Best Sub-$1000 laptop?

[AntiFreze]

So I posted a while back about my girlfriend buying a laptop. She wants to be able to use an office suite, watch DVDs, and play WoW. This would replace her desktop - so we would get a docking station for it home. and I still have my desktop.

I had originally thought about getting the Dell Inspirion 1520 which had the option to get an 8600m GT. The whole laptop came to ~$850 roughly. But now there is no option for that video card, only the crappy intel X1300. So we went searching last night again.

Ran across this:

VEREX XT5300T NoteBook
AMD Mobile Athlon 64 X2 TK-53(1.70GHz)
17.0" Wide XGA+
1GB DDR2 667
120GB 5400rpm
Dual layer DVD Burner
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS

Retail
$749.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16834280007

A few other bonuses are that there is an extra HDD slot for a 2nd one, the video card is a dedicated one and can be upgraded, its a nice size 17". Toss out the 1gb it comes with and toss in a 2-2GB chips and this should fly.

My only reservation is the brand and the return policy (or lack there of)

How is Everex? The reviews are great for this, except some say it gets pretty hot sometimes.

And what is up with Newegg return policies?

* Return for refund within: non-refundable
* Return for replacement within: 30 days (defective items only)

seems pretty lame to me.

 

[Zap]

I had an Everex XT5000T, which is the older version of this notebook. Nearly identical specs, mine had a 7600GT in it and a 1.6GHz dual core. Here's my thoughts, some from experience and some from reading what others said:

I hated the keyboard, and looks like they kept the same one. Not necessarily the feel of it, but the strange layout. There's a total of THREE backslash keys, some of which are where one would normally find other keys. There's a program that makes Windows remap keys (see link below).

Screen on mine was perfect and beautiful.

Mine got really hot, so that it'll throttle.

I kind of liked the button on it that cut the CPU speed in half, presumably to conserve power and reduce heat.

Battery life was abysmal.

Everex support doesn't seem as good as some other companies, but it did exist.

Really long thread with good info on the XT5000T.

The XT5000T came with a single stick of RAM, so upgrading to 2GB required a second stick, which also enabled dual channel. If buying the XT5300T, wait until you get it and check before buying RAM because buying a 2GB kit may be a waste of money.

BITD it was a killer deal at Office Max for $699. These days you can find other notebooks and deals in a similar price range, so shop around.

Newegg's return policy isn't that great anymore. Used to be 30 days with a restocking fee, and 1 year repair/replacement RMA for everything. A couple years ago they started cutting this for things such as notebooks, printers, monitors. This means no returns at all, plus all RMA (even for DOA) goes to manufacturer.

 

[AntiFreze]

Thanks for your response. I'll take what you said into consideration.

 

[IEC]

I wouldn't be surprised if a Vostro 1500 or 1700 would be a better deal at ~$800 with the recent deal for similar/better specs.

 

[AntiFreze]

Spartan, you are awesome. Dell makes awesome laptops but they need some serious usability testing. I never even saw that on their website. Had to google "vostro 1500" and "vostro 1700". I would so much rather go with a dell than everex for the same specs.

Thanks!!