Laptop for Skype/Internet Video/MSOffice only

I'm looking at relocating to NW Washington State, and possibly being away from my family for a while depending on how quickly we can sell our house. While I'm out there and my family is still in central Iowa, I want to be able to have some video communication to talk to them every day or every other day (I'm only aware of Skype but if there are other services I'm open to those as well). I'm also taking online graduate classes, and the lecture videos are streamed in Silverlight. Would a simple netbook be enough to get this done? I'd also want to be able to run Word/Excel/etc for homework and school project. No gaming, not concerned about high res video. Is internet speed going to limit me more than CPU speed? I'm a bit lost when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks in advance.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by besserheimerphat

I'm looking at relocating to NW Washington State, and possibly being away from my family for a while depending on how quickly we can sell our house. While I'm out there and my family is still in central Iowa, I want to be able to have some video communication to talk to them every day or every other day (I'm only aware of Skype but if there are other services I'm open to those as well). I'm also taking online graduate classes, and the lecture videos are streamed in Silverlight. Would a simple netbook be enough to get this done? I'd also want to be able to run Word/Excel/etc for homework and school project. No gaming, not concerned about high res video. Is internet speed going to limit me more than CPU speed? I'm a bit lost when it comes to this stuff.

Thanks in advance.

---

A netbook would be fine... Or a simple $250-$300 laptop at walmart or bestbuy. Whatever their cheapest laptop is. They may be slow to start Office, but they will work just fine. Internet speed will be the biggest issue.

Internet speed will affect skype, and online streaming speed/quality, basically. Personally I'd go with a cheap/refurbished laptop over the netbook to run office stuff.

To keep in mind, will you use a wired or wireless connection for the internet? If you buy something without built in wi-fi, then you'll have to buy something for your netbook/laptop to access your wireless connection, or say a starbucks wireless connection. And if it doesn't come with a built in web-cam, you'll have to buy that also.

Newegg.com - HP 635 (LJ512UT#ABA) Notebook AMD Dual-Core Processor E-300(1.3GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL AMD Radeon HD 6310

If you want to watch anything on an HD TV, you should probably get once with an HDMI connection. I got one without one and regretted it.