have been able to get it to work really well again. Getting rid of all the junk the kids downloaded (both intentionally and unintentionally) really helped.
Even if you can only get another year out of it, it might help you either save for a bigger budget replacement or put the money toward something else for now.
I love my new Lenovo! Cost onhas some great deals on really good laptops, this is where we got ours.
Wow, $650-$700? I have no clue about that price range. You may need to look at something that is refurbished to get in that range.
We got our daughter (17) a MacBook Pro back in August because it is pretty important for the students to have laptops. She has taken it to school, she watches NetFlix, etc. Most all of the students at her school have laptops and if they don't, they miss out. The library has computers but that does not help when you are in the classroom and need it now. We got it at Best Buy and we got the extended plan for warranty (a must have) and we spent around $2500. It is loaded with the max software she needs for school. She had a Dell Latitude before we upgraded her laptop.
I run our company on my Dell XPS 14Z. I got this one in December and the only reason I did not get the MacBook is because I had a Dell that I love that still works, just very slow and the Dell is compatabile with my accountant's system. I use Quickbooks Pro and I would have had to change my set up for payroll, etc to get a program similar to QB on a Mac. I LOVE my Dell but I still spent $1700 when it was said and done.
Hubby has a Dell as well. He runs his portion of our company on his Dell and it has been a good one. It is a Dell Studio and it does not have the disc drive, that was extra $ but it is light weight and for him being on the road as much as he is, it is a good laptop. He got his around $1000 I think because he was able to use the software that was on my other Dell (we have the software packages that can be used on up to 3 computers).
We do have the full warranty on all 3 computers which is a good thing. We used it more than once on the other laptops we've had.
If you can't go over that price range, I would talk to a good computer consultant, someone at a computer store, etc and see if you can get a good refurbished computer. That might be your best bet.
I know my Dell XPS that I used for over 4 yrs still works well and there is nothing wrong with it other than it being very slow and I needed a better processor since I am running our company on the laptop.
Good luck.
I have a netbook from Toshiba. The number in it is NB505. It is PERFECT! It is small yet has a full sized keyboard. I do email and YouTube and ordering via Amazon and this site ofcourse, online banking, I watch netflix movies,etc.etc. everything a large computer does. I did upgrade to the 2 GB memory (which is a chip you put in yourself and discard the 1 GB one, it allows for more buffering and faster response), but all together is was just over $300. It has a built in webcam and SD card reader and 3 USB slots, all the bells and whistles of a large laptop but cheaper and easier to carry from room to room (we have wifi in the house).
It is just over a year old now and works great, I even took it with me on several trips already, very easy to carry.
I got it with the green/turquoise top.
I agree with those who say you should check into getting your current on fixed. If that doesn't work, I have 2 suggestions. First, try QVC and HSN. They often have today's special deals where you can get a great price and you can make several monthly payments. You can check their websites (just put a .com behind their letters to get to their sites). Just be sure you get at least a quad core processor for that price range. I see quad cores on special on both channels more and more. The second option is Best Buy. Open a Best Buy credit card and any purchase over $429 is 18 months interest free financing. Their website has better laptops than in store but I would ask the in store staff what brands they recommend. Ask them what the fail rate is on various brands and you will be shocked! It is pretty high for most brands. My VAIO was overpriced and died in 18 months. 1st Dell died in 3 yrs. 2nd dell serviced for free from Best Buy within 1st yr. Son's Samsung laptop serviced free by BB in 1st year. Good luck with school and congrats to you and to hubby on his new job!
That's actually a decent price range if you are not looking for 1) a Mac (waaayyyy overpriced!!) and 2) a big screen with all the bells and whistles.
For school all you need is a good internet connection, word processing (which could be free if they'll let you use Google Docs or Open Office), and video capability (for online classes).
I had a Toshiba that worked great for 3.5 years and only upgraded because it wasn't compatible with the new operating system I wanted. I have an ASUS now and it is also fantastic. 2 years now, no problems at all. It's better than the Toshiba. I work in the graphics industry, so I have a huge screen and all the bells and whistles (the one I have was billed as a "gaming" laptop) and it was just under $2K -- but like I said, it had ALL the bells and whistles.
