Ok, so the wife wants a computer she can lock me out of, "no touchy" allowed! Although I'm used to hearing those words...not usually for the computer. So, here are her list of priorities:
- size: small but with DVD drive (no netbooks)
- portable
-decent battery life
Uses:
- 60% office, excell, powerpoint
- 30% internet
- 5% photoshop (nothing crazy)
- 5% watching movies or stuff
She plans on taking this to work everyday so light and small is good, they don't provide teachers with laptops and her department has to share a single desktop. She likes to scrap book so it should be able to hold and organize her photos, some music, etc...
So that's it in a nut shell, here is what I've found for around the $500 CAN mark:
Gateway: Buy the Gateway NV5378U Refurbished Notebook PC at TigerDirect.ca (30 day warranty)
ASUS: Buy the Asus K50IJ-RX05 Refurbished Notebook PC at TigerDirect.ca (30 day warranty)
Acer (-$30 special): Canada Computers - Acer Aspire AS4810T-8194 (Refurbished) Notebook w/ Olympic Logo - Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300, 14" HD, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, GMA 4500M, DVD-writer, Wireless N, Gb LAN, Bluetooth, HDMI, Webcam, Card Reader, Windows 7 Home Premium (LX.PM2 (1yr warranty)
Ok, so need some feedback here, i'm not usually one for refurbished laptops but at this price range I wonder if the usual crap for under $500 is worth it. Anyways, I like the brand name ASUS over either of the other two but my wife really likes small and light so the Acer is ahead in that category despite its CPU. What do you guys think, will she really notice the dip in cpu power with the above tasks? My better judgement warns me agains the acer, value wise, but it does seem to meet her needs best at this point.
- size: small but with DVD drive (no netbooks)
- portable
-decent battery life
Uses:
- 60% office, excell, powerpoint
- 30% internet
- 5% photoshop (nothing crazy)
- 5% watching movies or stuff
She plans on taking this to work everyday so light and small is good, they don't provide teachers with laptops and her department has to share a single desktop. She likes to scrap book so it should be able to hold and organize her photos, some music, etc...
So that's it in a nut shell, here is what I've found for around the $500 CAN mark:
Gateway: Buy the Gateway NV5378U Refurbished Notebook PC at TigerDirect.ca (30 day warranty)
ASUS: Buy the Asus K50IJ-RX05 Refurbished Notebook PC at TigerDirect.ca (30 day warranty)
Acer (-$30 special): Canada Computers - Acer Aspire AS4810T-8194 (Refurbished) Notebook w/ Olympic Logo - Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300, 14" HD, 4GB DDR3, 320GB HDD, GMA 4500M, DVD-writer, Wireless N, Gb LAN, Bluetooth, HDMI, Webcam, Card Reader, Windows 7 Home Premium (LX.PM2 (1yr warranty)
Ok, so need some feedback here, i'm not usually one for refurbished laptops but at this price range I wonder if the usual crap for under $500 is worth it. Anyways, I like the brand name ASUS over either of the other two but my wife really likes small and light so the Acer is ahead in that category despite its CPU. What do you guys think, will she really notice the dip in cpu power with the above tasks? My better judgement warns me agains the acer, value wise, but it does seem to meet her needs best at this point.