So going to Germany soon...laptop stuff
 

BTW, not my idea of a vacation...spending 2 weeks there with the in-laws:( They all speak marsio....err german.

The wife is German. She is taking the kids over a week early. So I gotta week for myself:) Told her I was gonna have some Concubines over. She deadpanned..."make sure you clean the sheets before I come back".

So, do I need a new laptop? I need to do some business/play time (WOW) over there to escape. My old one should be fine as to business crap.

My current system is a 2007 Acer Aspire 5735 Process spd intel T3400 2.16 GHz, RAM 2 Gb, 32 bit OS, Realtek sound/vid/game controller. OLD.

So what laptop should I get? For business (will do Skyp and small data downloads) so I'm looking for some fun and do some gaming whilst they speak gibberish, is there anything reasonable? $500?

I found some laptops at Best Buy but were only doing 1.5 GHz. What should I be looking for?

For $500 you can probably get a core i5 with a discrete video card if you do some searching on the interwebz. Try slickdeals.com and go to their forums/hot deals and at the bottom of the page parse if for computer stuff. There are always good laptop deals going through that place. Don't just 'resort' to Best Buy, be creative. Hope this helps.

I'd be happy to go in your stead...

http://slickdeals.net/f/6520774-leno...40-tax?src=tdw

Not horrible.

I'm in Germany now. Before I left, the wife wanted me to buy a laptop for the kids and to make sure there was a DVD.

I bought an Acer 11.6" Chromebook 2GB 320GB Chrome OS| C710-2847. Which I think quite nice for $139. But it doesn't have a DVD:( Could I add New External Dual Layer USB 2.0 CD DVD DVDRW RW BURNER WRITER DRIVE FOR PC & MAC using the USB port costing $25?

How would that system do? Or should I return the acer chromebook and get a laptop that has a dvd included?

I'm thinking for the performance...adding the dvd per price would be better. Total cost $139 + 25= $164. Can I get something with the same specs for less?

Thoughts?

Chromebooks are not full laptops. They are designed to live off Google cloud services. If you want DVD player take it back.

need a adpator plug in for thier plug in

Why game when there is excellent Beer to drink? =)

$3 at target.

And yes...the bier is AWESOME.

The kids mainly surf. The FB crap. This would be a big I-pod. The only reason for DVD watching movies whilst in the car.

I don't want to spend more then $150 for something that is going to get broken in 1 month (see my 14 yr son). If I can get a refurbished laptop with a dvd...that would be the way to go.

I think?

BTW, how does my old 2007 acer seem?

My current system is a 2007 Acer Aspire 5735 Process spd intel T3400 2.16 GHz, RAM 2 Gb, 70 G HD, 32 bit OS, Realtek sound/vid/game controller.

For gaming the only thing I can think of is to get a bigger HD. I don't game that often though. Can I put in a bigger drive on the old acer or is it not worth my time?

Chromebooks don't work with external DVD drives. It won't recognize it.

You could take a DVD and convert it and upload it to Google Play, then watch it with an internet connection. But that's time consuming and not exactly a simple process.

K...when I get back, I'll return in. Ebay returns, methinks suck. It was my bad because I really don't know what I'm doing:(

Thanks for the input.

And Merry Christmas to you all

Germany runs off a different electrical system than the US. You will need a transformer to convert that to the US system or it will burn out your electronics

"Little did Holladay know, we use 220 watt power here in Germany. It took our doctors three hours to remove the smile from his face."