So I can admit when I'm out of my league.

[B. Byrd]

Don't have anything to contribute re: computers, but congrats on getting the kids out of public/government schools.

 

[kmaxwell3]

Don't have anything to contribute re: computers, but congrats on getting the kids out of public/government schools.

What he said^^^ We home school our kids, I am no expert but pm me if you need any help!!

 

[Cadcom]

My girls are out of public schools (yay!)

I though my assortment of laptop ranging from a netbook to an older Compaq would suffice for their Cyber Acadamy. I was wrong.

Any IT guys here, or anyone have suggestions? I'm hoping to avoid buying new laptops... But if that's the only option so be it.

Homeschooled mine with the Abeka DVD set I bought Mac Minis and they worked great. may be able to find a few used for a steal.

just re-read the post. The minis i mentioned are not laptops.

 

[ddennis]

I don't have much for you man...but I will say that I have two ASUS laptops in my household - one midrange, one near high-end - and they have both been trouble free for over a year. That was the recommendation of the IT guy at the architectural firm I work for...and his advice seems to have been sound thus far.

So if you end up buying new...that's my suggestion. Pretty good value vs. feature ratio in my book...

We HAD asus ultrabooks when I started at my new job...I could not get rid of them fast enough. J.U.N.K. If you have to get new, get dell. Just get the DELL warranty. You can get next business day on site repair on them so your kids aren't stuck without them for long. Lenovo has a couple upper end models that are really nice...but pricey. The X1 series is ~$1600

 

[Leatherneck]

Go to www.tigerdirect.com. You will find laptops designed for your budget.

 

[NWSharpshooter]

If you buy anything running windows 8 make sure you also buy a garbage can big enough to throw it in when you get home. It's not worth opening the box on a windows 8 machine.

 

[Jester7]

Not sure what you need bro but keep an eye on newegg.com and woot.com as well. http://sellout.woot.com/offers/samsung-15-6-dual-core-laptop-3

And, yeah, I kinda hate Windows 8 but the youngsters are probably more flexible than this old guy and can do whatever they want with it

 

[sinwagon71]

Do you know what kind of programs they are running? The asus are pretty good and the dells do have a pretty good warranty I suggest with the dells to look at the business line they tend to hold up better. You can find used Macs reasonable sometimes but they are harder to come by, but as some of the others asked your budget will make a difference in the options and horsepower they have

 

[Shrek926]

If you buy anything running windows 8 make sure you also buy a garbage can big enough to throw it in when you get home. It's not worth opening the box on a windows 8 machine.

^^This I know^^

NWS is going to remote in and see if he can adjust the tech plumbing. Thanks for all the suggestions fellas, looks like refurb at MicroCenter!

 

[MercerAsian]

http://www.newegg.com/Laptops-Notebooks/Category/ID-223

Newegg is where I buy my computer components. They have pretty good deals on basic laptops that should be able to handle anything school related. As a computer science major, I'd delete all the unnecessary programs that come with buying a new laptop. Most of the time you don't use them and they just take up space on your hard drive and slow down your computer.