The first steps in successfully obtaining an inexpensive computer that you will be happy with are: 1) knowing what you need, 2) knowing what you're buying, and 3) knowing quality when you see it. This article takes the process from there to show you where to shop or how to otherwise legally acquire a cheap laptop.

As I see it, there are only a few ways of legally getting your hands on a useful Laptop. They are:

• Buy new.

• Buy refurbished.

• Buy used.

• Ask friends and relatives for laptops they no longer want.

• Trade for something else, including computer repair work.

• Find a functional laptop that other people have thrown away. (I stayed with a friend in London for some time, who was gifted a free laptop I found on the street in London, I would say it was about 4 years old with Windows 10, it was password protected; I wiped the hard drive and set it up as new). But my friend needed a computer badly, and got it for free! Had it been even older, I would have set it up with Linux and had a working computer for years to come.

New Computers

Since I am a cheapskate, my personal preference is to never buy new if I can avoid it. However, for those of you who want the latest technology badly enough to pay for it, I have still got some suggestions about how to get a good deal. The first is not to buy at a "big box" store, unless you see a really great deal. Even then, I would recommend going home first and hopping onto the Internet to see if it's as great a deal as you think. I've often found it wasn't. My next bit of advice is to wait, if you can, until the best buying time of the year--the August to September time frame. That's the back-to-school season. Some years you can find really great deals at this time (2022 was one such year), and other years you see nothing much to jump up and down about. If you happen to be looking in a year when some new technology is coming out, when a new version of Windows is being introduced (although that probably won't happen again any time soon), and when some other stars align to make the deals really good, jump on that, because it may be a while before these things happen again all at once. The best place to buy a new computer that I know of is Amazon because you have some protections against being taken advantage of by unscrupulous sellers, and because you can sometimes find prices better than those in the big-box stores. My opinion is that it isn't worth going to Ebay for new computers because the deals there are no better than on Amazon, and you don't have as many protections.

Refurbished Computers

Refurbished computers can be a good value for someone who is squeamish about buying used but doesn't want to pay for a new computer either. They generally look brand new and come with a 30-to-90 day warranty and a certificate of authenticity for the operating system. They've been checked over thoroughly and repaired if necessary, so you have no more reason to worry about them biting the dust than you would with a new computer. You can get refurbished computers at the same places you can get new computers--Amazon, Tiger Direct, New Egg, Ebay, and others. I would avoid the manufacturer's websites for refurbished computers because I have just never been very impressed with their deals. I bought a refurbished Dell Latitude E6220 in April of 2015. Aside from two minuscule dents on the top of the case and a slightly stripped screw underneath, I couldn't tell it had been used. I paid $270 for it on Amazon, which was only $20 to $30 more than the used ones I was seeing. It managed to survive as my work laptop for 31 months before it died--which was my fault, I think, because I kept zapping it with static electricity.

Used Computers

Now for a few tips on buying a used computer. The number one thing I look for is a complete description of what I'm thinking about buying. Make sure nothing is left out. How much RAM does it have? What size hard drive? What is the exact CPU model--"Core i5" isn't good enough. What is the exact model of the computer. Don't accept anything nebulous like simply the words "Dell laptop" and one or two accompanying pictures. Are the battery and power cord included? Make sure there are good pictures of all six surfaces of the computer (except for the bottom of a desktop). The reason is that some people will try to sell you something that is damaged on one surface and only show you the good surfaces--think buying a house, if that helps. Also, my belief is that the more honest a seller is, the more complete his description will be. Honest sellers want you to be happy with your purchase. Dishonest ones don't care.

The next thing I look for is a computer with a reasonable amount of wear. If it looks like someone used it as a door stop, you know the seller doesn't take care of his things. Why? Because he probably doesn't care. And if he doesn't care about his things, he probably doesn't care much about himself. So why should he care about you?

After this, I look for an organisation willing to stand behind the transaction--at least to some extent. When you buy something used through Amazon from a third-party seller, Amazon will refund your money if the thing you bought doesn't match the seller's description or if the seller doesn't deliver at all. My understanding is that Ebay gives some guarantees, but not as many a Amazon. So, shopping on Ebay is a bit riskier. However, Ebay also has better deals, especially if you get lucky on an auctioned computer. Also, if you use the "buy it now" method (meaning not in an auction), Ebay lets you buy as a "guest"--which means you don't have to give them your birth date, social security number, etc. My disgust over this practice could be the topic of a whole article, but I will refrain here. I have never bought a computer on Craig's list, so I have no idea what to expect there. However, obviously, if you can see the computer with your own eyes and check it out with your own hands, you'll have a better chance of getting something that you'll find acceptable--assuming you know what you're doing, of course.

Thrift Store Computers

Just a few words on thrift stores. I have bought a few computers from thrift stores. Generally, you get zero guarantees there. And I've noticed that the prices on computers at thrift stores vary greatly--mostly depending on the particular thrift store you're visiting. Prices can be rock, rock bottom at some and simply not worth the hassle at others. Prices are generally lowest at thrift stores where things are piled everywhere in a wild disarray and highest at stores that look neat like retail stores. So, you can kind of get an idea of what to expect as soon as you walk in the door. My recommendation would be not to buy a computer at a thrift store unless the price is so low that you're nearly talking pocket change--I mean in the $5 to $15 range. Anything more than that, and you're better off on Ebay.

When I buy a computer at a thrift store, it's generally not because I'm looking for a working computer. If it works, that's a bonus, but what I'm really looking for is particular parts. Let's face it for $5 to $15, if the computer works, it's not going to be very useful anyway. So, for example, I may have decided to build another desktop computer and I don't want to spend the money for a new case and power supply. So, I go to a thrift store and get a used computer for $5 to $10, salvage the case and power supply, and discard most of the rest. I may get lucky and get a working DVD drive as a bonus and maybe some cables or other minor parts. What I'm saying here is that you shouldn't go into a thrift store looking for a computer you can really use every day as your main computer. You'll be looking mostly for parts. Or perhaps you'll be looking for something for a particularly strange situation--like you want to turn it into a modern art project, or you don't like the idea of having your main laptop rifled through when you cross the border, so you need a really cheap "burner" laptop.

Computers from Friends and Family

If you have a large circle of friends and family, you probably already know that people hand down computers now the way they used to hand down clothes. Often, if people know you are interested in computers, and you have helped them with theirs in the past, they will volunteer to give you their old computers when they buy new ones. My thought is that you might even be a bit pre-emptive by finding out who is about to buy a new computer and asking if you can have his old one when he no longer needs it. Also, I've found that people often can be even more eager to part with computers that no longer work. Sometimes, if you have even minor skills, you can get those computers fully functional again. For example, two years ago my brother gave me two laptops that wouldn't boot up. I found that both had corrupted operating systems, so it was relatively easy for me to fix them. I offered to give back the one he preferred, and as it turned out, he got the one he preferred in a perfectly functional condition, and I got the one I preferred for free.

Dumpster Diving for Computers

If you aren't squeamish around other people's trash, another source of computers that some people take advantage of is dumpster diving. I admit that I have never intentionally found a computer this way. However, there have been two times when I was taking my trash to the dumpster in my apartment complex and noticed a computer in the dumpster. Both times I took them home more out of a sense of curiosity than anything else. As it turned out, the first computer was a gaming computer that looked practically brand new. The CPU was dead, so my guess was that the owner had just chunked it into the dumpster in disgust. From that computer, I got a nice looking case (without power supply), a medium sized hard drive, and a DVD player (with a Windows XP disk inside it). So, I would guess that, if you have the time and inclination, you could probably find some decent used computers this way, or at least parts of them.

Trading for Computers

I have never traded anything, including my computer repair skills, for a used computer, but I imagine that this might be one approach. I give my computer repair skills away for free because I enjoy working on computers -frustrating as it can often be - and I learn at the same time. But if you have the skills and the inclination, you might try trading computer repairs for older, used computers.

I hope this part of the article has given you some ideas about how to get a laptop, or any other type of computer, for little-to-no money. I think the key to really good deals is to not be distracted by the latest shiny gadget - so to speak - and concentrate on only what you really need for the task at hand. As I've said in a past article, I think buying a computer for things you haven't thought of yet (i.e. trying to stave off obsolescence) is not the way to go.

Knowing what you need before you buy a new computer may save you a substantial amount of money and will greatly improve your chances of getting the computer you really want. Now, you may be thinking, "Of course I know what kind of a computer I need!", but do you really? Is the computer you're thinking of buying really the one you need? Or is it just the one you want?

Are you planning on buying what you need right now? Or are you buying what you speculate that you'll need in a few years? If the latter, you may want to rethink that. The reason is that it is very hard to predict what you might need or even want later, especially given changing technology. Who could have predicted the USB-C port or the NVMe M.2 solid state drive? The average consumer just does not have the knowledge to make those kinds of predictions. Back in the early 2000's, I remember hearing Bill Gate's say that floppy drives would soon be obsolete. I remember being incensed. There was no way in hell I was going to give up my floppy drive. I was convinced that this was just the latest scam that was being concocted to force me into paying more for storage. By the way, I absolutely hated the unreliability of floppy disks, but I absolutely was not ready to get rid of mine. Not for any reason. Or so I thought. Then pen drives (USB flash drives, for you younger people) came out, and I was astounded. I could get the contents of 50 or more floppies on one USB stick (USB sticks were small back then). I was overjoyed, and I had no trouble parting with my floppy drive. So, be very careful about buying based on your future predictions.

Of course, I have to concede that the recent death of Moore's law does make it easier to predict what you may need in a few years. This is because current processors are not as likely to be obsolete as quickly as they used to be. By the way, this is also the best argument for buying a used computer, or sticking with your current computer longer. In fact, given the slow pace of CPU advancement lately, you may not feel the need to buy a new computer in the first place.

But perhaps the biggest argument against buying what you think you may need in a few years is that "cutting edge" computer technology can be very expensive. A computer that is twice as fast as the one you actually need may cost you much more than twice as much as the one you actually need. In fact, about a year ago, I bought a used HP Elitebook 8570p laptop for $209. If I were to try to find a computer twice as fast, I think I would be out of luck. I'm not sure such a thing exists. But if I could find that in a laptop, I'm sure the price would be astronomical.

So, the way to go about buying the laptop you actually need is to get into whatever mindset you need to only focus on your actual needs, not what you want or what the laptop looks like. This may take quite a bit of thought, and will absolutely be based on past experience with previous computers. Did you use that fancy feature that you paid for through the nose on your last laptop or the one before? Or did you find that it was actually of no value to you? Did you buy a two-in-one laptop a few years ago and never separate the keyboard from the tablet? Or did you never use the keyboard? If you bought a tablet because you though it looked neat, did you find that you didn't actually carry it everywhere all the time, like you thought you would?

Once you have entered the necessary mindset... Begin by making a list of all your requirements. Don't think yet about what hardware you need, just think about what you need it to do. Do you need to play Netflix? Do you need to run Microsoft Word? Do you need to run Microsoft Visual Studio? Will you be trans-coding videos? Will you be sending email? Are you going to want to store all your movies on you computer's hard drive, or will you use an external hard drive? Will you need to occupy three USB ports simultaneously? Will you need a hard line connection to the Internet? Do you need or care about a pretty display? What about screen brightness--will you be using it outside? Do you need long battery life? Will you be traveling with your new laptop? These are just some of the questions you should be thinking about. And be sure to write down the answers to these questions because they will likely change when you see how much the resulting computer will cost and that some of your requirements conflict or are actually impossible to fulfill. This is a process that you should take your time with. The longer you spend thinking, the more likely you are of getting a good result--the computer you need for the lowest possible price.

Next, research potential candidates that meet these requirements. Are they within your price range? Do they meet all your requirements? Do they meet 90% of your requirements? Will you have to adjust your requirements to meet the ones you absolutely can't live without in exchange for the ones you cringe at giving up, but can still manage to give up? In other words, iterate several times until you can either get something that is close to what you need, or you decide you can live with your old computer for now. This is a process that could easily take days or weeks of off-again on-again thought and searching.

The better you understand any computer you're considering buying, the more money you'll save and the more satisfied you will be with your purchase. Most consumers of computers know little about what they're buying. The common result is that they experience significant buyer's remorse when they get their new computer home and discover that it is low quality, frustrating to use, and/or doesn't do everything they want. The way to not fall into this trap is to do your homework before you buy.

In this case, doing your homework means several things. To begin with, understand the technology. Know the difference between hard drives and SSD's, between good displays and bad ones. Know what a 1920 by 1080 display looks like and whether you'd be just as satisfied with a 1366 by 768 display. Know what it feels like to carry an eight pound laptop on a long trip. How much additional money would you be willing to pay to carry a three pound laptop instead? What are the read and write speeds of the hard drive in the computer you're thinking of buying and how might this affect your user experience? How fast a CPU do you really need to run the current version of Microsoft Word? What are the relative speeds of a Core i5-3470 and a Core i7-2820QM? Hint: not much--a Core i7 is not always faster than a Core i5. How much faster is a USB 3.0 port than a USB 2.0 port, and does that matter to you? How can you test the speeds of your current hard drive and flash drives to get an idea how much faster what you're considering purchasing might be, or if you even care? Do you care how fast the video card is? Do the number of CPU cores really matter? In other words, know the pluses and minuses of the different types of components of any prospective computer, how much those components are likely to cost, and whether the performance is worth the cost to you. These are only a few of the issues you will need to consider to find a computer you will be happy with for a price that is acceptable to you.

So, how do you begin doing the necessary homework? Hint: we have this thing now called "the Internet". When I was a kid, the Internet didn't exist. If I found a book in the library that I really, really wanted to own, I would have to get the publisher's address from the copy-write page of the book and write a letter to the publisher asking for the current price of the book. Six weeks later, I would get a reply. By then, I might not even remember what the book was about. Now days, we have nearly instantaneous access to huge amounts of information about a huge array of products. But if you're reading this article, I guess you already know that. So, getting back to doing your homework on your potential computer purchase ... There are a few really great websites that can help. If you want to know how fast a particular CPU is relative to others, cpubenchmark.net is your best bet. There are also websites that rank SSD's and flash drives. You can also get free software that can tell you the speeds of your current hard drive and flash drives (for example, Crystal Disk Mark and FlashBench). This can tell you whether the hard drive or SSD in the computer you're thinking of buying is faster than the one you already own. Passmark also makes free software that can test the speed of several of the components in a computer, including the RAM, hard drive, CPU, and video card.

Once you understand the technology, the next step (after determining your requirements and how much you want to spend) is looking at potential candidates for your next computer. At this stage, the key is reading as much as you can find about each computer that you're considering. First, look at all the professional reviews you can find online. The best site I've found for this is notebookcheck.com. They do a really great job of covering most of the issues that I've mentioned above and in previous articles--cost, CPU, hard drive, build quality, number and types of ports, weight, display resolution, contrast, and colour spectrum, video card, thermal issues, noise, etc. Unfortunately, I've found that navigating their website to get the English version of a review that I want to see is not as easy as googling the name of the computer followed by "notebookcheck".

Something to keep in mind is that professional reviewers only look at a computer for a short period of time. They don't live with it every day for months or years. So, you also need the perspectives of as many people as you can find that have actually bought the thing and enjoyed (or suffered with) it for a long time. Amazon.com is great for that. For computers that many people have bought, you will see complaints and compliments from the most major down to the most inconsequential. One of the things I've noticed from reading hundreds of both professional and amateur reviews is that professionals tend to be much more enthusiastic about thin, light laptops than do the people who actually buy and use them. I explain why here. I'm thinking of one laptop in particular (which shall remain nameless) that professional reviewers give their highest rating, while owners give only a mediocre rating.

While I'm on this topic, another thing I'll say is that I've gotten to the point where I just won't buy many products unless I can find several reviews of them (like, more than 20) on Amazon.com. The reason is that with all the cheap junk coming out of China and elsewhere, it just isn't worth the risk of buying something totally unknown if I don't have to. I've been burned too many times not to know better.

Another way of screening potential candidates for your next computer is to get your hands on the exact model you're thinking of purchasing and play around with it for a while. Unfortunately, there are often several potential problems with this approach. One is that you will likely not have access to the exact model through a nearby computer store or a friend. Another is that computer manufactures these days are making it very difficult to know exactly what you're getting by making several versions of a given model. The version is designated by all those indecipherable letters and numbers after the model name. And many display models in stores don't have a thorough description next to them that tells you, for instance, that the exact model you're looking at has the 500GB hard drive instead of the one terabyte hard drive that the reviewer's article described. You may not necessarily discover that until you get it home. You have to be very careful here to know exactly what you are buying. Another problem is that even if you are lucky enough to find the exact model you want on display in a store, you can't do everything you might like to do to test it in the store. For example, you can't tell how fast the hard drive and/or USB ports are by sticking in a USB flash drive and testing. You can't install software you might want to see running. You may not be able to surf the Internet to see how many open web pages it can handle without freezing. However, you should still do what you can to have hands on access if you can get it. Any access you can get may give you important information. For example, you may disagree with reviewers about the keyboard and decide that you just can't live with it after all.

Just to avoid misleading you by the above paragraph - I do not recommend that you buy a computer from a brick-and-mortar store. This is only one of several places to go to get information. One of the reasons I don't recommend physical stores is that you can usually get better prices elsewhere. Yes, I realise it's considered to be in poor taste to window shop at a brick-and-mortar store and then make your purchase online. But frankly, who is telling you that's not cool? That's right. It's brick-and-mortar-stores. If they were willing to give us more information about their products and better prices, they would have more buyers. Period. I'll tell you in a future article the best places to buy a computer.

To wrap this up--you may be thinking that doing all this research sounds like a lot of work. You're right. It is. So, you should weigh the effort you'll put out doing your homework versus the frustration and wasted time incurred by owning a computer for perhaps years that you're unhappy with. The bottom line is that even a few hours of research can go a long way to making your buying and owning experiences better. This isn't an all or nothing type of thing. It's not like pregnancy. So, do as much homework as you're comfortable with. You may even discover that this is homework you actually come to enjoy.

Know a Quality Computer when You see It

Being able to identify a quality computer is an important skill to develop over a lifetime of computer buying. Unfortunately, it is also a difficult skill to develop. Fortunately, there are some key features of quality computers. Most of these are more important to look for in laptops because desktop computers tend to stay put and have more replaceable components.

Signs of a Quality Laptop

• Metal parts, especially one-piece metal laptop cases.

• Strong laptop hinges

• Little case and keyboard flexure

• Higher resolution, brighter, higher contrast monitor

• Lower operating temperature

• Louder and better sounding speakers

• Faster hard drives/SSD's and USB ports

• Faster CPU

• Quality manufacturing processes, including better soldering

Fortunately, all but the last item on the list are discussed in detailed reviews of brand-name laptop models by several professional reviewers - like those at notebookcheck.net. In fact, this is how one can identify what is and is not a thorough review. The last item on the list is more difficult to verify and would most likely only be possible to determine after you have bought the computer--assuming that you are able to identify things like quality soldering (hint: shiny solder joints).

Luckily, some organisations occasionally rank laptop manufactures according to how long their products actually last in the real world in the hands of actual consumers. I assume this is much to the ire of certain laptop manufacturers whose products don't measure up well against their competitors. One of these ranking organisations is Laptop Magazine. It is important to find the latest ratings because they do change over the years. However, Apple and Dell tend to stay near the top. HP (Hewlett Packard) has made enormous progress over the last few years. I remember not too long ago that I absolutely refused to buy any HP product, especially their laptops because their quality was so poor. HP was especially bad at cooling their laptops - which led to a lot of prematurely dead laptops. Happily, this is no longer the case, and HP is now near the top of the rankings. In fact, I actually purchased a used HP Elitebook 8570p a year ago. I really like it, and I notice no significant heating.

Another thing I should mention is that certain categories of laptops fare better than others in terms of longevity in the real world. The most important dividing line is between business laptops and consumer laptops. Business laptops tend to be significantly higher quality (and more costly too) than consumer laptops. I think this is because companies have professional IT people who understand what makes a quality laptop. Since they understand the importance of quality, they are willing to spend more to get it. Laptop manufactures know this and provide businesses with what they want. Consumers, on the other hand, are relatively ignorant. They often buy whatever a manufacturer will toss at them (often as if from the window of a moving train). These manufacturers are usually nowhere to be found when their laptops stop working.

Don't expect a significant amount of support from most companies, including most of the best, because you are just not going to get it. The reason is that support is expensive, so profit margins would have to be higher than they are for companies to be able to provide good support. This is another reason you should learn as much as you can about computers. After you buy one, you are on your own. Picture yourself standing out in the desert next to a cactus and a cow skull because this is what it will be like.

Another category of laptop that I would avoid, unless you are certain that you want it is the 2-in-1's. These are laptops that separate into a tablet and keyboard. The reason to avoid them is that the connecting mechanisms seem to wear out rather quickly compared to the hinges of clamshell laptops.

While I'm on this topic, one thing I would like to say about tablets is that I don't see how anyone can travel with them without worrying about cracked screens. When you shove a tablet into a bag, unlike a laptop that folds shut, the screen is directly exposed to the contents of your bag. And, it is nearly impossible to find a hard case that will hold its shape under even the slightest pressure. I really don't see why people have such faith in neoprene sleeves. Essentially all of the pressure goes right through them and into the tablet's screen. The only thing that neoprene can really protect against is scratching. So, I would avoid tablets, unless you don't plan on traveling with them, which to me is one of the major reasons for owning them.