I will need to buy a used laptop in the next weeks. I have been looking on eBay, and I have no idea on which company to choose.
IBM, Compaq, and Dell are the most frequent listings. Which one is the best or most recommended? I have no idea. First-time laptop buyer.
Haven’t seen too many Hewlett Packards.
Any suggestions? So far, eBay has the best prices, especially when compared to my local resellers.
Thanks in advance for the feedback!
In my experience, IBM and Toshiba make the most reliable trouble free ones.
A good way of seeing how reliable some model might be is to search google groups (the USENET archives) for message pertaining to the model you’re interested in.
I agree with Pookie on the IBM but disagree on the Toshiba. I work in the business, and my company sells and services all three brands. In my opinion IBM is the most reliable of the three, followed closely by HP (Compaq). I’ve got shelves of Toshibas waiting to be repaired, but very few IBM’s or HP’s. Keep in mind that IBM recently sold their PC business to a Chinese company (Lenovo), so no one really knows how that is going to affect future sales or service.