How much is my Compaq Presario V5120NR Notebook PC worth today?

Question

I had my laptop in a repair shop to get rid of a worm. When I went to pick it up, I was told that it was stolen from the shop along with someone else's laptop. Now I have to come up with some idea of what is is worth so I can be reimbursed. Here is some specs on it:

Microprocessor

1.8 GHz AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile Processor ML-32 with PowerNow!™ Technology

Microprocessor Cache

512KB L2 Cache

Memory

512MB 333MHz DDR System Memory (2 Dimm)

Memory Max

2048mb

Video Graphics

ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200M IGP

Video Memory

128MB DDR (shared)

Hard Drive

80GB (4200RPM) Hard Drive

Multimedia Drive

DVD±R/RW and CD-RW Combo Drive with Double Layer Support

Display

15.4” WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800) Display

Fax/Modem

High speed 56k modem

Network Card

Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)

Wireless Connectivity

54g™ 802.11b/g WLAN with 125HSM / SpeedBooster support

Sound

Altec Lansing

Keyboard

101-key compatible

Pointing Device

Touch Pad with dedicated vertical and horizontal Scroll Up/Down pad

PC Card Slots

• 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)

External Ports

• 2 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0

• 1 headphone-out

• 1 microphone-in

• 1 VGA (15-pin)

• 1 TV-Out (S-video)

• 1 RJ-11 (modem)

• 1 RJ -45 (LAN)

• 1 notebook expansion port 2

• 1 Consumer IR

Dimensions

10.2"(L) x 14.1"(W) x 1.38"(min H) /1.77"(max H)

It also had XP Home Edition and Service Pack 2, wireless network and microsoft office on it. Sorry about all the info. I cut and pasted it because I didn't know how much was needed to figure out it's worth. Any help anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated as this was a gift from my brother and I am greatly stressed. Thanks so much.

Answer 1

Probably not much given how quickly computers depreciate.

I'd find out what the original purchase price was along with the current price for a new computer of similar specifications and try to get one of those two (a replacement value of similar specification might be easier to get, being able to show a few laptops with similar specs might convince them to give you an average price for them).

Answer 2

If this is for insurance, you most likely have "replacement cost" insurance, not "depreciated value" (if not, I'd look at suing your insurance agent for not recommending replacement cost, since it's only a few buck more than depreciated value.)

If you do have replacement-cost, then just go out and find a machine that most closely matches those specs (shouldn't be hard, that hardware listed is still available in systems) and see what the cost of that new mahcine is.

Otherwise, search ebay and see what that system model has sold for in the past, taking into account the description of wether it's in "excellent" or "well used" shape.