Notebook Satellite Tecra

How To Choose A Pre-owned Toshiba Laptop Part One

Thinking of buying a second hand Toshiba Laptop?

Most Toshiba Laptops are well made, durable, are high quality, proven reliably and packed with many features!

First of all you need to establish some criteria for selecting your new purchase.

• Your Budget
• What the machine is going to be used for
• Features required
• Battery Life
• Internet ready
• Condition
• Warranty

Your Budget

Working only to a budget is a good way to buy, but you can miss out on much better machines unless you read the following.

Work out realistically what you have to spend on a selected machine and compare prices either on the Internet or off it.

Your aim here is to get the best possible machine for the money available to you.

A typical pitfall here is to look at the cheapest machine on offer in a given situation and then comparing it to a more modern machine, you cannot realistically compare more modern machines with older machines unless the sales pricing is virtually equal then you can include higher spec machines.

If laptop purchase price is to far away from your budget then work within the suggestions above.

If your working on the upper end of the budget spectrum, around 375-650GBP(400USD~750USD) then here are the best bargains available, but generally speaking most purchases will be from 90GBP-250GBP (100USD~300USD) within the Second hand Toshiba Laptop sector.

Always work to you budget and do your research before you buy.

What Your machine is going to be used for

That is a very overlooked topic, when pruchasing the next Toshiba record just what the machine will probably be used by, if its for erogenous use then see below to give an example.

* Word processing
* Emailing occasionally
* The odd download occasionally
* Wireless
* Machine will be static and glued permanently
* Basic Internet browsing, viewing websites
* Educational and Homework duties
* Occasional DVD films and program installs

.... this is usually a typical classification of an machine that requires relatively light duties, it isn't destined to be used very often or moved frequently, and judging form the requirements fits a children's or very early teens homework machine. Possible recommend the following due to this task

* High-end PIII machine for instance a Toshiba Sat 1100, Sat 1000s/3000z (you simply must buy a cardbus WIFI card) or a Toshiba Sat 4600 (WIFI internal),Tecra 9000 series(built in WIFI and Bluetooth) or a Sat Pro 6000 (with WIFI built-in).
* Cheap to Mid-range P4 Celeron for instance a Toshiba Sat 1110, Sat Pro 1130,(both cardbus WIFI required) Sat Pro 6050(PIII1200 inc internal WIFI), Tecra 9100(P4 inbuilt WIFI), Sat S1900 but more pricey.
* Average Prices only 80GBP up to about 175GBP (95USD~200USD)

Another example

* Photo shop capability
* DVD and CDR writing
* Web site design
* Very light gaming (is dependent upon the games requirement)
* Flash graphics work
* Some DTP work
* WIFI capable
* Does it need to be that portable? battery questions?

These types is very while in the mid to luxury second-hand bracket, Minimum spec here might be a P4 2.8Gig/3.2Gig machine, large screen 15.4" or 15" may be a requirement, as it is a 32M /64M ATI/NVidia graphics solution (as being a minimum amount), and can be essential for Photo shop. I would recommend a product with no less than a least of 768M but 1Gig or higher is best due to this style of work, 60gig minimum disk space and a minimum of three UBD ports. To sum this machine may just be for any undergraduate trying to find a powerful cheap design machine or a semi professional DTP user.

* Toshiba Satellite P20/25 Series P4 machines (were originally Multimedia/lifestyle machines)
* Toshiba Tecra M10 series centrino with 64M Nvidia graphics solutions
* Toshiba Tecra M3 Series Centrino with Nvidia graphics solutions (though a smaller 14.1" screen)
* Toshiba Sat M40 Centrino (533Mhz bus) 15.4 wide screen display  (M30 unsuitable but cheaper)
* Toshiba Sat A60 P4 2.6 or higher (do not buy the celeron version) 15" screen
* Toshiba Sat M60 Series are certainly good Luxury Centrinos which has a 15.4" screen
* Prices form a Low 165GBP to 280GBP (180~310USD) determined by condition and spec

and ultimately another example

* EBay usage
* Web browsing
* Office 2003 or over
* Accounts packages
* WIFI and WAN and LAN capable
* 2xUSB
* Good Battery essential
* Reasonably small footprint size and not below a 13.3" display
* Good Keyboard quality
* Weight under 2.5Kg

This is the classic business machine setup, We would only recommend Centrinos with this style of work mainly because the device contains a dependence on being utilized out of the office and from a mains supply for most durations and Centrino's are a lot easier more power efficient and may be controlled better, than say a P4, Older Celeron P4's and PIII machines won't have a view in here. In addition to the heat given of from centrino's much easier below say an increased end P4 3Gig machine, at least if you must utilize it on the lap you are able to with out them becoming a fire hazard!

Interestingly some Centrino Duo machines receive the picture because well. Wide screen or very big screens at not required because the user will spend time using word processors, browsing emails, using spreadsheets, and will probably benefit from utilizing a smaller machine than lugging around quite a big machine from a 15.4" upwards.

Also in the flooring buisingess world it's important to consider not simply carrying the laptop but any forms and accessories likewise, with really big laptops this is usually a big disadvantage. Another criteria is a nice keyboard action or perhaps a machine that includes a good qaulity keyboard that's well laid out and has some palm rest space to nap their hands on while in contant use.

* Toshiba Tecra M2 Series machines which has a 14.1" screen along with a Combo drive in the event you really need to burn data.
* Toshiba Sat L10 and L20 Machines (but only after its been upgraded into a centrino) celerons aren't up to it.
* Toshiba M5 (Centrino Duo) however, not many around 14.1"
* Toshiba Tecra S1 Series their 15" and 14.1" machines.
* Toshiba Satellite M50 Machine 14.1 windscreen a great machine for this kind of work
* Prices from about 160GBP approximately 220GBP (180USD~290USD) should have some you good machines

I haven't really mentioned gaming, for the reason that is that often most resale machines can be extremely not up to the duty, despite what some dealers will tell you (unless your playing early games), most very recent games require very strict hardware specifications which really signifies that its outside of most peoples budget, second is if you don't spend at least £1000GBP(1500USD) you simply won't get yourself a laptop that is competent at running very modern games. Easier to obtain a game console or purchase a luxury PC at half the price of a very high end laptop and a minimum of you may upgrade it as being your business develops.

I would like to appreciate reading this far along with Part Two we are exploring the next section- Features required

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