Need advice on new or barebones laptop?

[subgenius]

I'm interested in getting either a new or refurb laptop so I can learn the ins, outs and what-have-yous of vista ultimate. other than learning vista, I just plan to use it for the web browsing, open office, etc. no gaming. no video editing.

my budget is between $800-$1,000 including the upgrade to ultimate (would go to $1,100 if it made a big difference). here are my priorities for the hardware:

- motherboard
- 15" display, but would settle for 14"
- cpu
- 80+ gb hd

my initial thought is to invest in the essentials hardware-wise, and then buy an upgrade to vista ultimate and 1-2 GB of ram on newegg. then, I'll slowly upgrade things like the hard drive, ram, dvd drive, battery, etc. as money becomes available.

any advice on brands, stores or specific models would be appreciated. thanks.

 

[mitcity22]

Check out the ASUS S96J, (gentechpc, milestonepc...etc) it is a barebones system so you can configure it to your needs. Barebones built on ASUS usually don't come with an OS so if you can get ahold of VISTA cheaper than a barebone will be a good idea. (it comes with a x1600 gpu which rocks for a 15" notebook)

 

[alimoalem]

you're looking for a barebones or laptop? i would change your title if you're looking for a barebones.

so yea, which are you looking for?

 

[subgenius]

I was initially looking for a new laptop, but after looking into barebones laptops, I came up with the following specs:

ASUS S96J Notebook w/ Intel 945PM + ICH7M
Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 Merom 2.0GHz Socket M
Corsair ValueSelect 2GB (2 x 1GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM DDR2 667
Seagate Momentus 7200.1 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150
15.4" WXGA (1280x800)16:10 Wide Screen TFT Display Enhanced Screen
ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 256MB
Intel COMBO CD-RW / DVD Drive for S96 Series
Intel WM3945AGM1WB Mini PCI 802.11 A / G

I found the parts on Newegg and ExcaliberPC (never bought from Excaliber before, any thoughts?). two components I wasn't sure about were the memory and the system builders OEM Vista.

1. Memory - will the fact that the RAM is a dual-channel kit matter?
2. Vista OEM for System builders - is this a full or an upgrade version of Vista?

The system comes out to about $1.5K, which is more than I had planned, but it should last me longer and will be better suited to run Ultimate (time to renew my friendship with a guy named Chef Boyardee). any feedback on the specs would be appreciated, and thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[IlllI]

how much would you save buying a barebones laptop compared to a prebuilt?

generally speaking

 

[subgenius]

I just priced out a similar pre-built laptop at Dell (think it was the Inspiron 6400), and it came out to $1,617 not including shipping, so I'd save between $100-$200 depending on shipping and I think the wireless card for the Asus above is better than what I selected for the Dell.

 

[alimoalem]

go to newegg.com and buy a prebuilt asus. better graphics card, same cpu, 1gb ram, 5400 rpm 120gb hdd. $1300-1500 (there's lik 4 different asus laptops with these specs in this price range). add $100 for a 2nd gig, sell the 5400rpm drive and get a 7200rpm drive instead. you should not go over $1500 and will get a better laptop