I think Paul and Gunner have very good advice...

by Brian A, Sunday, December 07, 2014, 09:08 (3580 days ago) @ Hoot

You can still occasionally find new laptops with MS 7 installed instead of 8, and a lot of people prefer that platform. They say a touch screen is really nice with 8, but I still prefer a mouse when using an 8 machine, so you can probably save a little money by not going for a touch screen if you go with that platform. I picked up a $300 Toshiba with a 17" screen, running Vista, at Walmart about 5 years ago that is still going strong in spite of all it has been through. My regular machine is a 15" Compaq, running 7, that was in the same price range and picked up a couple months later. It has traveled with me everywhere I go, has banged around in the back of trucks in the field, gone to FL three times, and has not missed a beat so far. My desktop is a Dell with 8 and a 24" screen that runs really nice as well that was picked up last spring for about $400.