Laptops ideas for a 10 year old

[Mile High Mania]

Hola,

Question for you guys... my son turns 10 next month and we're getting him a laptop. I was curious to find out if any of you had any advice on the types of laptops to consider or avoid.

Also, what is the best way to lock it down where he just can't stumble onto bad sites, while providing me the ability to view reports - possibly from my pc.

I don't want to get all crazy with the 'big brother monitoring', but he's 10... there are a lot of places I'd like to keep him from landing.

Thanks,
MHM

[Skyy God]

2nd the netbook idea. While it'd be way too small for me to use, it's probably ideal for a 10 year old. Probably want one with a dual core processor.

BF sales or Slickdeals should be your starting point.

[Sofa King]

Originally Posted by Pittsie

2nd the netbook idea. While it'd be way too small for me to use, it's probably ideal for a 10 year old. Probably want one with a dual core processor.

BF sales or Slickdeals should be your starting point.

2nd??!?

I came up with that idea!


DAMN YOU PESTILENCE!

[SuperChief]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

Honestly....I would look into a netbook then. It should be powerful enough to do what he needs to do, small enough that he can carry it around with ease and cheap enough to not kill your pocketbook.

I have a Dell netbook - it'll work well for what you're needing for the boy. I'd recommend it.

[Mile High Mania]

Cool - thanks. I have not looked at the Netbooks before.

So you can run MS Office apps, etc... with ease? I'm not really looking for this to be a gaming machine, much to his disliking I'm sure.

Thanks.

[QuikSsurfer]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

Cool - thanks. I have not looked at the Netbooks before.

So you can run MS Office apps, etc... with ease? I'm not really looking for this to be a gaming machine, much to his disliking I'm sure.

Thanks.

Netbook would be the best fit. And yes to your questions about MS Office.
Functions like a fully functional system - minus the optical drive.

[bevischief]

Something cheap. www.tigerdirect.com or Walmart.

[aturnis]

[WV]

Originally Posted by Mile High Mania

We're encouraging him to do more because he appears to have the nerdy desire to do more things at school - like the history fair thing, it was not mandatory, but he thought it would be fun to do.

Our thought is that we're taking the opportunity to fuel the desire to learn and push him in these areas at school, because... who knows when or if that will change.

Good for you and him, I hated those projects and didn't enjoy school. Some great parenting right there.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by bevischief

Something cheap. www.tigerdirect.com or Walmart.

www.newegg.com > www.tigerdirect.com > wal mart

[Bob Dole]

Looks like you can get an HP 10.1 Mini for under $300. We gave 10.1's away to our incoming freshmen last year, and had no real complaints.

[WV]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

Looks like you can get an HP 10.1 Mini for under $300. We gave 10.1's away to our incoming freshmen last year, and had no real complaints.

Great tip...a friend just ordered one from HP.com and I forgot about it. Looks like a decent little setup.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...i_kw={keyword}

[mnchiefsguy]

My daughter is in the same boat. She is 11 and in her first year of middle school. Next semester she has a computer class, and her current classes make use of technology as well, which is pretty cool.

My folks want to get her a netbook for Christmas. I have not yet done any research to figure out which brand is best, although Dell is off my list at the moment. My Dad has a Dell netbook, and he wanted to put in some additional Ram. I was going to do it for him, but it is a major, major pain in the ass to put memory in a Dell netbook. Practically have to take the whole thing apart.

So far I know that I want a netbook with either 2gb of ram, or one that the ram can be reasonably easy to upgrade.

I would imagine that there will be some nice Christmas shopping deals on netbooks this season as holiday sales get going.

[mnchiefsguy]

Originally Posted by loochy

www.newegg.com > www.tigerdirect.com > wal mart

Absolutely. Newegg is one of the best vendors on or off the internet, period.

[vailpass]

"what is the best way to lock it down where he just can't stumble onto bad sites, while providing me the ability to view reports - possibly from my pc."

I have it on all the computers to which my kids have access and it is effective. Reporting, protection, PC or MAC:

http://www.netnanny.com/

[Fish]

Originally Posted by mnchiefsguy

My daughter is in the same boat. She is 11 and in her first year of middle school. Next semester she has a computer class, and her current classes make use of technology as well, which is pretty cool.

My folks want to get her a netbook for Christmas. I have not yet done any research to figure out which brand is best, although Dell is off my list at the moment. My Dad has a Dell notebook, and he wanted to put in some additional Ram. I was going to do it for him, but it is a major, major pain in the ass to put memory in a Dell netbook. Practically have to take the whole thing apart.

So far I know that I want a netbook with either 2gb of ram, or one that the ram can be reasonably easy to upgrade.

I would imagine that there will be some nice Christmas shopping deals on netbooks this season as holiday sales get going.

Dell notebooks have had a single user accessible panel for accessing the memory slots for close to 10 years now. Generally it only takes 1-3 screws to remove the panel and install new RAM. I've been working on Dell laptops for almost 15 years, and I've never encountered one that required taking the whole thing apart or anything even close to that.

Dell has some pretty good small profile notebook solutions right now. And I can assure you that every one of them offers easy access for RAM upgrades.