economical laptop

[mark at buttery.org (Mark J. Dulcey)]

Kalyan Vaidyanathan wrote:

> Hi,
>  I'm trying to figure out the most economical way to get a functional 
> laptop.
> 
>  I've never done anything like this before, but am willing to learn.  I 
> would like to know if building one from parts is cheaper than getting a 
> regular laptop that I can upgrade over time (more RAM, bigger harddisk 
> etc.).  If building from parts, are there any recommendations of where I 
> should start from?
>  Ideally I'd like about 60GB harddisk, 512MB ram, >2GHz processor.  The 
> key requirement is a wireless network card so that I can use the laptop 
> anywhere at home.  Software, I plan to stay with linux.  I've only 
> worked with RH9.

Building a laptop completely from parts is impossible. The parts aren't 
even sold separately.

If you're looking for a low-end laptop, but want a big hard disk and 
lots of RAM, it may be more economical to upgrade those items yourself 
than to buy a laptop with them, however. Some manufacturers only offer 
the adequate hard disks with high-end systems, and pre-built retail 
laptops tend not to have enough RAM. Check online shopping sites such as 
pricewatch.com for hard disk prices.