Is 512 ram and 160 hard drive space a good number for a laptop if using for strictly business... emails, working on website, accounting....nothing really flashy or anything.
Ooof, I was hoping I could answer that question. LOL, I use a laptop but know very little about it I guess lol <I'll look and see what mine has on it and then let you know... if I can figure out where to look lol> ETA: Capacity shows 218 GB it has Windows Vista loaded on it... I used it for school, web browsing and gaming in the past and it served me well... not sure if that helps or not
My thoughts on laptops is this: get the best you can afford, even if it has more than you think you will ever need. Here's why: they are always updating flash, etc etc. We have a desktop that is 3 or so years old, and I thought was fine. My ds started playing a MMORPG and we discovered that it didn't have enough RAM (1GB instead of 2) after an upgrade. And somehow, even though I wasn't really saving anything on it, we filled up 200GB of Hard drive- mostly updates I think, but not sure. I had to keep deleting stuff off just to keep it moving. So yes, you CAN get a computer like that to do basic stuff, but if you ever decide to surf the internet, or use it for something else you might discover you have to wrong tool for the job. I don't really know much about laptops, either, and the only things I really look at is the RAM and the Hard drive. Hard drive can mostly be compensated for with the thumb drives and cd-roms these days, but if your RAM is too small, it will drive you crazy. (Mine is 4GB RAM, 250GB Hard drive, and is an economy model I've been very happy with it so far- and I watch movies, do school work, surf the 'net, and a host of other things. I actually prefer the cheaper Celeron processors over pentium because they are faster imhe)
I have been doing computer repair and consulting for 12-13 years now. I am not going at it much these days, but keep a foot in the pond to stay up to date somewhat in case econimics change and I have to start my business up full steam again. I would not buy a used laptop unless it is super cheap, like under 100 dollars. I would not buy laptop with only 512 megs (1/2 gig) of ram. Most current systems have 4 times that much at 2 gigs, and some have 3 or 4 gigs even at the bottom end of the price scale. anyway, Here are my recommendations for buying a laptop. Unless you have specific needs that require power, then buy as little laptop as you can get buy with unless you have budget to spend on luxury features. Gaming and Auto cad would be examples that would require lots of processor and graphics power. Laptops are fragile and the hard drive life expectancy is 3-5 years no matter how much you spend. Batteries will loose the ability to recharge also. YOu are better planning to spend 3-5 hundred dollars every 3 or so years than to plan to spend 12-19 hundred every 6-10 years. IF you have ever bought a new operating system to upgrade a computer, you can see that buying that retail is 1/3 to 1/2 half the cost of the new computer. Because laptops are so expensive to upgrade, you often cannot install a new operationg system (ie a new version of windows that may come out later). You are simply better off buying new every so often. In the three years that pass, you will get so much more for the money than you can get for 4 times that price now that it is a better deal to replace more often using less money at once. Example, go to a large box seller and buy a laptop between 350.00 and 500.00 dollars. Buy a name brand that you recognize not some off the wall thing you have not heard of. Most of the Major name brands are pretty reliable. HP, Compaq, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, and others. If you plan to do bookeeping get one with a 10 key pad, or buy a separate keyboard or 10 keypad that plugs into the USB port. unless you plan to use the machine strictly for entertainment and internet use, avoid the netbooks out there. Do not buy a display model laptop. Just dont do it. OFten times a nother store in a less populated area might have one still in the box call around if it is a good buy and find it in the box. Staples is one of the best places in my area for buying a computer. They clear out the old stock at good prices.
