Used computers

I'll check back tonight or tomorrow,

Thank you

You've never heard of Ebay? Craigslist? Or Amazon? When buying a used computer it's always buyer beware. I'd say, save up another $100 and buy a new laptop from the likes of Best Buy or Costco or wherever.

I agree, if it were I, I’d save a little more and get a new one. He could buy a used one and the hard drive or something else major might go out and he’s just lost his money.

Places like Sam’s Club has new HP’s for under 500 bucks.

I got a really nice HP laptop for $350. The trick is to buy last year's model when the new models come in. Then the stores will discount the older models at a great price and it's still a solid and (mostly) loaded computer.

For that price you can easily find a refurbished or even an older new computer.

Try Microcenter.com or Buy.com
Even Newegg.com may have some close to that price range.
Stay away from the ultrabooks, cheap but won't do much more than internet.

The video game question depends on the graphics required for the games.

That's true. Staples, Office Depot, Best Buy, OfficeMax etc will often have sales that put computers in the $300 range. That might be a better choice because then you can see what you are getting.

I have great luck on ebay with netbooks but then I picked them up for a 100 dollars or less so I was not risking a great deal either.

Playing video games with a pc (or Mac) is a pretty intensive use of hardware. In general, a used computer often isn't equipped with enough processing speed and/or memory to handle that sort of I/O intensive use.

FWIW, I've seen quite a few pc repair places which occasionally sell reconditioned pc at a reasonable price with a guarantee that could be worthwhile.

However for a little bit more than the price of used computer from a shop, the price of a new computer (let's say a desktop) might be a decent and better value. Laptops that could effortlessly handle a video game tend to be a bit pricier than say a desktop that can handle a video game. You need a pretty fast clock speed (CPU), fast video card and a lots of fast RAM.

Just for what it's worth, the WalMart website (not stores) looks like a possibility for both new and reconditioned computers that can be delivered to your local store. I didn't spend much time looking them over, but it looked interesting.

Yeah, everbody hates Walmart. Partly because there are so many cars in the lot you have to walk a quarter mile to get inside the store.

Computers are much cheaper these days, laptops are slightly more expensive since they're portable, but I wouldn't recommend buying a used one. Why not new?

If you want to have a good computer, then you can build it yourself by buying a case and all other parts. That's how many people do it and you save a lot. But if you don't have much IT knowledge you might find it hard to assemble one.

Thanks for all the advice. I appreciate it. I’m getting a new laptop, it’s a Dell Inspiron 17.3" Laptop 8GB Memory 1TB Hard 2.4GHz, 8GB ram. Sweet! My aunt and a friend of mine will split the difference since it will be for school. I’m excited, I will be getting it tomorrow from the Best Buy store, just have to pick it up.

Walmart scares me, but no longer so much at the hours I visit.

First time I went there a while ago, I thought I'd be run over by large carts, and I am not kidding. I'm not fast or steady on my feet, but also, not that bad. But maniacs with carts were near running from the doors.


Later, I met a woman in one aisle trying to get up using her cart after looking at the bottom shelf. That was in a quiet time.

I park a long way away on purpose.

I've designed parking lots. This place is volatile.

Of course, walking with your cart is problematic with lined up darters too.

OK, you said the website.

I said website all right, but would still rather pick it up at the store than have UPS drive by and toss it at what they thought was the right address.

My new computer is sick! It's so fast! I have windows 8 so just trying to figure it out!

He just got a new computer and its sick already

Wait until your first Windows update....enjoy the speed while it lasts.

And congrats on the new puter.

By the way, now would be a good time to make a backup of your registry and other files so you have a clean copy to use for restoration of your operating system, should you ever need it.