If you have just started off working, or in an unenviable position of having to juggle your finances between needs and wants, spending lavishly on a laptop computer or notebook computer might just be out of question.
But then, if you are more particular about being able to use a fully functional laptop to do your work, then you might need to look at a used, pre-loved or second hand or refurbished laptop computers.
Many used models of laptops belong to well known brandswhere quality of technology, strong technical support and quality control in manufacturing has led to products of exceptional standard and value.
However, with the fast advent of newer technology in chips, and in physical designs and smaller sized footprints, there are many who would like to upgrade , preferring to sell their used laptops by auction or private sale, and to use the proceeds to buy newer models.
What this means is that if you are hard of cash or lack the finance to buy a full blown latest laptop model of a famous brand, you can certainly look at a used or Refurbished laptop computer , especially those which are being sold by auction in eBay or an online store.
How then do you extend the usability of such lower models?
Normally, these older model laptops possess lesser hard disk capacity, and it is usual to see them with only 3 gig of hard disk space, for some older models. For example, the popular Dell Latitude commonly sees in eBay auctions will come in at 3.1 gig of hard disk space. Now this is hardly enough for today's needs, but upgrading the hard disk would cost a lot more.
So what can we do to extend the usability?
The solution is to add a thumb drive or a pen-drive. Pen drives of 1 gig are cheap enough and provide additional storage capacity for mobile computing.
At the same time, to help in speed, think in terms of extending its RAM to at least 256 K RAM.
Once you have the RAM improved, and the hard disk capacity extended through a pen drive, you can derive a lot of satisfaction from using a pre-loved or second hand laptop , until you care fluid enough financially to afford a newer one.
