Recommendations for cheap secondhand laptop...

[neilmac]

I want to get hold of a cheap (£50 ish :shrug:) secondhand laptop that will be suitable for our guests to use while here on photography holidays.

It needs to have a reasonable screen for reviewing and maybe processing images.

Ebay seems the obvious place to look, but I wondered about any particular makes to look for or avoid.

Any thoughts please?

Neil

[snoop69]

£50 isnt much of a budget but for ease of use & reliabilty i would
suggest something like this :-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-600-LAPTOP-WiFi-BRDBND-BLUETOOTH-OPTION-FREE-pp_W0QQitemZ290254401139QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item29 0254401139&_trkparms=72%3A1300%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C 240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

[Badger UK]

Try to avoid second hand laptops. No one ever gets rid of a decent laptop because they give it to their kids or their mates. 8 out of 10 second hand laptops have some sort of problem. And they are notoriously difficult and expensive to repair.

If it was me, I save up for a while and get a new on for £299 or similar.

[animal168]

:agree:
most users I know run a laptop into the ground then replace. a decent one should be coming up cheaper now towards xmas, my mate at dixons says they are struggling to sell stuff so there should be some good offers about soon

[neilmac]

£50 isnt much of a budget but for ease of use & reliabilty i would
suggest something like this :-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-600-LAPTOP-WiFi-BRDBND-BLUETOOTH-OPTION-FREE-pp_W0QQitemZ290254401139QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item29 0254401139&_trkparms=72%3A1300%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C 240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Thanks for the link, that's the sort of thing I was thinking of :thumbs:

Try to avoid second hand laptops. No one ever gets rid of a decent laptop because they give it to their kids or their mates. 8 out of 10 second hand laptops have some sort of problem. And they are notoriously difficult and expensive to repair.

If it was me, I save up for a while and get a new on for £299 or similar.

:agree:
most users I know run a laptop into the ground then replace. a decent one should be coming up cheaper now towards xmas, my mate at dixons says they are struggling to sell stuff so there should be some good offers about soon

Thanks guys, I hear what you're saying and there may well be some bargains to be had, I'll keep an eye open.

Whilst secondhand laptops may be well used etc. I know there must be plenty that aren't completely knackered. Like all technology items many just get replaced to keep up with the current developments. I just one that does the basics.

Cheers :thumbs:

[snoop69]

I ran a 4yr old Ibm Thinkpad 600e for 3yrs.

I sold it to my neighbour who ran it for the best part of a year.

The only reason it died was due to a dodgy invertor he used in his
caravan which blew the power supply on the motherboard.

Perhaps i have just been lucky :shrug:

[Flash In The Pan]

Best to buy a new £299 one as Badger suggests. With the strength of the €uro against the pound it'll probably work out at about 50 quid for you anyway :lol:

[neilmac]

Best to buy a new £299 one as Badger suggests. With the strength of the €uro against the pound it'll probably work out at about 50 quid for you anyway :lol:

:D GOOD POINT! :naughty:

[neilmac]

I ran a 4yr old Ibm Thinkpad 600e for 3yrs.

I sold it to my neighbour who ran it for the best part of a year.

The only reason it died was due to a dodgy invertor he used in his
caravan which blew the power supply on the motherboard.

Perhaps i have just been lucky :shrug:

Yes - I'm still thinking down the secondhand route :thinking:, From the research I've done so far the IBM Thinkpads seem pretty durable.

[who?]

what do you mean by 'reasonable screen' ?

When you think about image size and the resolution of old laptop screens there is a bit of a difference.

[neilmac]

what do you mean by 'reasonable screen' ?

When you think about image size and the resolution of old laptop screens there is a bit of a difference.

I mean a screen that will give the holiday user a reasonable view of their photographs. So something better than the small screen on their camera. I wouldn't be expecting to supply the latest and greatest available.

This is just meant to be a conveience to the holiday maker, rather than having to wait to get home to have a better look at their captures.

[Bolerus]

if you are going down the second hand market, try and get one that is about 18 - 24 months old. dell in particular used much better screens back then than now that everything is more of a budget.

these days you will often find slightly older lappies (i bought one that was a amd 2.0g for £100 kept it for a few months then sold it on for same price and bought a new dell one.) that have nothing wrong with them at all but are being sold because people want to go to the newer dual core systems. So it is a good time to buy a second hand lappy.

key thing is though, you really need to check them out and make sure they are running ok.

There are always dodgy folks out there who will try and get top dollar for an almost broken system, but there are also decent folks who do the decent thing and sell theirs on at the right second user price.

Incidently, I personally wouldnt go near that £79 IBM one linked above its only a Pentium 2 and you will struggle to get things working on it these days.

good luck

[alexkidd]

if it's a unit for holiday makers you'll probably get more for your money and a little more peace of mind if you bought a base unit/monitor?

[neilmac]

if you are going down the second hand market, try and get one that is about 18 - 24 months old. dell in particular used much better screens back then than now that everything is more of a budget.

these days you will often find slightly older lappies (i bought one that was a amd 2.0g for £100 kept it for a few months then sold it on for same price and bought a new dell one.) that have nothing wrong with them at all but are being sold because people want to go to the newer dual core systems. So it is a good time to buy a second hand lappy.

key thing is though, you really need to check them out and make sure they are running ok.

There are always dodgy folks out there who will try and get top dollar for an almost broken system, but there are also decent folks who do the decent thing and sell theirs on at the right second user price.

Incidently, I personally wouldnt go near that £79 IBM one linked above its only a Pentium 2 and you will struggle to get things working on it these days.

good luck

Thanks for that advice - some good points :thumbs:

if it's a unit for holiday makers you'll probably get more for your money and a little more peace of mind if you bought a base unit/monitor?

Yes your right about more for the money but in this case it would be better to be portable between guest rooms, but thanks anyway :)

[Flash In The Pan]

Another idea (that's two I've had this week :thumbs:) why not contact the likes of Dell and see what they have in the way of old models, you might be able to get a good deal if you buy 2 or 3, which would allow more of your guests access to a computer at the same time. It woudl be a good selling point as part of your holiday packages too.

[whitey]

I would only ever buy new from now tbh.,

but then again, i (my other half) has some IBM laptop thingy, 3gb hdd and probs bout 128mb ram if thats of any interest? lol