Where to buy Cheap Laptops

Cheap laptops and where to buy them is a very common question that I get all the time.  In writing this article I did a Google search with the phrase “cheap laptops”.  Out of the 22.7 million results that came up we looked at the top 10 listings.  In this article you will learn what we found out about the top 10 results.  Keep in mind that the results we got are at the time we wrote this article.  However the information we get will help in finding the right place to purchase used laptops.  We will only look at the results that are no ad paying links. 

When we did the search we did not do a quoted search.  Here are the top 10 results at the time of this article:

1.  www.overstock.com/Electronics/Laptops/133/subcat.html
2.  www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=nbb
3.  www.laptopoutlet.com
4.  www.bobjohnson.com
5.  www.laptopbroker.com
6.  www.laptopcloseout.com
7.  www.newegg.com/
8.  www.tigerdirect.com/
9.  www.techbargains.com
10.  www.consumersearch.com/cheap-laptops

Which site should you buy from if any at all?  I would like to suggest that you use a criteria based evaluation system.  In other words we should have a standard system that evaluates different aspects of the purchase.  I propose the following criteria:

1.Model Laptops offered vs price
2.Are there any upgrade options?
3.Warranty offered.
4.Same store tech support?
5.Better Business Bureau rating
6.Any reviews found?

You will note that only 2 of the 6 items listed above involve the actual laptop that you are looking for.  This is because most of the laptops that these sites offer are basically the same.  What should influence your decision are the other 4 items.  Once you own the laptop you will need to make sure that you can solve some basic warranty issues if any crop up easily and inexpensively.  In addition, if the store does not have a great reputation yet has the lowest price.  You should ask yourself if you really want to do business with that store.  Quality is always an issue so reputation is very important when choosing the store to buy your cheap laptop.

The scope of this article will focus on item number one which is the model laptop offered and the price of that model.  If we break down what you are considering to purchase there is a very easy formula that usually works for most laptops.  The formula is simple and quite effective:

(Shipping cost + Price of Laptop) / Mhz = Cost / Mhz

Lets say for example, that you are looking at a dell Latitude laptop which has a processor speed of 2.0 Ghz.  Well 2.0 Ghz equals 2000 Mhz.  Lets say that the price of the laptop with shipping is $200. So using our formula:

$200 / 2000 = $0.10 /Mhz

By using this formula you can get a great feel for the value you are getting with your purchase.  This is the same formula that the wholesale laptop companies use when purchasing laptops in quantities.  Now of course there are some variables that have to be considered like Hard drive size and Memory.  Which will give some slight variations in the actual final numbers.  What you want to try to do is adjust so that  you get the true picture of costs and value.

As can be seen, you can easily do a quick determination of value based on several factors.  Keep in mind that we only covered the main point mentioned at the beginning of this article.  There are 5 other factors that you should seriously consider before making your final decision.