Budget Laptop

[NancyJ]

I want a cheap laptop ie <£200
I really only want it to run apache, a browser and my php editor but I know XP is a bit of a resource hog.
I cant stand slow machines - its my pet hate but the ones I've been looking at are either p4 3Ghz + 256Mb RAM
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Amazing-Pentium-P4-3-0ghz-DVDRW-LAPTOP-COMPUTER-1p-NR_W0QQitemZ320035744126QQihZ011QQcategoryZ177QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem
or P4 1.8Ghz + 512Mb RAM
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/IBM-R32-Pentium-4-1-8-Ghz-512mb-DVD-Laptop-Computer-PC_W0QQitemZ320036910834QQihZ011QQcategoryZ177QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem

I just cant decide if either is worth it - I basically just want it so I can code in front of the TV

[oracleguy]

You'll benefit from the more memory than the faster processor. Don't expect a whole lot of battery life with those laptops running desktop processors.

[NancyJ]

I'm not so much bothered about the battery life - It'll be plugged in most of the time - I'm bothered about performance. 1.8Ghz just seems kinda low

[oracleguy]

XP can run fairly well on a 700MHz computer with 512mb of RAM assuming you are just using it for internet, office and the like and nothing resource intensive like games, photoshop or video transcoding. So a 1.8Ghz should be ok. Looking at the computers again I did notice the 1.8 only has a 20gb hard drive, which I'd be a little more concerned about. These days, it isn't too hard to fill that much space up.

You could always get the 3.0ghz and probably buy more memory for it for cheap. Both of those laptops I'd imagine don't have very fast hard drives so you aren't gonna want to use a lot of virtual memory.

[NancyJ]

20 Gb is plenty since I wont be doing any gaming or video editting. Most of the important stuff I'll keep on my disgo so I can carry it around with me.
I pondered upgrading the ram on the 3Ghz but then its getting well over £300.
Why are even old crappy laptops really expensive?

[marek_mar]

The CPU clock does not convert into performance as it might have used to in "the good old days".
My PC has an AthlonXP 1.8GHz and it is capable of running vista rc1 quite well.
Pentium4's are extremely energy inefficient and generate a lot of heat, therefore having one of these in anything portable is silly. The P4 architecture was so bad that it was discontinued in favour of the Pentium 3 architecture.

[_Aerospace_Eng_]

Hmm you could buy a used laptop and install linux on it. You may be able to run wine on it so you can run some windows programs. I've never used wine so I'm not sure how many programs work for it.

[freelancer111]

3.0 Ghz?? When you want performance, you don't think small do you?? The laptop will generate a lot of heat. how will you handle that?

[NancyJ]

3.0 Ghz?? When you want performance, you don't think small do you?? The laptop will generate a lot of heat. how will you handle that?

Lol, my house has no heating so it will be quite welcome ;)

[freelancer111]

:thumbsup: I certainly did not expect that answer. Righto then, 3.0 Ghz it is for you