[URGENT] Getting 1.5 year old HP DM1-4003AU Netbook at 8k

As the title suggests, one of my friends told me he would sell me his dad's netbook HP DM1-4003AU Netbook but I have to finalize the deal by noon.

Its a 1.5 year old netbook (No extended warranty, but condition, at least looks are good)

And I am getting it for 8k

Should I accept the deal? Can I add an SSD and more ram in future to it?

go for it. this one is discontinued but similar one cost 24-25k. you'll have to swap the hard drive for an SSD. no space for extra HDD.

You mean sacrificing the hdd for the ssd

in case of laptops you can install a SSD removing the optical drive but netbooks & ultrabooks doesn't have ODD so SSD means sacrificing HDD itself.

That means I will need one atleast 120GB SSd and even then a portable hdd to carry with it.......

And what about the original Win7 installation in the SSD?

HP DM1 is a netbook and adding a SSD won't bring much of a performance upgrade. instead wait for hybrid storage (HDD + SSD cache). SSD upgrade will increase cost to 15k+ and at that point, this one doesn't make much sense.

you can always use the OEM CD key provided with the laptop to install Windows 7 in SSD.

wow, dm1 at 8k!

how is the condition? if it looks nice, and is not too shabby (ie, taken good care of), then its a good deal.

It looks nice, but thats about it.

The guy who's selling it is kind of a nerd, and loves opening things, he already has opened and deassembled it twice........ So I'm a bit apprehensive of the deal.

As long as i get a working system for 8k, its alright I guess

What would you do? Grab it without second thoughts?

debarshi said:
It looks nice, but thats about it.

The guy who's selling it is kind of a nerd, and loves opening things, he already has opened and deassembled it twice........ So I'm a bit apprehensive of the deal.

As long as i get a working system for 8k, its alright I guess

What would you do? Grab it without second thoughts?

if its working fine without any kind of problem, get it. disassembling laptop is not a big deal and if has done it twice and it still works without anything getting broken or bend, he is definitely not a nerd.

just check the battery. thats the only part that you may have to replace if its been through enough discharge cycle.

I have it , and fact is that I won't even think of selling it at that low price . So I would suggest you should go for it.
SSD upgrade is not worth it for E-450.

But before purchasing make sure to check about any physical damages , and battery life. // THe build quality of this laptop is not very sturdy and durable thats why.

debarshi said:
It looks nice, but thats about it.

The guy who's selling it is kind of a nerd, and loves opening things, he already has opened and deassembled it twice........ So I'm a bit apprehensive of the deal.

As long as i get a working system for 8k, its alright I guess

What would you do? Grab it without second thoughts?

I don't feel there's anything big and complicated inside it. Deassembling this one is very easy any there's nothing much in it.

Oh, thanks, actually he is a CSE graduate, lol

And he has already bought a HP-2016AX, so has no need for this netbook

Is there any software which can tell me details about battery health other than the remaining time on full charge?
And it is pretty well maintained from what I saw....... I doubt I could have kept it that way after 1.5 years

@Rishi, could you tell me why an SSD would be useless, coz then I wouldnt be buying an SSD with it (I had plans for 8k+6k = 14k total damage for the whole thing) but seems I wont be needing the extra cash after all

debarshi said:
Oh, thanks, actually he is a CSE graduate, lol

And he has already bought a HP-2016AX, so has no need for this netbook

Is there any software which can tell me details about battery health other than the remaining time on full charge?
And it is pretty well maintained from what I saw....... I doubt I could have kept it that way after 1.5 years

@Rishi, could you tell me why an SSD would be useless, coz then I wouldnt be buying an SSD with it (I had plans for 8k+6k = 14k total damage for the whole thing) but seems I wont be needing the extra cash after all

Because after spending ~15K you can get a better laptop.
AFA , SSD is concerned I have read that it can not utilize the full potetial of SSD.

Its not totally useless , but its also not very helpful either.

I hope you mean 14k+15k for a new laptop.......... Or is there any laptop in 15k only?????

Thanks, that brings the cost down 8k

And could you say anything about the battery, how I can confirm the battery health?

debarshi said:
Is there any software which can tell me details about battery health other than the remaining time on full charge?

you can check wear level (more wear level = less charge capacity) using HWMonitor.

Rishi. said:
Because after spending ~15K you can get a better laptop.
AFA , SSD is concerned I have read that it can not utilize the full potetial of SSD.

Its not totally useless , but its also not very helpful either.

true. E-series is way too slow to make much use of SSD. You need something of the likes of Core i3 or A6 or better to get speed boost from SSD. In case of E450, bootup times will decrease and rest everything should be almost same.

debarshi said:
I hope you mean 14k+15k for a new laptop.......... Or is there any laptop in 15k only?????

Pentium Dual core based laptop start at ~18k. they won't have good build quality but will easily be 2-3 times better than E450. But you don't get the battery life or the portability of HP DM1.

debarshi said:
I hope you mean 14k+15k for a new laptop.......... Or is there any laptop in 15k only?????

Thanks, that brings the cost down 8k

And could you say anything about the battery, how I can confirm the battery health?

By 15k , I mean any other used laptop . At that price you can get yourself a Core-I3 laptop. [ A new one will definitely cost ~25k].
If performance is not a problem go for E-450.

Nope, performance is not a problem because I want one exclusively for battery life and portability..... I have my desktop for anything else.....

Thanks for the info on the battery, do you know by any chance how much a replacement battery (original) would cost?

debarshi said:
Nope, performance is not a problem because I want one exclusively for battery life and portability..... I have my desktop for anything else.....

Thanks for the info on the battery, do you know by any chance how much a replacement battery (original) would cost?

no idea about it but even if battery has 50% wear level, i expect 3hr+ battery backup under normal load.

debarshi said:
Nope, performance is not a problem because I want one exclusively for battery life and portability..... I have my desktop for anything else.....

Thanks for the info on the battery, do you know by any chance how much a replacement battery (original) would cost?

Then you should probably go For IT. It has a very decent battery life.
Even after almost 14 months of use , it still works like charm and is easily portable.

A full charge provides around 5-6 Hours of usage along with Wi-Fi.