Never had a laptop, always wanted one. Nobody would buy one for me and my parents would always threaten to kick me out of I bought a laptop. They figured if i couldnt afford to pay rent then I couldnt afford a laptop. What they dont understand is that in order for me to be able to pay rent, I need a laptop. I need to be able to do what I want to my computer without worrying about whether or not my mom can access her email through MSN Explorer (We have Windows XP and since she learned how to access her email in Windows ME, I had to download the obsolete MSN Explorer because she doesnt understand what http://www.hotmail.com means) I want to get A++ Certified and the desktop that we have at home, while I have maintained it and upgraded it to its max specs, is obsolete. A Dell Dimension 4100 from the year 2000. I have learned all I can from this proprietary system.

I just decided to grow some balls and buy myself a laptop regardless of what they think or say. Keep in mind I am 26 and live at home, so I guess they have a right to say what they say to me.

I am pretty experienced with PC's although I wouldnt call myself a guru or an expert. Truth be told, I have fallen behind in my knowledge of hardware. For the first time in my computer life, I have failed. SATA, SSD, Dual Core, Quad Core, even the P4 have passed me up. I'm stuck on a P3 1ghz with 512mb of PC133 with a 200gb ATAHD and an ATI Radeon 9200 -- Thats pretty much as high as it goes.


Long story short.

EEE PC or budget laptop as a companion to my N800

Thank you. Any recommendations on an upgradeable laptop for less than $500 (new or used) I really need to be able to mess around with the bios settings, overclock, video card upgrades, ram, anything. I have fallen out of touch, I need to get back.

You.... You wanna get A++ certified...

But you can't pick out your own laptop? This is comical.

www.newegg.com

Thank me later.

Oh, and upgradeable laptop is an oxy*****.

Walmart, January 25th - Everex Cloudbook (http://www.everex.com/). Same essential dimensions as the EEE but with a 30 GB hard drive.

Where do you get your info? You are totally wrong!! The eee is available in 2,4 & 8 gb models. I have the 770, 800, 810 & the eee 8g and I love all of them. I can't stand it when people put down something when they know nothing about it, fanboys are ridiculous. Do some research before you post false info.
To the OP, I would get an eee over a laptop if portability is your main concern, however, if you need a powerful laptop with dedicated graphics then the eee is not for you. Personally, I would get a laptop and an eee as a secondary laptop, they are cheap enough $300-500 depending on which model you get. Plus, you can add a 16gb sdhc card to the eee for only $75 and have a ton of storage. Get the eee it's great!

thank you syntra. i already knew of newegg. yes i could pick my own laptop but i was just looking for community input. so i will thank you later. to chris and billion..thank you for real information. i didnt know of the options that were available for the EEE and I had no idea that the Cloudbook was coming out so soon! As much as i hate Wallmart, I may be taking a trip there shortly.

Awesome rhetoric and personal feelings flying around here, but you've got to make the right choice for you.

You've got a few main factors to consider.

1.) Screen size. I have an EEE. I love my EEE. The screen size is small, 7 inches @ 800x480. I've got to move windows half off the screen to click 'OK' buttons and the like at the bottom. However, I'm fine with that. You can also plug the EEE into an external monitor and get higher resolutions, so for home use you might be fine with it. With laptops, the bigger the screen the bigger the unit obviously... which brings me to...

2.) Size. I have a widescreen Dell Latitude D620 as my work laptop sitting here and I'd hate to lug that thing around. It weighs a few pounds and after holding my laptop bag for an hour on the commute it hurts my shoulder. The EEE could fit into a cargo pocket and is less than 3 lbs. It's as big as a paperback book (well, a larger size one)

3.) Power. Power ain't all that it used to be. I've been using the same desktop since Feb 2004... a P4 3Ghz w/1GB Ram and a 256MB Geforce 5700TX video card. Only thing I upgraded was HD space (added a 320 gigger to the 80GB I bought it with). If you want to play high end games, don't even consider the EEE for a second. If you wanna browse the internet, play simpler games, do the whole Office suite thing, keep the EEE in the running.

4.) Usability. The EEE keyboard could be considered a form of torture if someone made you right out a 30 page thesis on it. For quick msg board posts, email, etc, it's great and does the job well. You can still plug an external USB keyboard into it for home use.

5.) Expandability. My EEE has a 4GB SSD and 512MB of RAM. I could easily upgrade to 1-2GB of ram (same as a laptop, unscrew the panel on the bottom, slap it in). Another thing the EEE offers is an SD card slot built into the machine. I have an 8GB SDHC card ($40) that I keep lots of media on. The 4GB is for installed apps (full blown Ubuntu install plus a few games like Wolfenstein Enemy Territory and I still have a gig free). So space-wise, it's not so bad.

Look at those points and see which way you lean.

I just pop in my 2 G ram from Newegg.com, will need to hack it to take the full 2G. It is under $40 USD, maybe cheaper now with the higher Can$?


bun

Computer fundamentals haven't changed in the last 15 years. A laptop isn't going to teach you anything that your parent's 8 year old desktop won't, especially not an EEE, which bears little to no resemblance to the vast majority of computer hardware in the world.

So yeah, go buy a laptop or an EEE for a toy if you want to, but your parents are right. If you can't afford to pay rent, you probably shouldn't be buying a laptop. If you want a new computer that is going to teach you A++-type stuff, build a cheap desktop with parts from newegg. If you want a good companion to your n800 for work and travel, I recommend a budget laptop.

... Ok seriously, the main difference between a laptop and an EEE aside from size and power are: Laptops don't have solid state HDDs. The EEE doesn't have PCMCIA slots or an optical drive. So far as it being a toy goes, have you used one? If you have and you stand by your opinion, I for one, think you are on crack, sir.