<p>FWIW, my Inspiron 8000 fell apart within two years. </p>
<p>The first thing you should do is see if your school offers any large discounts with certain companies</p>
<p>Acer's great value...if you are sure you won't be needing much customer service/technical support.</p>
<p>i once had a DELL it had 20 viruses on it stored it ****ed up my computer they day after i got it fixed it started piling on the viruses then i switched to my parents computer i eventually got a nice big mac for 1050(PC) I Love it..it has no tower its built in and i have had no problems at all w/ it</p>
<p>i don't think your dell came loaded with viruses...</p>
<p>haha, this is turning out to be a dell arguement. Any other suggestions guys?</p>
<p>You can try a variety of brands:</p>
<p>On the lower end of the price spectrum:</p>
<p>-Compaq (cheaper versions of HP with less bells and whistles)
-Gateway (not so bad, no personal experience though, nice tablets)
-ABS (aka Abysmal Buyer Support or Always Bad Support, self-explanatory)</p>
<p>In the middle of the spectrum:</p>
<p>-HP (about on par with Toshiba)
-Dell (they still have cheap systems, although their prices are starting to push the "middle" definition for me)
-Toshiba (not a bad choice, unless you happen to get a lemon, then you are screwed)
-Lenovo (note: not IBM, cuz Lenovo also makes a Lenovo brand that's a bit cheaper and more multimedia-oriented)</p>
<p>On the higher end:</p>
<p>-Alienware (serious gaming machines)
-Sony (VAIOs are nice but expensive, if buying, you should invest in some security)
-Fujitsu (niche brand, they make some nice ultraportables)
-Panasonic (another niche brand, really nice rugged notebooks--> pour coffee on it and see :D)
-IBM (more for business, serious stuff, not so much in terms of multimedia options)
-Apple (some of their systems are affordable, but for the configs they have...you pay a premium for a mac)
-Sharp (they made nice screens with built-in 3D visualization, but it comes at a price, a very high one)</p>
<p>People with software problems on Dells: Blame yourself or Windows, not the hardware.</p>
<p>the best computer I've seen lately for less than $1000 is the Compaq V3000 series. Circuit city has them for $799.99 right now. </p>
<p>80GB hard drive, 1.6GHz processor, 14.1" display, 1GB of RAM, video card, media card reader, integrated a/b/g wireless. For $800 it's an excellent deal and it's a good looking computer to boot. Got great reviews everywhere, and is well within your price range.</p>
<p>Good luck...I'm actually thinking of buying one for myself...</p>
<p>The Sony battery problem is more a problem with Sony battery cell and Dell's charging system not being totally compatible. Also other laptop makers who used Sony cells are not going to do a recall because those laptops (aka Lenovo) have special circuitry to prevent the battery from overheating. So yes Sony battery cells has problems, however Dell is far from guilt free here.</p>
<p>UVM, I was thinking of getting one of those too, but then I think ive found something else from Best Buy of Toshiba 14".</p>
<p>Intel 1.86 GHz processor, 512 RAM, 80 GB hard drive, DVD R/RW, wireless.</p>
<p>600 bucks, after 150 $ off. RAM can be updated in 60-70 bucks.</p>
<p>What do you guys think?</p>
<p>That's fine, but I don't like toshibas because they're heavy. The nice thing about the compaq is that it's really light. </p>
<p>I don't know that you'll actually notice the speedbump from 1.6 to 1.86, and the compaq has some other useful features (like the media card reader).</p>
<p>But for $600, it doesn't really matter. It depends on whether the other one is worth the extra $200 to you.</p>
<p>I'm gonna be a freshman this fall and I was looking at HP and Sony b/c I have a Vaio right now and I LOVE it (stylish, fast, not that cheap, but very reliable service and support) </p>
<p>but it turns out, Notre Dame has a premier account with Dell. So really good Latitudes (business laptops) with T7300 2.0ghz Core 2 Duo, 2gb RAM, 120gb HDD, 128 Nvidia graphic card and 3 yr extended warranty w/ accidental damage coverage is REALLY cheap.</p>
<p>first I was kind of suspicious b/c it's just too cheap to be true, but my desire to lessen the burden on my parents and save up for other dorm stuff is making me lean towards Dell</p>
<p>But after reading this thread and majority of poster's dislike towards Dell, I'm having second thoughts... :(</p>
<p>Dell is not as bad as most posters believe. I have had two dell laptops and neither of them have had problems. Some people just have learn to take care of their computers better. Viruses??? That has nothing to do with hardware. Sluggishness? Maybe if you defrag your windows hard drive once in a while, it will run better. </p>
<p>Dell has amazing deals IMO. Over a year ago, i bought a Dell 710m, with</p>
<p>Pentium M 2.0 Ghz
512 RAM
60 GB HD
DVD +/- RW
12.1" LCD</p>
<p>for $800, I have since upgrade the ram and hard drive, keep in mind that this was over a year ago, so it was an amazing deal back them. The base price was about 1500, but i dell sometimes has monster coupons. (The one i used for this was a $700 off $1500 computer). You might have to be patient, but i think its worth it. </p>
<p>To the poster above from ND, the dell comes with a 3 yr warranty and accidnetal damage, so even if it does break down, you are covered. I would also recommend getting a computer through the school if they offer a good deal, because itll be much easier getting support in case problems arise; you wont have to ship ur laptop to the manufacturer. </p>
<p>All laptops are known to have problems, it's really hard to avoid it, especially if you are on a budget. Just get one that suits your needs and if you take proper care of it, it wont break down(usually, thats why there are things such as warranties).</p>
<p>wowser147 that card sucks
120 gb laptop hdd,your going to end up regretting it</p>
<p>check out...
Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion
<a href="http://forum.notebookreview.com/index.php%5B/url%5D">http://forum.notebookreview.com/index.php</a></p>
<p>i went through a dell and gateway in the past 2 years.</p>
<p>the dell had a hard drive crash, the cd drive would only read/burn CD's sometimes, and then the charging jack on the laptop broke at the solder joint. </p>
<p>the gateway was a pile. screen burn out in a few months(although they did fix it), keys never felt solid, then the hinges on the screen decided they had enough and broke. so now i have a mini mac looking thing with the screen being held on by the wire.</p>
<p>went to best buy a few months ago sick of junk, going to get a decked out ibm t61. saw the special they had for a hp dv2000 amd dual core t60, 2ghz ram, 160gig hd, built in webcam, 14.1", dual layer dvd burner w/ litescribe... for about a third of what the ibm would have been. i like the hp much more than any of the laptops i've had, and more than the sony's and ibm's my dad has gone through. aside from vista being, ummm, junk it's been great.</p>
<p>thinking about getting an apple though, just to try it out</p>
<h1>1 this should be in the computer section.</h1>
<h1>2 pick up the sunday newspaper flip through the store ads you will see laptops for $300-400 good for internet surfing and writing up documents.</h1>
<p>Toshibas are great, mines not heavy at all like someone said eaarlier. and i got mine for 600$ last year, and i still haven't had any problems.</p>
<p>You can't beat this deal</p>
<p>Module Description Show Details
Inspiron 1520 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)
Operating System (Office software not included) Genuine Windows ® Vista Home Premium Edition
System Color Jet Black
Memory FREE! 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
LCD Panel High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440x900)
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8600M GT
Hard Drive 160G 7200RPM SATA HDD
Network Card and Modem Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.08
Combo or DVD+RW Drive CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)
Sound Card High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Networking Cards Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card
Camera Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) No security subscription (McAfee 30-day trial)
Battery Options 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service
Dell On Call No Dell On Call
Dial-Up Internet Access No ISP requested
Miscellaneous Inspiron 1520
Bluetooth Options Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
Dell Recycling Free Recycling Kit
Dell Digital Entertainment No Entertainment software pre-installed
Datasafe Free 3 GB Online Backup for 1Yr
Doms Camera Module Jet Black color w/ 2.0M pixel Camera
Processor Branding Intel® Core™2 Duo Label
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium</p>
<p>TOTAL:$1,218.00</p>
<p>i am not going to be a freshmen in college for another year but I'll need a laptop this year since my desktop is getting old(dad put it together 5 years ago with things his company don't need anymore ) and taking too much space from my desk
so i was thinking just to get a laptop that i can use through college</p>
<p>so i found these really 3 really nice HP deals!
can anyone comment on them? </p>
<h1>1</h1>
<p>$699.99
<a href="http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5290167%5B/url%5D">http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5290167</a></p>
<pre><code>* Microprocessor: 1.8 GHz AMD Turion ™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-56
* Display: 14.1" (1280X800) WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen
* Memory: 1024MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* Hard Drive: 160GB 5400RPM (SATA)
* Multimedia Drive: LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD?R/RW with Double Layer Support
* Conectivity:56k modem v.90 ,Integrated 10/100 Networkcard
* Wireless Connectivity: 802.11b/g WLAN ,Bluetooth Ready
* Multimedia Features: HP Imprint Finish & HP Webcam with Integrated Microphone
* Sound: Altec Lansing Speakers
* Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
* External Ports:
* 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
* 2 Headphone out - 1 w/SPDIF Digital Audio & 1 stereo
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 TV-Out (S-video)
* 1 RJ-11 (modem)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
* 1 notebook expansion port 3
* 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin)
</code></pre>
<h1>2</h1>
<p>$799.99
<a href="http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5296047%5B/url%5D">http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5296047</a></p>
<pre><code>* Processor Intel Centrino Duo processor technology featuring Intel Core Duo processor T2450; 2GHz
* Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium
* Memory 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM; max supported 2048MB
* Graphics card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 (shared) with up to 224MB total available graphics memory
* Hard drive 160GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive [gigabyte is defined as 1,000,000,000 bytes, accessible capacity may vary]
* Primary CD/DVD drive LightScribe Super Multi DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
* Display 15.4" WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Display (1280x800)
* Wireless connectivity Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
* Digital media 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* External ports 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, notebook expansion port 3, IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin), consumer IR, 2 headphone out - 1 w/SPDIF Digital Audio & 1 stereo, microphone-in, TV-out, VGA
* Communications Integrated 10/100 Base-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector); High speed 56k modem
* Weight 6.14 lb.
* Sound Internal Altec Lansing speakers
* HP Finish and Features HP Imprint Finish & HP Pavilion WebCam with Integrated Microphone
</code></pre>
<h1>3</h1>
<p>$ 1,099.99<br>
<a href="http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5296197%5B/url%5D">http://shop4.outpost.com/product/5296197</a></p>
<pre><code>* Microprocessor 2.2 GHz AMD Turion ™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-64
* Microprocessor Cache 512KB+512KB L2 Cache
* Memory 2048 MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
* Memory Max Max supported 2048 MB
* Video Graphics NVIDIA GeForce Go 7200
* Video Memory Up to 335 MB TurboCache (64 MB dedicated)
* Hard Drive 200GB (4200 RPM) SATA
* Multimedia Drive LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD?R/RW with Double Layer Support
* Display 15.4" WXGA High-Definition Brightview Widescreen (1280 X 800)
* Fax/Modem High speed 56k modem
* Network Card Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
* Wireless Connectivity 802.11a/b/g/n (draft 802.11n) WLAN
* Multimedia Features HP Imprint Finish & HP Webcam with Integrated Microphone
* Sound Altec Lansing
* Keyboard 101-key compatible & 2 Quick Launch Buttons - HP Quick Play Menu and DVD
* Pointing Device Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
</code></pre>
<p>PC Card Slots</p>
<pre><code>* 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
</code></pre>
<p>External Ports</p>
<pre><code>* 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
* 2 Headphone out - 1 w/SPDIF Digital Audio & 1 stereo
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 TV-Out (S-video)
* 1 RJ-11 (modem)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
* 1 notebook expansion port 3
* 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin)
* 1 Consumer IR
</code></pre>
<p>Dimensions 14.05" (L) x 10.12" (W) x 1" (min H)/1.56" (max H)
Weight 6.8lbs</p>
<p>The third one sounds good, but it's too big and heavy for my taste (15.4)
The first one has very good size and it's a good deal.</p>