Netbook/Refurbished Laptop...

macca1983

Going travelling and was planning on buying a Netbook and then i was told i can't play DVD's on them!

So now i am looking at maybe buying a refurbished laptop from laptopsdirect.ie. What does it exactly mean when they say thew laptop is refurbished?? Does this mean second hand?

Basically i have 350 Euro to spend and i need something really light,can access internet,will play DVD's,can store photos/DVD's on and has a long battery life on it? Any suggestions?

Alanstrainor

Netbooks for the most part do not have DVD drives. But would that be essential for travelling on the road? For me at least i wouldn't think so.
If you don't need one, the samsung nc10 netbook is good. And costs around 350~

Voodu Child

macca1983 wrote: »

So now i am looking at maybe buying a refurbished laptop from laptopsdirect.ie. What does it exactly mean when they say thew laptop is refurbished?? Does this mean second hand?

It means its been sent back to the manufacturer for various reasons. Sometimes it'll be a cancelled/returned order, other times it'll have been faulty and the manufacturer will repair it. They get completely wiped (in terms of OS) and usually re-boxed. But it still the same laptop that went out to a customer, so it may have some scuffs or small signs of use. I got a refurb from laptops direct and it was basically untouched, completely mint. Didn't work at all though :pac:

€350 won't buy you what you want to be honest. You'd buy a basic laptop with DVD drive for around that price (€400 would be a better budget) but it'll be a big 15" clunker, definitely not thin/light. Battery life wouldn't be great either.

If you have another computer (with DVD drive) you could just convert all your movies to Xvid before you leave. You'd fit tonnes of them on the hard-drive of a 160GB netbook.

macca1983

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Netbooks for the most part do not have DVD drives. But would that be essential for travelling on the road? For me at least i wouldn't think so.
If you don't need one, the samsung nc10 netbook is good. And costs around 350~

It would man - just did 6 months of travelling and my DVD player was crucial to me - not much of a reader and you can't be out on the lash every night you are travelling.

Some people like to kick back with a book, i like to kick back with a movie...Don't want to bring DVD player again...

macca1983

Voodu Child wrote: »

It means its been sent back to the manufacturer for various reasons. Sometimes it'll be a cancelled/returned order, other times it'll have been faulty and the manufacturer will repair it. They get completely wiped (in terms of OS) and usually re-boxed. But it still the same laptop that went out to a customer, so it may have some scuffs or small signs of use. I got a refurb from laptops direct and it was basically untouched, completely mint. Didn't work at all though :pac:

€350 won't buy you what you want to be honest. You'd buy a basic laptop with DVD drive for around that price (€400 would be a better budget) but it'll be a big 15" clunker, definitely not thin/light. Battery life wouldn't be great either.

If you have another computer (with DVD drive) you could just convert all your movies to Xvid before you leave. You'd fit tonnes of them on the hard-drive of a 160GB netbook.

Can ya explain that last bit to me again? In a bit more detail (i ain't the sharpest when it comes to IT jazz). I do have a laptop with a DVD drive. What exactly do i need to do??

When you say tonnes, could ya fit 40 odd DVD's shall we say?

majiktripp

You can compress a DVD movie down to about 700mb - making it watchable on a laptop. 40 dvd's converted to 700mb files would take up around 28GB of space or there abouts, and an awful lot of time converting them.
I'd get a 10" netbook and a cheap portable external DVD drive from DealExtreme or the likes and have the best of both worlds.

majiktripp

Cheap but decent netbook : for €165.
Bar the slightly smaller screen its not too bad at all really. Certainly for the price its good value.

An Ri rua

Hi all,

been searching for a thread like this.

I've an old laptop that I want to upgrade myself as I've seen some very cheap HDs on eBay in US. OEM for Dell. Dell Inspiron 4000 original spec 5GB HD, PIII 850MHz etc. cd drive, no dvd. I'm wondering is it worth my upgrading it to 512mb even a 40GB HD as its less than €80 and I've fitted RAM no prob before so I'll give the HD a go too.
It has a dodgy DC jack connector so I just ordered that for €4 delivered on eBay from UK (€99 for an Irish company to do it for me!! Its pricing like that that makes us all learn stuff ourselves).

My question is, although it own't have a 1.3MP webcam built in , nor wifi, nor bluetooth (but neither does my 1300 have bluetooth), and although its a slower processor, it still ran great on XP. Wouldn't it be €80 better spent on upgrading an Inspiron 4000 to the max, for use as a netbook, rather than shelling out €400 for one?
In fact, leaving the RAM at 256 wouldn't be so bad if the HD went to 40GB. It's a lovely light laptop. Old but such a shame to get rid of.

Any thoughts? I was offered €20 tonight for it but I see them online in the states for €80 and that's with a shot HD.

It was stable for me. Perhaps I'd just change the DC jack and donate it to a good cause.