Looking for old laptops

[cagenuts]

Where are you?

I may have some here at my office.

[irneb]

I'd be very skeptical of old second-hand laptops. They'd probably have some faulty hardware somewhere - which needs replacing. So you're actually looking for refurbished laptops, unless you'd like to "fix" them yourself. For refurbished, you'd never get anything much cheaper than the cheap new laptops - otherwise they'd not have refurbed it in the first place.

There's a further problem with old laptops: Compatibility of components. Usually with PC's the components are interchangeable to a degree (e.g. RAM chips, CPU's, grapics, etc.) - though you do get some variations (especially between different eras of computing). These differences are much greater and much more likely in laptops however - thus the chances are slim that components from one laptop would fit into another. You'd need to get 2 which are very similar indeed before you might expect such interchangeability.

There's another alternative (since your requirements are so small). I've read about a new motherboard somewhere - or rather extremely micro motherboard with built-in graphics, cpu & ram. It's supposed to be used as a hobbyist "pc". I think it's manufactured (or at least designed) in the UK. Just can't remember the name in order to do a google for you. But as far as I can remember it was dirt-cheap (around R100-R200) and had something like 512MB RAM and a 1.2 GHz single core CPU, some micro USB connectors and a micro-Video connector (can't remember if it was HDMI/DVI/VGA).

I suppose your biggest problem is the screen - old LCDs are rather error riddled as that tech was quite new at the time and dead pixels would be the norm rather than the exception. And I've not seen an old CRT in years.

I do have an old Laptop which I'll PM you about if you're interested. Perhaps advertising on something like Gumtree or so BidOrBuy - though the prices I see there would put you in line of my original suggestion.

[Mike Simmonds]

Try Partserve they do refurbished HP laptops from R 1599 ex VAT. http://www.partserve.co.za/computers...s-displays.php

[Justloadit]

There's another alternative (since your requirements are so small). I've read about a new motherboard somewhere - or rather extremely micro motherboard with built-in graphics, cpu & ram. It's supposed to be used as a hobbyist "pc". I think it's manufactured (or at least designed) in the UK. Just can't remember the name in order to do a google for you. But as far as I can remember it was dirt-cheap (around R100-R200) and had something like 512MB RAM and a 1.2 GHz single core CPU, some micro USB connectors and a micro-Video connector (can't remember if it was HDMI/DVI/VGA).

Yes what you are referring to is this Raspberry PC. I know he will have stock in the very near future.

[tec0]

MB-i2500CCR Intel innovation series d2500CC Canoe Creak Mini-iTX Mob with Integrated Intel Atom D2500 dual-core CPU



This is not to bad?

Sadly a bit of a gamble as I simply don’t know if the integrated GPU is powerful enough. Maybe worth a look?

Also have a look at this TS16GMSA300 Transcend mSATA MLC SSD Drive - 16GB

or

TS8GHSD310 Transcend 8GB 2.5" SATA Half-Slim SSD Drive

Not to bad for that small OS and so on...

[tec0]

It is an extremely small device that offers a good resolution and Graphics acceleration/rendering. However of what I can understand it might well be OS sensitive but the OS seems to be development friendly and a touch screen interface will soon be supported that will make it really versatile.

It uses a standard power-supply "mobile charger as seen on YouTube" and supports HDMI so one can expect good resolutions.
Here is the catch, despite the redundancy of the device SD cards is notoriously famous for crashing and overheating. So I would recommend a bench first.

I would love to know the cost of such a device as I can Identify many uses for it.

[tec0]

I did some more research on the device and it can actually run Quake 3 on reasonable graphics and speed. So I am supper impressed!!! I hope to get my hands on one soon and test it. If it is reliable and stable on the tests I am planning for it I see a real improvement in the mobile device market. Finally a device that we can play with…

[tec0]

Possible cost of aRaspberry Pi.

I still don’t have an official price or anything like that but it seems it will be much cheaper than most solutions out there...

[tec0]

I did send a request to the supplier about the Raspberry and nothing… I understand that most businesses are closed over the long weekend but not even an automated reply. And so it brings all kinds of questions.

Is the Raspberry actually available?
Will it even have a guarantee/warranty?

Sadly we will never know… So much for a good thing…

[tec0]

raspberry pi

Followup; Did anyone actually find someone that sells these devices?