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Need Laptop Recommendation (sub $1000)

E

elvindeath

Member
My wife has hinted about wanting a laptop for Christmas, since she wants to move the rather large desktop out of her "office space". That's cool, because I need the old desktop for a media server. In any event, it's been a few years since I've been shopping for laptops. Two years ago I got an ultraportable Fujitsu Lifebook for myself, but she absolutely does not need a $2000 powerhourse as I do - she just wants one to check email, surf the web and that kind of crap.

Minimal stats are this:

At least 12" screen
At least 3 hour battery
1 Gig RAM
60 Gig HD
Wireless 802.11 G
Windows XP or Media Center OS

She'd love it if I could find a model that I could get in pink, but obviously that's kind of a pipe dream.

Anyone got any good recommendations or deals out there ? I've been looking at Costco, primarily for their ridiculous return policy ... but Newegg or buy.com or any other retailer is fine.

Thanks for the recommendations


 
Any newer IBM or HP/Compaq would work well. I'm hesitant to recommend Dell because of the lack of build quality in the Inspiron line.

I've heard good things about some Acers, but I've had bad experiences with Acer in the past...

There ARE laptops made in pink - I think some of the cheaper laptops from the likes of Alienware and VoodooPC have custom colors...
 
Don't know how you feel about Dell, but I like mine. Build quality is fine for the home user. They have "skins" ( http://dell.skinit.com/ ). You can customize the skin yourself (upload a photo, art, whatever). With your specs you can get as low as $750ish total.. delivered inclu $10 upgrade to Vista home prem. With their present coupon deal (N?DTVJ4789RHC?)you can save 20% off of inspirons $999 and up. GL 🙂


EDIT: srry should have been more clear. That "750ish" system consists of : WinMCE, Core duo T2050, 1G RAM, 80G HD, integ gfx, 6cell batt, cd/dvd drive, wireless b/g, trulife ultrasharp screen, free upgrade to vista, 1yr warran.
 
I would recommend a Dell Inspiron E1505 or HP Pavilion DV2000T.

Here's a list of $800 laptops one of my forum members compiled recently:

Dell Inspiron E1505 Dual Core notebook (Inspiron 6400)
Core 2 Duo T5600 1.83GHz[+$113],
free 15.4 UltraSharp inch WXGA w/ TrueLife,
1GB DDR2, 120GB SATA[+$50],
DVD+-RW[+$32]
56k/NIC
802.11b/g Wireless
XP Media Center Edition
1yr warranty
$1014 - 20% off dell coupon (DELETED) = $811 w/ free shipping

**************************************************************

Gateway® MX3416 @ Office Depot



# 14.1"-diagonal widescreen WXGA (1280 x 800) Ultrabright LCD screen
# AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology MK-36 (2.0GHz)512KB L2 cache, Up to 1600MHz frontside bus
# 1.0GB of PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM (2 x 512MB), upgradable to 2.0GB
# 60GB 4200-rpm hard drive
# DVD±RW drive with DVD±R Double Layer support
# 802.11b/g wireless LAN
# 10/100Base-T Ethernet port
# 56K V.92 modem
# 3 USB 2.0 ports
# 4-in-1 memory card reader (reads SD, MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)
# ExpressCard/54 slot
# nVidia GeForce Go 6100 graphics with up to 128MB of shared memory
# 6-cell lithium-ion battery, providing up to 3 hours of operation
# Weight: 5.28 lbs
$730 -$150 rebate (exp 11/18) = $580 w/ free shipping.

*************************************************

Sony® VAIO® VGN-N130G @ OD



Core Duo processor T2050 1.6GHz
15.4in widescreen LCD
1GB, 80GB
DVD+-RW burner
802.11a/b/g wireless
XP Media Center
Weight: 6.8 lbs
$950 - $150 rebate (exp 11/18) = $800 w/ free shipping.
**************************************************



Toshiba Satellite® M115-S3154 @ OD

# 14.1"-diagonal widescreen WXGA (1280 x 800) TruBrite LCD screen
# Intel Core Duo processor T2050 operating at 1.6GHz 2MB L2 cache, 533MHz frontside bus
# 512MB of PC2-4200 DDR2 SDRAM, upgradable to 4.0GB
# 80GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive
# DVD SuperMulti drive with Double Layer support
# 5-in-1 media card reader: supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, xD-Picture Card
# # Toshiba Express Media Player for playing DVDs and CDs without booting up
# Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11a/b/g) wireless LAN
# 4 USB 2.0 ports
# 1 FireWire (IEEE 1394) port
# 1 S-video out port
# Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with from 8MB to 224MB of shared memory (dynamically allocated)
# 6-cell lithium-ion battery, providing 3.9 hours average life
# Weight: 5.24 lb
$750 - $150 rebate (exp 11/18) = $600 w/ free shipping

*************************************************



HP DV2000T

Core Duo T2050 1.6GHz +$120
14.1" WXGA Widescreen
free 1GB DDR
Free 60GB 5400rpm
DVD/CDRW
Extreme graphics
modem/NIC
Free 802.11a/b/g wireless
HP IMPRINT Finish + Microphone
XP Home
$850 - $100 off - $50 rebate (exp 12/16) = $700 w/ free shipping
+ free HP All-in-One
******************************************************

Just because you can spend 800 doesn't mean you have too... there can be good deals for under that!

Recommend: 14" screen b/c of weight (if you want to take it everywhere), dual core: Core Duo, Core 2 Duo or AMD X2, 1gb of ram, wireless built in (b/g) and 60gb hard drive along w/ a dvd burner. Dvd burner may not seem like a need but when you're burning backup cd's ( 10ish) you'll want the dvd (1-2)...lol

Happy Shopping
Click to expand...
 
The Thinkpad T60 is on sale at Lenovo's site. $959 base config has a Core 2 Duo, 1GB ram, Radeon X1300, and bluetooth. The upgrades to a bigger hard drive, combo drive, etc are cheap. Nice laptop 🙂 Just go to the Lenovo site, click Huge Savings near the top left, and click Thinkpad T!
 
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