[Tim Walsh]

Originally Posted by alf

Thanks for the great advise. I just placed bids on 2 ThinkPad T42s for $300 each, will see if i win them. My wife has a used T42 and that is one rugged machine.

I think the Thinkpads will stand up to 8 & 10 year old boy's abuse better than the smaller machines (I hope anyway).

I have never bought a PC off the bay, will see how this turns out.

Just as a note, some of the EEEPC machines don't have a hard drive, which means they're much more rugged. I don't think twice about tossing my (closed) EEE on the bed, a normal laptop, not so much. For an 8 or 10 year old boy, that might be something to consider.