Help me pick a laptop

[macdawg]

Guys I'm thinking my laptop got fried and instead of spending hundreds fixing a 3 year old laptop I'd like to purchase a new one for my mother before school starts for her.

Would like the cheapest laptop possible with a 15.4' screen and prefer a dell.

Uses would be email, load some digital photo's, office applications. For these basic uses, would you consider vista basic edition and 1 gb ram sufficient?

The dell I'm looking at you can get 1 gb, 60 gig 5400rpm hd, and AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual-Core processor on vista home basic for $550.

 

[Trotter]

Your choice, XP or Vista:

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

$499
_______________________________________________

C2D T5470, 15.4", 1 gig, 120 gig HD, DL DVD-RW, 128MB NVIDIA 8400M GS, choice of XP or Vista:

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

$599

 

[AtomicAudio]

i was looking at the same one... the Vostro 1000

the name "Dell" makes me itchy... but the deal seems good....


Macdawg, have u had good experiences and reliability from your previous dell products? may i ask why u favor dell?

 

[SapperX]

I'm going to be the first of many to suggest going otherwise then dell. I upgraded almost all of the internal parts of my dell (after my mobo fried) and found that all but the ram was installed incorrectly. Some pins on the CPU were even broken off when they inserted it onto the mobo. I have never heard of a dell lasting longer then two years, which is just awful.

 

[AtomicAudio]

ouch, sorry to hear of such an experience.

i only considered it because one of my friends laptops are still alive... its filthy but the centrino is still pushing and hes created some fantastic videos with some professional program that's like 800 dollars... its some 12 inch notebook... not sure if they make it anymore... i know its not XPS... its white and silver

 

[Jorsoft]

I'm not a big fan of Dell, not real dependable in my experience but there prices are good. I'd recommend looking at a Compaq laptop. Good quality (same stuff as HP) and inexpensive.

 

[SapperX]

Dell's are inexpensive for what you get, but I think there is a good reason for that (bad mobo's and poor assembly lines). Although, I don't know enough about other brands to recommend a better solution...

 

[nu2duo]

Guys I'm thinking my laptop got fried and instead of spending hundreds fixing a 3 year old laptop I'd like to purchase a new one for my mother before school starts for her.

Would like the cheapest laptop possible with a 15.4' screen and prefer a dell.

Uses would be email, load some digital photo's, office applications. For these basic uses, would you consider vista basic edition and 1 gb ram sufficient?

The dell I'm looking at you can get 1 gb, 60 gig 5400rpm hd, and AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 Dual-Core processor on vista home basic for $550.

I purchased that $499 laptop but I chose xp.
It runs very well.
I upgraded the ram so now it has 2g.

Dell's been around for ever and will continue to be around, so don't let anybody change your mind because it makes them "itchy" when they hear the name Dell.
I recommend their laptops. Good Luck.

 

[Trotter]

Dell's lappys are not made by Dell, they are made by a third-party vendor for Dell.

Dell is actually trying to turn their crap around before they lose it all. Not that I would recommend them, but they are improving on their quality.

 

[SapperX]

^ This seems very possible as in the past, Dell is known to be a very good company that has their sh*t together. Yet still I would hold off on buying their laptops or at least get a really good warranty.