As a college student, a laptop is crucial to your study experience.  A laptop will help you organize your notes, download particular files at ease , and don’t forget how easy it is to transfer it place to place such as the library and home.  Whether you’re a PC fan or an Apple fan, I put together a list of the top three cheapest laptops on the market as of August 2008.

Dell Inspiron 1525

Dell computers have always been one of my favorites when it comes to quality and affordability.  The cool thing about Dell is that they tend to always throw in some freebie whether it be an upgrade in RAM or a monitor, there always seems to be something!  The Dell Inspiron 1525 is perfect for a college student for the price alone.  Starting at less than $500, a basic laptop features –

  • 15.4″ LCD screen
  • CD RW / DVD RW Drives
  • 1GB RAM
  • 80 GB Hard Drive

This laptop alone will be enough to get your basic college needs done.  It’s not going to be a powerful gaming system but it will be more than enough for word processing and everything else related in that genre.

Gateway T-6311

As I did some research, I came across an older model of the Gateway laptop series and found that for under $500, there are some great gateway laptops out there that are designed for college students.  The nice thing I like about Gateway is that they’re known for their exceptional customer service and reliability.  Here are some of the Gateway features –

  • Intel Dual Core Processor (1.6 GHz | 1 MB L2 Cache | 533 MHz FSB
  • 2 GB RAM
  • 250 GB
  • Internal Wireless

Compared to the Dell mentioned above, you’re going to get a lot more for your money but keep in mind that the link I provided will send you to a refurbished version.  Refurbished versions are always approved by the manufacturers and should run like new.

HP Compaq Presario C727US

If you’re not a big fan of the Gateway or Dell version, you may be a fan of the HP Compaq Presario.  The HP reminds me a lot like the Gateway, it’s about the same price and has about the same features, here’s what you’ll get with the HP –

  • Dual Core 1.46 GHz
  • 15.4″ monitor
  • 1 GB RAM
  • 120 GB Hard Drive

Per my research, this is what I found to be the top three cheapest laptops on the market for college students.  There are so many laptops that hit the market each and every month.  Do your research outside of this and see if you can find a better deal.  Be sure to compare as many as you can so that you can get the bang for your buck.  Remember, don’t be afraid of buying refurbished.  I’ve bought many used laptops in the past and they have worked like a charm!