Cheap laptops are available online and at some amazing prices too. There are also some rebates available that make nice laptops, cheap laptops. If you are in the market for a computer, you might as well look at cheap laptops. Cheap laptops take up much less room than a desktop computer and now cost less. Cheap laptops used to be inferior to regular laptops but now cheap laptops are good laptops but with a cheap price tag and not cheap hardware. Cheap laptops used to be made only by some off the wall manufacturer like emachines but now Dell makes cheap laptops, HP makes cheap laptops, Compaq also makes some cheap laptops. Most large computer manufacturers are making cheap laptops today. All you have to do is search around for cheap laptops and then buy it.

Cheap Laptops - where to look

Cheap laptops are pretty easy to find especially online. I have not seen too many cheap laptops at any of the computer stores locally. It seems the best deals on cheap laptops is through online stores where they sell cheap laptops in volume or at wholesale prices. Online shopping is so competitive that stores are forced to sell cheap laptops at unbelievable prices. You can save hundreds of dollars shopping online for cheap laptops. There are cheap laptops as low as $299 at some online stores. Now this is really cheap! There are also some rebates on older models of cheap laptops. You can get an extra savings of up to $100 on some laptops. The key to getting the best cheap laptop is to shop around and see what makes and models are on sale. Always make sure you compare the hardware specs on the cheap laptops to be sure you are comparing apples to apples. Advancing technology has enabled laptop manufacturers to build cheap laptops that work well and last a long time.

Cheap laptops are the biggest sellers for computer stores online. These computer wholesale stores make money on cheap laptops by selling in volume. Some cheap laptops may be older models that are being discontinued. These laptops are brand new and work perfectly and are priced extremely cheap. You will find the best deals on cheap laptops in the right column of this blog. Check out some cheap HP or Compaq or Dell laptops now.

Many people ask me, “What laptop should I buy?”  I’m a computer technician and I always seem to get asked this question and for good reason. I fix laptops and desktop computers for a living. I know which laptops and desktops break most often and which computer manufacturer provides the best computer support service.

Since most laptop and desktop computer manufacturers use the same brand computer hardware, it’s safe to say that you can buy a good laptop or desktop computer from any major computer companies like Dell, HP, Compaq, IBM, Toshiba, etc. They all use pretty much the same brand name computer hardware inside the computer. The big difference is the model of the laptop or desktop computer. This is where you need to take note when buying a laptop or desktop computer. If you buy the low budget/cheapest model of any brand laptop or computer, it will not perform well and certainly won’t last long. You will most likely have problems with a budget laptop or desktop computer. Budget laptops and desktop computers are cheap for a reason. The computer hardware inside the computer is of low quality. This is why they are so cheap. Quality computer components cost more and perform better and last longer.

I highly recommend you buy the most expensive laptop or desktop computer you can afford. Decide how much you can afford to spend on a laptop or desktop computer and then spend all of it. If you can afford the top-of-the-line laptop or desktop computer, then buy one. You will be very happy with its performance and it will be trouble free for years. The higher end laptops and desktop computers are built with better quality computer hardware. Top-of-the-line computer hardware is expensive because they are built with quality materials and are tested and inspected. The high quality computer hardware performs faster and with more stability than cheap computer hardware. Nothing is worse than buying a cheap laptop or desktop computer to save a few bucks and then have problems with it or it runs really slow. Now you have a brand new laptop or desktop computer that doesn’t work for you and so you basically wasted your money. You’ll end up very frustrated with a cheap laptop or cheap desktop computer. Save yourself a lot of headaches and buy a really nice high-end laptop or desktop computer. Not only will the laptop or desktop computer look nice and have lots of features but it will also perform extemely well.

Secret to buying a new laptop or desktop computer - Buy the most expensive laptop or desktop  computer you can afford.

Is your laptop or desktop computer slow? Does it take a while to launch applications? Does the boot up time seems endless?

The single most effective way to increase your laptop or desktop computer’s performance is to add system memory or RAM. System memory is used to store program instructions after it is read from your hard drive. It is extremely fast but is limited in capacity whereas your computer’s hard drive is slow but has a huge storage capacity. If your laptop or desktop computer had the same amount of system memory as hard drive space, your laptop or desktop computer would always be lightening fast. Since computers cannot use that much system memory, we have to make due with a lot less, usually 512MB to 2 GB of RAM. The best option to increase your laptop or desktop computer performance is to put the maximum amount of system memory in it. If your laptop or desktop computer will hold 2 gigabytes of system memory then buy 2 GB memory and install it. Your computer will run much faster. You will be surprised how much of a difference this will make.

Computer Hardware Upgrades

What kind of RAM or system memory do I need? This depends on the motherboard in your laptop or desktop computer. You will need to look at the documentation that came with your laptop or desktop computer or look at one of the memory modules in your system. Sometime the memory modules will have a sticker on them that identities which type of memory it is. You can also search the web for your laptop or desktop computer make and model. This will help you find out what type of memory it has. It’s pretty easy.

Be careful to identify how many memory modules you need and what size. If your laptop or desktop computer has 2 memory DIMMs or slots and the maximum capacity is 2 gigabytes, then you need to buy 2 memory modules that are 1 gigabyte each. If you have 4 memory DIMMs or slots then you will need to buy 4 memory modules that are 512 megabytes each. You should fill all of the slots but not go over the maximum capacity.

Computer Hardware Brands

What brand of memory should I buy? Buy a name brand like Corsair, Kingston, Crucial or Mushkin. Buy the best that you can afford. You won’t regret it.

System memory or RAM is very easy to install. There are 2 clips on each end of the DIMM. Push the clips outward to release the memory module. Push the new memory module into the slot until the clips snap in place. When your computer boots up it will register the new memory and your system will run much faster.

It is very easy to upgrade computer hardware in a laptop or desktop computer.

Internet Explorer 7 caches a lot of files on your computers local drive while you are surfing. Over time this accumulates and can cause problems. If you experience Internet Explorer crashes on your laptop or desktop computer, it may be caused by some of the files it caches. Here are a few tips to prevent issues with Internet Explorer 7 on your desktop computer.

• Delete cookies
• Delete Temporary Internet Files
• Delete History
• Delete saved passwords
• Delete web form information

Here is how to perform this maintenance on a laptop or desktop computer.

• Open Internet Explorer 7.
• Click on the Tools drop down menu
• Click on Internet Options
• On the General tab click on the Delete button under the Browsing History

To automatically clear the temporary Internet files, go to the Advanced tab and scroll down to the Security section and check Empty Temporary Files folder when is closed. This will stop the accumulation of files and possible problems on your laptop or desktop computer.

Tired of Microsoft’s Windows operating systems? Want something more stable but easy to use? What about Free?

Fedora is one flavor of the Linux operating system that can be used on any laptop or desktop computer. It’s a robust, secure, stable, user friendly, free and full featured operating system. It’s very easy to install and use on a ordinary laptop or desktop computer. There are tons of computer software written for it also. It has drivers for most computer hardware and so it is easy to install and configure. I’ve played with Linux for years and really love Fedora 8.

Fedora’s user interface (desktop) is beautiful and first class. Its menu system is logical and streamlined. You can use Mozilla’s Firefox browser and Thunderbird mail client on Fedora. You can also download and install OpenOffice’s suite of applications which includes:

• Writer - word processing

• Impress - presentations

• Math -mathematical equation editor

• Draw - graphics

• Calc - spreadsheet

• Base - database

Fedora is extremely stable on laptops and desktop computers and does not crash like Microsoft Windows. It’s much more secure and will not be threatened by viruses and worms written for Windows. Did I mention that it’s FREE and it runs really well and fast on any laptop or desktop computer?

The installation is very simple because Fedora will detect most computer hardware out there. You simply download the ISO file to your home computer, use a CD or DVD burning application to burn an image to disk. After the burn is complete restart your laptop or desktop computer with the CD/DVD in the drive. Make sure the computer BIOS is set to boot to the CD/DVD drive before the C drive. Your laptop or desktop computer will boot to the image disk and start the installation. You will be prompted throughout the installation for configuration information. It’s really simple. Fedora comes with quite a few useful applications. You should be all set.

Fedora Project

Any desktop or laptop computer will run ten times better with Linux than windows. Try Linux on your laptop or desktop computer today.

Firefox and Thunderbird from Mozilla.

Firefox 2 is an award winning web browser from Mozilla. It’s fast, secure and totally customizable and it’s absolutely FREE. Enjoy your experience browsing the web with some really cool features.

• Tab browsing - open web sites or links in a new tab in the existing browser window. You don’t need multiple browser windows open anymore. Tab browsing is awesome.
• Spell Checking - Firefox 2 has a built in spell checker
• Search Suggestions - search engines in Firefox can almost read your mind and suggest searches for you.
• Session Restore -if Firefox has to restart for any reason, it will ask if you would like to restore the session exactly as you left it.
• Web Feeds - Firefox allows you to subscribe to rss feeds. You can view them right in the browser.
• Live Titles -updated summaries of the most important information on the web
• Integrated Search - Firefox’s search bar comes preloaded with search engines
• Pop Up Blocker - blocks ads from popping up automatically
• Phishing Protection - Firefox will warn you when it suspects a phishing threat
• Automated updates - Firefox updates itself automatically
• Protection from Spyware - Firefox will not allow spyware to be installed
• Clear Private Info - Firefox offers the ability to clear all private data with one click
• Customize Browser - over 1000 add-ons
• Search Engine Manager - add, remove and re-order search engines

Download Mozilla Firefox
Thunderbird

Thunderbird 2 is an advanced, sophisticated email client with security and flexibility. It has countless features.

• Advanced folder views - favorites, recently viewed or containing unread mail
• Message Tagging - tag message with “To Do” or “Done” or whatever
• Message History Navigation - go back or forward through messages
• Improved Search - find as you type
• Saved Searches - Save your popular searches
• Easy Access to Web Mail Services - use various web mail accounts from one inbox
• Phishing Protection - stops phishing
• Robust Privacy - blocks remote images automatically
• Junk Mail Filtering - automatically filters junk mail
• Automatic Updates
• Customization - 100’s of add-ons, templates, themes and extensions

Download it at Mozilla Thunderbird

OpenOffice is a suite of office applications that is free to download. The suite includes Writer, Impress, Math, Draw, Calc and Base. This is the equivalent to MS Office Premium except for the $300. OpenOffice runs on any platform such as Windows, Mac or Linux. It’s open source.

Writer: Writer is the word processing application and can do everything Word can including opening .doc files and saving files in any Word format.

Impress: Impress is the presentation application and the equivalent of PowerPoint. It’s perfect for creating slide shows and presentations.

Calc: Calc is a spreadsheet application resembling Excel. Calc is very intuitive and easy to learn. Number crunchers will love this one.

Draw: Draw is a powerful graphics program that enables you to do anything graphical from a simple sketch to a complex plan.

Base: Base enables you to manipulate database data seamlessly within OpenOffice.org. You can create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports. You can use your own database or Base’s own built-in HSQL database engine. You have a choice of using Wizards, Design Views, or SQL Views for beginners, intermediate, and advanced users.

Math: Math is OpenOffice’s equation component. It is most often used as an equation editor for text documents.

OpenOffice is an incredible product that gives you the same look and feel no matter which program you’re using. Write, Base, Impress, Draw all have the same look, making you more productive and comfortable.

Check it out. OpenOffice.org

System Mechanic from iolo is an excellent tool that can repair problems, speed up your computer, clean ip the Windows operating system, provide security and privacy and customize your Windows environment. It’s an amazing product that works really well. I have personally used System Mechanic on my home computers and even a few Windows 2000 servers. It cleans up the registry in a snap which speeds up the operating system. Here are some of the problems System Mechanc can take care of.

Repairs:

• Repairs registry problems
• Repairs hard drive problems
• Emergency CD revives downed systems
• Fixes or removes bad shortcuts
• Automatically and proactively maintains your computer

Speeds up your computer:

• High speed, single-file, and low-level drive defragment
• Automatically accelerates computer startup 19 different ways
• Increases Internet speeds up to 300%
• Defragments and recovers memory in real time
• Defragments and compacts Registry

Clean up Windows

• Cleans up over 40 different types of junk files
• Removes invalid programs and uninstallers
• Wipes Internet clutter, history, and cache

Security

• Advanced spyware/adware protection
• Repairs security vulnerabilities
• Military standard (DOD) secure file wiping
• Automatically blocks undesirable or dangerous programs and configuration changes
• Erases browser, Microsoft Office and search history

Windows customization and Reports

• Customize hundreds of hidden Windows settings
• Detailed system configuration reports
• Full undo capability with historical logs

System Mechanic is a must have for any home computer user with little or no technical skills. It’s easy to install and use and is highly effective.

There are many reasons while a computer may be performing poorly. Here are some of them.

• Virus infection
• Adware
• Spyware
• Programs running on startup
• Operating system is “bloated”
• Fragmented hard drive
• Low on system memory
• System is overheating

How do we fix these?

Virus Infections - Antivirus protection is a must for any computer. All anti-virus programs are pretty effective in stopping and removing virus infections. However you must keep them updated. I recommend you turn on the auto-update feature. This will notify you or update the anti-virus program automatically. Trend Micro, McAfee, Symantec and AVG are all very good. AVG is free and very effective. Trend Micro has an online house call virus scan for those of you that do not have a anti-virus program. Run virus scans weekly. If you can schedule scans when you are not using the computer, the scan will not interfere with your computer time. Viruses will slow your computer down and harm the operating system. Get rid of them!

Adware/Spyware -This is the most common computer problem. Adware and Spyware have become an epidemic on the Internet. They are found everywhere. I have seen computers infected so badly with adware and spyware that they were rendered useless. You could not even launch an application or move the mouse. With manifestations of this magnitude I recommend formating the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system and applications. If your computer has a factory system restore, by all means run it. There are a few Adware/Spyware removing programs available that will do a pretty good job removing any malware. Ad Aware, Windows Defender and Spybot work pretty well and will remove most if not all of the adware/spyware on your computer. Some of the anti-virus software will also remove adware and spyware.

Programs running on startup - When some programs are installed, they add a shortcut to startup. This tells Windows to run this program every time it starts up. The program will run in the background and consume CPU time and system memory. This will slow your computer down. How do you stop this?

• Click on the Start button
• Select Programs
• Select Startup
• Remove unnecessary shortcuts

Operating System is “bloated” - This is typical Microsoft Windows phenomenon that occurs over time or when too many applications have been installed. The operating system registry gets larger and larger as time goes by and when you install applications. The operating system starts to slow down and run less efficiently. You can uninstall any applications that you do not use and see if that helps. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. The best remedy for this situation is to reinstall the operating system or do a factory system restore. The system will run as if it were just taken out of the box. Just like new!

Fragmented Hard Drive - When an operating system writes and deletes files, the files may become fragmented. Fragmentation occurs when a file is broken in pieces and written to disk. When this occurs it slows down system performance because the hard drive heads must read two or more pieces of data for one file. You can use the Windows Defragment utility to remedy this situation. You can find the defragment utility by:

• Right click on My Computer
• Select Manage
• Click on Disk Defragmenter
• Select the partition you wish to defragment
• Click on Analyze
• After the Analysis is complete, click on Defragment

It may take a while to defragment a large hard drive so set it aside and let it go.

Low System Memory - Inadequate system memory will cause a computer to perform poorly. If your system has less than 512 MB of RAM, then you may benefit from increasing the amount of system memory or RAM. If your computer is running low on system memory and you increase it, you will see a huge difference in performance. It’s amazing how much of a difference it will make. I would recommend 1 GB of RAM for most systems and 2 GB for Vista systems. Always buy quality components for your computer. Viking is one of the best brands of system memory (RAM). Be sure to purchase the correct type of memory for your computer. I can help you with that. Just post a comment and I’ll help you.

System is Over-heating - If you experience system freezing or locking up then your system may be over-heating. Over-heating occurs when the motherboard or CPU do not get adequate ventilation and heat transfer cannot occur. Make sure that all fans are working especially the heat sink fan. Take a good look at the heat sink. It should not be full of dirt and lint. Blow it out with a can of compressed air to remove all obstructions. Air must flow easily through the fins of the heat sink. Make sure the heat sink fan is in good working order. I also recommend that you do not keep your computer enclosed in a cabinet. It should be out in the open where there is good air circulation.

I recommend you buy one of the well know manufacturers like Compaq, HP, IBM, Sony or Dell. These reputable companies will warranty the product and provide good technical support. Technical support is very important when you run into a problem and with the today’s quality or lack of it, you will probably need technical support. Todays manufacturers bid out the manufacturing to the lowest bidder so chances are you won’t get the best quality. If you want a top quality computer, buy the top of the line model, build it yourself or have it built. But for the most part today’s computer are pretty descent. I have a Compaq Presario V3000 laptop and a HP Pavillion Slimline desktop. Both computers are reasonably priced and perform well. The Dell Precision computers are very good but they are not cheap.

Here are some tips for good performance.

• 2.0+ GHz Intel or AMD processor (not a Duron or Celeron)
• 1 GB of RAM for Windows 2000/XP
• 2 GB of RAM for Vista
• 4 + USB 2.0 ports
• DVD/CD-RW optical drive
• 120+ GB SATA hard drive (SATA is much faster than IDE)
• DVI video output (Best quality video but you need a monitor with DVI)

Want my opinion on a new computer? Just comment on this post. I would be happy to assist you with your next purchase.