[NBLUG/talk] Re: Cheap Laptop

[Christopher Wagner]

I've picked up at least a half-dozen laptops from a company in San Francisco
called Bedford Micro.  They sell refurb and new laptops and have a decent
selection of pretty nice machines in the sub-$800 category.  They even
warranty the battery for the length of the warranty (30-90 days usually).
Many of the machines they have (including the Dells) are factory refurb and
some even come with unusually long warranties (for refurbs), I've seen up to
8 months on-site warranty.

They'll ship to you if you want.  Their website is www.bedfordmicro.com and
their phone number is 415-546-2030.  Ask for Andrew and tell him I sent you.
:)  

- Christopher Wagner
chrisw at pacaids.com

Packaging Aids Corporation - Information Systems
P.O. Box 9144
San Rafael, CA 94912-9144
http://www.pacaids.com/
(415) 454-4868 x116
 

-----Original Message-----
From: talk-admin at nblug.org [mailto:talk-admin at nblug.org]On Behalf Of Jim
Bianchi
Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 10:11 AM
To: talk at nblug.org
Subject: [NBLUG/talk] Re: Cheap Laptop


On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 Warren Raquel wrote:
> I want to get a good, cheap laptop to run Linux on. I'm looking sub $800
> for something that runs at least 1.8Ghz. Anyone seen any out there on
> sale or rebate?

	I bought a used (factory reconditioned) Dell C600 Latitude laptop
on eBay for 'prox $500, installed RH 8.0 on it and am very happy. The CPU
runs at 750mHz (it drops to 650mHz when on batteries). It has a 14.1"
TFT screen, built in sound card, built in video (8meg VRAM), built in eth0
and a built in winmodem. It came with a 3.5" floppy drive, a CD ROM drive,
and a 20gig HD (frist boot was from CD). The battery was flaky and would
not hold a charge, but an AC adaptor cord was included. I bought a new
(still in wrapper) battery on eBay for less than $100. I found that a
Xircom RealPort cardbus combo eth0 and 56k modem PCMCIA card would work
beautifully, and the guy threw one in for free (the winmodem is a total
loss and there's no hope for it at all).

	I've really upgraded mine: I've upped the RAM to 512meg, bought a
Lucent/Orinoco gold WiFi PCMCIA card, a new CD, DVD, CD R/W drive, and a
soft carry case. I guess I've invested a lot more than just $500 (closer
to $850, probably), but heyyy.

	As I say, RH 8.0 (and X windows) installed with no problems.
Everything was recognised, all the needed drivers for the PCMCIA WiFi
were present. I can 'hot swop' the battery, the CD drives, the floppy, and
either of the two PCMCIA cards and carry on without rebooting. In the
BIOS, I disabled the touchpad and touchstick mouse thingy (even though it
worked and was picked up by X), and plugged in a brand X PS/2 mouse, which
was picked up and again, works fine in X. The USB port recognises my Sony
DSC 505v digital camera when it's plugged in. I've not yet installed a
ptr, but there is a parallel port. (And serial port, and IR port, and mic
input, and USB port, and a docking port.)

	I installed xine and can view DVDs. Audio CDs play fine using the
two built in speakers (or a set of amplified spkrs plugged into the jack).
Linux still wants some config before I can run xcdroast to try to write
CDs, but that's minor.

	I'm very happy with my Dell. I recommend the place from which I
got it very highly -- the guy is very communicative in email, and gave me
his phone number/address. He's been cooperative and willing to help me
out. (He 'gave' me the Xircom card when I pointed out that the winmodem
would not be recognised by Linux and thus was useless.)

  Bill Biede
  Prefix Technologies
  9800 Eton Avenue
  Chatsworth, CA 91311
  503-749-4408 - B.Biede/direct
  818-885-8912 - Main Office/Warehouse
  prefixtech at att.net

	That's the contact info he supplied me. On eBay, search on 'Dell
Latitude' or 'Dell Inspirion' to find him (I've not done this in a few
weeks, so I dunno the status). For $800 total (including shipping), you
should be able to get a really neat laptop from him. (I dunno about one
with a 1.8gHz CPU though.)

-- 
jimbo at sonic.net       Jim Bianchi   Santa Rosa   California

        Eclectic Garbanzo BBS ** (707) 539-1279 ** 28.8kbps

	Remember Flight 93 -- "Let's roll!"




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