First Time Laptop Buyer by David Perlmutter

So, you have decided you wish to purchase a laptop computer. You visited the Dell site and the HP site and the various laptop options seem expensive and confusing.
So, step back a moment and think about your computing needs. If your laptop is for your summer home and will only be used an hour here and there for a few months or if it will sit in your extra bedroom and get minimal us ... e-mail and browsing the web, then you don't need the latest and greatest.
Decide what applications you will be running. E-Mail and browsing are included with the Operating System, but word processing and spreadsheet are usually not. Microsoft Word often must be purchased separately and is expensive.
* word processing
Requires minimal CPU, since you cannot type faster than a very old Pentium 90. * e-mail
Requires a minimal CPU, minimal RAM and the connection speed does not matter, unless you are sending or receiving very large files (photos). * browsing web pages
Requires minimal CPU, 64MB RAM performs ok, but 128MB better. The speed you are connecting to the Internet is more important than the speed of the CPU. 56K modems are slow and DSL or cable are at least ten times faster). * gaming
You should review the Minimum Systems Requirements of the games you play the most. Some games require a very fast CPU (2 GHz, lots of RAM (maybe 2GB) and a specialized graphics chip. * music
Music does not require much in the way of computing resources. The amount of storage depends upon how many songs you have. The average song takes about 5MB, so 300 songs would be 1.5GB. Most people do not listen regularly to more than 300 songs? * on-line shopping
This in essence is just like browsing the web. You should have at least 128MB. The CPU is not as important as your connection speed (56K modem is much slower than DSL or Cable). * a database application or personal finance
Simple database applications like Goldmine or other sales applications do not usally need much in the way of CPU or Hard Drive space. Again check the Minimum Systems Requirments of your application. A very complex or large database (like Quickbooks) might need a large hard drive and a very fast CPU.
An important factor is your communications link to the Internet if you intend on going online. 56K modems are slow by todays standards and cable or DSL are much faster. It is also quite easy and inexpensive to add wi-fi if you have cable or DSL and a wi-fi card can be added inexpensively to most laptops.
If you do not have an Internet Service Provider you need to sign up for one. Many people choose the local telephone company or go with a national service, like AOL or EarthLink.
If the laptop will mostly stay in one place, then the size is not that important. If you will be moving it around a lot then check out both the size and perhaps the battery life. Some of the newer laptop can hold a charge for five or six hours, but it various considerable and you need to carefully check the specifications and how they determine the charge time.
Last, maybe first, figure out your budget and how long you will keep the laptop and how much use it will get. Spending $1000 might make sense if you us it 2-3 hours every day and will keep it three years. That is $3.00 a day, which seems very inexpensive for a valued tool. On the other hand if the budget is $300 and you are only browsing the web and doing e-mail then an older refurbished laptop would be fine.
Search google for "used laptops" or "refurbished laptops" and check out the companies that seem credible.