2 year old Used Dell Latitude machines?

I am looking at several possibilities for a machine for my daughter to replace her 6 year old compaq. Her needs are largely Word Processing and net/e-mail work with some photo processing.

I found a couple of Latitude C640 machines with 1024 MB Ram 2.0 Gig Hz P 4 processor , 14.1" sxga+ display and CD-RW-DVD 24x combo. 30 gig Fugitsu Hard drive with 9 months extended warranty left (built mid 2003). I can probably get it for around $650. It isn't "refurbished" but is "used" and working as tested. also guaranteed money back 30 days.

She doesn't want a large heavy unit but will travel around with it some as well so wants something that is a little tougher than the cheap ones.

A new Dell Inspiron 1200 will cost more with less than these specs and is not as tough a unit by far.

The equivalant Latitude 610 new is nearly 3x as much.

Comments and advice.

thanks in advance
Steve

 

Those specs are more than enough for your daughter's needs, though the Pentium 4 processor in it will give you poor battery life.

 

the age of that computer it might be the original battery so you might want to look into if the guy can get u a new battery or sell it to you without and just buy a new battery

 

With that kind of money you can find new AMD or Celeron laptop with much better HD space and stuff like that.

 

And I don't think she'll be happy with SGXA for word processing (even though you can set it to XGA)

 

A used ThinkPad would be a nice choice like a T22/23. They sell them right on IBM's website with three month warranties and on ebay as well. They are very well built with the best keyboards. It weighs about 5.5 pounds and will go a little over three hours if the battery is in good shape. Then just put in a 5400RPM hard drive in and a little more memory. I just worked on a four year old T22 not too long ago. The screen was as stiff as my T42. I was putting in a 7200RPM hard drive. The performance was quite good.

 

The C640 is not a bad machine, we have a couple in our office which are approaching the end of their useful lives. They are robust, reliable and not too heavy.

I dont think the price you have been offered is that stunning, I have seen the machines on sale in the UK for £350, which is around $650, but laptops here are generally much more expensive than in the US.

On thing to look out for is wear on the screen from the keys. A couple of ours have noticable marks on the screens where the keys have been rubbing when the lid is closed. Also, the batterys have an unremarkable life-span and most of ours last for maybe 10-20 minutes before dying, so unless you want to buy a new battery, a machine which has the original battery may only be useful plugged in. A new battery isnt cheap, and on top of the $650 you would already have paid you are getting close to buying a nicer new machine.

S.