I'm trying to help a friend who's in university and needs an inexpensive notebook computer. I'm a Mac user, so I don't know a lot about Windows hardware and don't have much experience with laptops in general. And I'm not in Thailand at the moment, either, so I don't have any sense of the prices.

How much would you expect to pay for, say, a cheap 2-year old used or refurbished maschine? What sort of specs would you expect to get for around 12-15 thousand Baht?

She's been offered a Dell Latitude Pentium 2, 366 Mhz, 192 MB RAM, 6GB HDD for 11,000 Baht. Is this an OK deal, or could she do better? I have a feeling that machine must be at least 4 years old and battery life may be an issue. Aside from Panthip and Fortune Town, what would be good sources for good deals in used machines? And what stores in those centres would you recommend?

Thanks for any help of tips.

Used notebooks can be a bit more of a problem than used desktops... for desktops, if anything's broken, you just replace the broken part. For a notebook, it's not so simple, since many things are stuck there and other things are proprietary (and not sold anymore).

For that price, you can get a new desktop. The specs aren't enough to run winxp, too... could run linux ok.

Cheapest reasonable notebook I could find, new, was around 26k.

I think you need arround 20 K

My old siemens has arround the same spec. and it is 5 years old (I think).

these spec. are to low (beside for Linux) at least 256 MB Ram and a faster (newer) HD.

As well battery life. On my oldie the batteries last for approx. 2 seconds now, and I can not find spare parts (even the parts inside are too expensive).

A second hand laptop purchase needs also some luck.

I'm trying to help a friend who's in university and needs an inexpensive notebook computer. I'm a Mac user, so I don't know a lot about Windows hardware and don't have much experience with laptops in general. And I'm not in Thailand at the moment, either, so I don't have any sense of the prices.

How much would you expect to pay for, say, a cheap 2-year old used or refurbished maschine? What sort of specs would you expect to get for around 12-15 thousand Baht?

She's been offered a Dell Latitude Pentium 2, 366 Mhz, 192 MB RAM, 6GB HDD for 11,000 Baht. Is this an OK deal, or could she do better? I have a feeling that machine must be at least 4 years old and battery life may be an issue. Aside from Panthip and Fortune Town, what would be good sources for good deals in used machines? And what stores in those centres would you recommend?

Thanks for any help of tips.

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I saw it in Panthip a few days ago: 10,000 Baht, white PowerBook G3, 500 mhz, 3 years old, very good condition.

Newton computers (Apple distributor), 3rd floor Panthip plaza, room 319

I saw it in Panthip a few days ago: 10,000 Baht, white PowerBook G3, 500 mhz, 3 years old, very good condition.

Newton computers (Apple distributor), 3rd floor Panthip plaza, room 319

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Well, if were me I'd get a Mac any day, but I think she needs a Windoze machine unfortunately. Anybody else with some tips?

Check 5th Floor of Pantip, You can sure get a better deal for 10-15 K... avoid P2(diff to get upgrades) and go for a new celeron second hand which gives u some 1Gz,256 ddr, 40gb with dvd combo for 13-15K.. i saw some bulky dell p4 for 16K or so... do chk it out

Edited July 8, 200520 yr by majush