Buying a notebook computer for my parents?

I am buying a notebook computer for my parents because I will be off to college soon and they will be without a computer. I am looking to go to BestBuy to buy the computer. Is there anything else I should know besides the memory, Megabytes, hard drive and virus protection softwere? Anything I should else I should ask about?

Buying a notebook computer for my parents?ariel

If you plan to go to Best Buy to buy a notebook, the only thing you need to look for is the hardware - don't worry about the bundled software because most of it is useless and should be removed anyway. This is true for any OEM system, not just those from Best Buy.

If you decide to get Geek Squad to help you set it up, there's a good chance that they will con you into spending more money than you need. The setup process - especially for a notebook computer - is fairly straightforward. Turn it on, enter some info, wait for it to boot initially, and done.

As far as specs to look for, it depends on what your parents plan to do with the computer. I highly doubt it will be anything TOO intensive because if so, you'd be getting them a desktop anyway.

If available, budget processors like a Celeron D or Sempron should be fine. For web surfing, word processing and whatnot, 512MB of RAM normally would be fine as long as the OS is Vista Basic. There are not going to be any XP notebook systems available. If the OS is Home Premium or Ultimate (I doubt they'd have Business) - then make sure it has at LEAST 1GB of RAM - which is ridiculous, but necessary.