Input needed for potential laptop purchase

[Known Unsoldier]

Guy I know has a year-old Dell Inspiron 5100.

p4 2.8
512 ram
Radeon 32mb 7500 mobile
40gb HD
15 tft screen,
etc.

Says he barely used it (of course), and wants $725.00

Good deal? OK deal? Bad deal?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Eh, not horrible. This will only be useable as a DTR notebook, the P4 will put out some serious heat and give poor battery life. If you can live with that, $725 isn't a horrible price. I'd talk him down to $650 or lower.
You can get something like that comparable in performance but with a Pentium M processor, which runs a LOT cooler and will give you real battery life, starting around $800-$900 new.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

OK deal. Be warned that the 5100 has an overheating problem, and the heatsink will need to have dust blown out of it (with compressed air), about every 2 weeks.