Question about Computers...is this a good buy?

I need a bit of advice. I do not own a notebook/laptop computer, this will be my first purchase.

Offered to me NEW: a Toshiba Satellite A135-S2326. Windows Vista Basic (I know, I know...bugs/monster memory eater), 80gb hard drive, 512M of RAM. 15.4" screen.

This is going to be used primarily for a child being homeschooled, maybe to watch DVDs during travel, light internet usage in airports, etc. Nothing massive.

As others have said, upgrade the memory. Running Vista in anything less than 1 GByte would be a disaster; you really want 2 GBytes of RAM.

I have a Toshiba Satellite that I got for about $500 a couple years ago - I run Windows XP on it, and after upgrading to 768 Mbytes of RAM (was able to add a 512 MB memory stick to the 256 Mbs that came with it, and didn't have to throw any memory out) it runs a web browser and Quicken ok, though definitely more sluggish than my other systems.

You will end up paying a $100 every year or two for a new laptop battery - they die on you. Get a desktop if you want to avoid that cost.

I don't know first hand what to say about running Vista; I refuse to upgrade from Windows XP myself. But I am pretty sure from all I've read that Vista wants about twice as much memory as Windows XP.

Unfortunately, adding a Windows XP license will cost you another $100 or so. You can get Windows XP included in a used laptop, for $400, give or take, by going to UsedLaptops.com - with Windows XP.

Either way, you will need more memory. I'd get memory from Crucial.com. A second stick of 512 MBytes, to go with the 256 Mbyte stick that comes in these low end laptops, will cost you about $100. That puts you up to 768 MBytes - ok for Windows XP. For Vista, I'd throw out the 256 Mb that came with it, and put in a pair of 1 GByte sticks, for 2 GBytes total. That will cost you about $200.

So ... whether you pay $100 for Windows XP and $100 for another 512 Mbytes, or you pay $200 for another 2 GBytes, plan on spending $200 extra to make it usable.

And with Windows, it isn't just slow you're dealing with. Windows is not stable when run with too little memory. After spending five or ten minutes to do what should be done in a few seconds, it will as likely hang or crash on you. Unless you're locked up in solitary confinement with nothing else to mess with, it's simply not worth the bother to run Windows with a quarter of the memory that would be adequate.

My advice is get a new PC with XP on it. Go to the links we gave you for Dell. Dell sells new computers with XP on it installed at the factory.

Someone at work bought a notebooks with Vista on it. It takes like 10 minutes to restart. You are waiting on it a lot to do everyday things. Very slow.

And get as much RAM as you can. You can never have enough RAM Or Hard drive space lol.

I just recently bought my PC from Dell and got 2 GB RAM , a 500 GB hard drive, and the fastest CPU i could get. It came with XP proffesional as I specified. Needless to say with XP on it and 2 GB of RAM it runs very well and fast.

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