Should I Buy Used Laptop?

I've been offered an IBM Laptop 770E with the following:
-IBM 770E Laptop, fully functional excellent condition.
-PII 266 w/168megs ram
-2 batteries, one is pretty much new, the other holds 100% charge
-A/C Adaptor to charge up batteries
-3COM PCMCIA Ethernet Card (to connect you to the internet)
-Extrenal Floppy Drive - perfect condition
-1x USB 1.0
-CD player 24x
-AC Adaptor is included, also charges the batteries
-External Mouse included
Would this computer be good for surfing the internet, mainly going to children sites like Sesame Street and playing children's games. Basically would you recommend this system for basic use or should I save my money and get something better. He's asking $200.
Any information, suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

It's a little on the high side (not much). Used laptops usually go for between $0.50 and $0.75/MHz. Especially in the case of one that's at least 6-7 years old.

Also keep in mind that while it may just be "Children's Sites" that is where you're going to run into tons of flash and animation, especially when you want to start playing the games.

You also don't mention which OS it's running but I would wager W95-W98SE. Somewhere in that range. Lots of stuff out there just isn't compatible anymore.

There was a thread around here somewhere where a couple folks were offering to give away old laptops.

-F

That's a decent deal for a good, basic, computer that is fully usable for what you want. I have almost the exact same basic setup as my home PC (IBM Thinkpad 390E 300Mhz, 128MB ram, Win98), and I've found no real reason to upgrade it. Its performance is just fine as it still does everything I need a home computer for (home email, letter writing, Internet browsing, digital picture storage, and Quicken). I've never run into non-compatibility issues, and honestly I think the older OS is not as targeted by the latest viruses. I don't do digital music or video, and I use my work laptop for PowerPoint or anything else approaching heavy duty use.

A bit of price premium is justified by the fact that you're talking about an IBM Thinkpad which I think is the gold standard in laptop durability and longevity. But when you're talkin' pnly $200 bucks anyway, if you overpay by $25 to 50, no big deal.

Good luck,

Dave

Samoan - It has Windows 98se, thanks for the $0.50 - $0.75/MHz estimate. Price is now at $150.

avusblue - Your computer requirements sound to be the same as mine, but Samoan does bring up a good point that children's site will be more graphic intensive...

Searching the Net, the 770E Thinkpad still has a cost of about $350-$400 for refurbished units.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I used to have an IBM laptop (133mhz P1) and that thing was amazingly stable even though it ran win98. Out of the few years that I had it, it only went blue screen a few times. I have my current laptop, a Toshiba with Centrino 1.4ghz and win xp for like a year and it gave me more blue screens already. IBM laptops are not exactly the bang for the buck type, but I still recommend it if you can afford one.

Children's online games and web sites tend to use big, chunky graphics in primary colors. The ones I've run across don't need too much horsepower. There are tons of children's games that run properly on win98.

I use a PII 300Mhz when traveling. It works fine, especially if attached to a good network.

Games played by older kids and teens, on the other hand, can become extremely demanding. My son told me his 64 meg video card was not powerful enough for his newest game. I pointed out that his first computer had 64K for the whole computer. We both laughed.

Daniel

[ QUOTE ]
gadget_lover said:
Children's online games and web sites tend to use big, chunky graphics in primary colors. The ones I've run across don't need too much horsepower. There are tons of children's games that run properly on win98.


[/ QUOTE ]
That's good to hear... I need to look at some current children's software and see if this laptop will meet the minimum requirements.

6p - what do you mean by going "blue"? Is this something that only happens on laptops? This will be my first laptop.

[ QUOTE ]
Darkcobra said:
6p - what do you mean by going "blue"? Is this something that only happens on laptops? This will be my first laptop.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was referring to the Blue Screen of Death on windows /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Too bad, you will have to run children's software on it, otherwise you can install linux on it. It's great for old machines.

[ QUOTE ]
avusblue said:
I have almost the exact same basic setup as my home PC (IBM Thinkpad 390E 300Mhz, 128MB ram, Win98), and I've found no real reason to upgrade it. Its performance is just fine as it still does everything I need a home computer for (home email, letter writing, Internet browsing, digital picture storage, and Quicken). I've never run into non-compatibility issues, and honestly I think the older OS is not as targeted by the latest viruses. I don't do digital music or video, and I use my work laptop for PowerPoint or anything else approaching heavy duty use.


[/ QUOTE ]

Similar experience here. Our home PC (Dell) runs a PII 550 Mhz with 384 MB RAM, and has a 16 MB video card. It works just fine for every-day use and even for the higher-end games my son is starting to play. IBM's will last forever...

So it sounds like its a good buy and will be good for my needs.
Thanks everyone

Get it if that is all you can afford and you aren't planning on doing anything intensive like games or photoshop and being in a hurry at the same time.
Consider this, however.
You can get a new Dell laptop that runs faster with more RAM for $700-900 depending on warranty and addons.
These cheap Dells aren't the best, but they are superior to the IBM you mentioned.

T.

Sounds like a good deal to me. I use to shop for one at computer renassian andman, they want just as much for a used one that they want for a new one. I just walk off and got a new name brand unit.

Hah! My home 'puter is an AMD K5-166mhz with 48M Ram and running win95 SP2.

It won't do Java anything. But otherwise does all I require of it albeit a bit slowly.

We got my sister an older Dell Laptop with as I recall a 266 and 128 ram running 98.

I sure like my desktop better!

One last thing for me to add.
If using an older system please keep in mind that Win 95, 98 = not secure.
If you're planning on using a computer on the internet, those OS's aren't supported by microsoft (I believe), and don't have security patches available.
You might not get into trouble "out there", but running anything other than XP or XPsp2 is asking for trouble...

IMHO.
TK

For 150 bucks that sounds like a great deal, anything more and I would opt for something newer. The only laptop that I own currenty is a toshiba T-1200 , it's a blazing 8086 powered machine , I belive the speed was a whole 4mhz!
It was given to Me and I belive it has a value of 0.0 dollors.
My oldest "in use" computer is a home built system, PIII at 600mhz, 512meg ram and running win xp. I had run win ME for allmost 4 years with out any magor problem, that OS only gave Me crap when I got DSL. It's not capable of playing most current high end games due to it's lack of pixel shading and slow cpu speed. But it does every thing else and thats why I kept it after building My current system.

Thanks for the added information.
I'm still deciding, my gut feeling says to save the money and get a new one, but I can't see spending $700-$900 on a nicer laptop that my 3 1/2 year old son will just spill milk on. We've got a "family" computer that has most of the bells and whistle, but the office table and chair isn't the best for my son.....

Again, decisions, decisions

Well... if it is a "toy/tool" for your child, it would probably make more sense to by a cheap Dell desktop for $300-400 and replace the keyboard if he spills his milk on it... or puts mac and cheese fingers on it like my 2 year old daughter...
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
T

Well, I think I'm going to buy the laptop maybe next week. Found out that simple children's games will run on this system supposedly without any problems.
It will get my son away from my computer and he can do as he wish with his laptop. Plus I'm sure it will be able to handle digi pics and Emailing when on vacation trips.

tech - luckily VCR's are on its way out, I'm getting tired of opening up mines only to find that it won't work because there is a DVD in it, Hot Wheels and paper stuffed in it. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad71.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif