SOS to my Computer Geeks!

[random3434]

Mini-Echo wants a laptop for Christmas,,,,and that's all she's getting from me lol.

Now, what is a good brand/type for a 15 year old. I want WORD on it so she can type her papers/projects etc. on it.

Advice?

Thanks!

OH, and I need one that won't cost me an ARM and a LEG!

 

[zzzz]

How much is an arm worth?
Or a leg?

You get office and thats $100+ to get Word and Excel, Powerpoint and Notebook (which is a good program). If you don't want to pay the bucks you can download openoffice for free.

The laptop should be good enough so that it won't go to junk pile in a couple of years. You can expect to spend $400-500 on a decent laptop, I have a HP myself. I do have issues with the AMD processor because of the heat problem but it works nice. I've had it for a year and no problems.

 

[Sallow]

From what I am seeing the IPADS are pretty nice.

But try going to:

TigerDirect.com - Computers, Computer Parts, Computer Components, Netbooks & Electronics

Lots of great deals.

 

[edthecynic]

Word will run on any laptop, Windoze or Mac. What else will she use the puter for? Macs come with great software for movies and photos and audio, don't have virus problems, but Macs cost more. You can run the Windoze OS on a Mac but then you open yourself up to all the Windoze viruses.

 

[ekrem]

Don't buy any Ipad or life-style product which is a money rip-off. (Macintosh)

I suppose, here are some members (I count myself to it) who know a little bit about Computers.
You have to specify
- what your daughter will use the Laptop for (Multimedia, School, Gaming)
- what the display size should be
- if you buy online, which shop you trust or you want to order from
- and how much you want to spend.

After you have specified these questions, I am sure, someone will guide you the way to a product which suits your daughter and is available from that online shop.

 

[ekrem]

(...)
You get office and thats $100+ to get Word and Excel, Powerpoint and Notebook (which is a good program). If you don't want to pay the bucks you can download openoffice for free.
(...)

Yes, either Openoffice or Libreoffice.
Openoffice is still free, but the Developers have been purchased by a commercial company, so there has been a split-off within the project into Libreoffice project.
Both Office-Softwares are practically the same and advanced enough to use as replacement for Microsoft Office.
They also can handle (read/write) the filetypes of the Documents created with Microsoft Office.
I would not buy Microsoft Office. It's money thrown out of the window.

Libreoffice (that's the one I use and which comes Standard with my Distribution)
LibreOffice Productivity Suite - The Document Foundation

Openoffice
OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

 

[judyd]

A couple of months ago we bought an Acer laptop for my husband. 250 HD, 3 GB, 15.6 screen, for $350 at walmart.com. I had bought one for myself last summer with 2GB, 160 HD, 15.6", for $249 at Staples. They've both been great.

 

[xotoxi]

Any good laptop must have good antivirus software to protect your investment whilst surfing for pornography.

 

[Madeline]

My computer genius buddy ♥ Tiger Direct, EZ. I think the important thing is that it be pink...or some cool color.

 

[PoliticalChic]

My 11 year-old daughter has been using her 10 inch Acer Aspire One netbook for a year now. We are thrilled with it. It's much cheaper, lighter, and smaller than a laptop and she takes it with her everywhere. If your daughter wouldn't mind the small screen, it may work for her. Her's has 2 USB ports and a slot for memory cards. It didn't come with Word. I had Microsoft Office 2003 so I installed it for her. They are now running about $289 or $299. One of the pluses with this machine is that it has a long battery life. The ones that are out there now have a battery life of 8 hours. Good luck!

 

[syrenn]

Any HP laptop should do you just fine.

The Hp mini is very cute and less expensive. It may be good for a starter computer.

 

[ekrem]

My 11 year-old daughter has been using her 10 inch Acer Aspire One netbook for a year now. We are thrilled with it. It's much cheaper, lighter, and smaller than a laptop and she takes it with her everywhere. If your daughter wouldn't mind the small screen, it may work for her. Her's has 2 USB ports and a slot for memory cards. It didn't come with Word. I had Microsoft Office 2003 so I installed it for her. They are now running about $289 or $299. One of the pluses with this machine is that it has a long battery life. The ones that are out there now have a battery life of 8 hours. Good luck!

Yes, mobility is a factor to consider. Smaller ones (Netbooks) are more suited to carry to school or other places. But Netbooks should really only be purchased if the mobility issue is the priority, otherwise people tend to regret their purchase after a while because of the small display - at least, that's what has happened in my environment.

I think, that the purchase by judyd was a good one
Link to Post7
Although she did not mention what type of processor is in the Laptop, at what rounds-per-minute the Hard-drive is spinning, at what MHz the RAM is working and what is built-in for graphics accelerating. Some displays are also better then other ones.

 

[Ringel05]

Recertified:
Here's an Apple 12" screen
Newegg.com - Recertified: Apple iBook G4 NoteBook PowerPC G4 1.33GHz 12.1" XGA 1GB Memory 40GB HDD DVD/CD-RW Combo ATI Mobility Radeon 9550

Dell, 14" screen (Win XP)
Newegg.com - Recertified: DELL Latitude D620 (D620 60gb XPP 1.8GHZ) NoteBook 14.1" 1GB Memory 60GB HDD DVD/CD-RW Combo

Dell with a 15" screen (Win7)
Newegg.com - Recertified: DELL Inspiron 1545 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T4500(2.30GHz) 15.6" 2GB Memory 250GB HDD DVD±R/RW

Asus 15.5" screen (Win7 Open box)
Newegg.com - Open Box: ASUS K50I-RBBGR05 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T4400(2.20GHz) 15.6" 3GB DDR2 Memory 320GB HDD DVD Super Multi Intel GMA 4500M

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

Walmart is giving them away on friday

 

[Baruch Menachem]

Open office might be a better deal than Word.

Open office can save to docx format or doc.

But Microsoft office costs a bomb. And 90% of it she will never use

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

Yeah I endorse openoffice it is very fast and pretty cheap.

 

[Ringel05]

Yeah I endorse openoffice it is very fast and pretty cheap.

Yup. Free seems pretty cheap to me also.

 

[edthecynic]

(...)
You get office and thats $100+ to get Word and Excel, Powerpoint and Notebook (which is a good program). If you don't want to pay the bucks you can download openoffice for free.
(...)

Yes, either Openoffice or Libreoffice.
Openoffice is still free, but the Developers have been purchased by a commercial company, so there has been a split-off within the project into Libreoffice project.
Both Office-Softwares are practically the same and advanced enough to use as replacement for Microsoft Office.
They also can handle (read/write) the filetypes of the Documents created with Microsoft Office.
I would not buy Microsoft Office. It's money thrown out of the window.

Libreoffice (that's the one I use and which comes Standard with my Distribution)
LibreOffice Productivity Suite - The Document Foundation

Openoffice
OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite

OpenOffice is also available for Mac along with NeoOffice, both are free.

porting: OpenOffice.orgAqua for MacOSX

NeoOffice Downloads

 

[RallyxPoint]

any netbook, they are small and are great, asus makes the best ones, they are under 300 dollars and will run word.