Laptops

[AJ]

I have a friend at work who's looking at picking up a new laptop soon. I know of a few I'd suggest via Micro Center and Dell, as well as new egg and mwave.com, but I'm curious what others here might spend their money on with say a $300 - $600 budget.

Something that isn't pre-loaded with a bunch of shit, and keep in mind she will probably use an external hd for most photos and such.

 

[mazdamn02]

Dell mini 10, windows XP, 160gb hd, 'nuff said.

 

[VTEC8YA]

I picked up a Toshiba about 7 months ago while I was waiting for my XPS to be built. AMD 64 processor, 4gb Ram, 200 Gb hard drive. The only thing I changed is I switched from vista 64 to vista 32. Nice unit and I walked out the door around 700 bucks. This was from Best Buy. Needles to say my XPS 1530 Laptop blows it out of the water but I only use that for dj'ing, and it was around 1500.

 

[cosmicspd3]

Two people I recommended the new ASUS laptop LOVE theirs. Cheap gaming and amazing features. bluray, lcd read out with customizable text, leds that blink to music in games or hdd activity, etc.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2034940032 50001315&name=ASUS

otherwise i dont recommended those netbooks unless thats what they are specifically looking for. they suck otherwise, keyboards are tiny, small screens, most dont have cdroms or many ports. they have their purpose but they are not a full computer by any means.

Other good brands are toshiba, gateways new stuff, sony. Theres better deals online because no tax, ie. newegg. But there can be deals if bought in store. Just dont get a stores ext. warranty. If you want a ext warranty go through the manufacture and make sure a screen coverage is in it.

 

[Picklz]

Depends on what it's going to be used for. The Mini's are great if portability is a concern, but as has been mentioned screen and keyboard size suffers. For a gaming laptop on a budget the Asus would probably be a solid choice from what I've read.

If its just going to serve as an email and web machine then I'd look into Dell, Gateway, and Toshiba. Watch slickdeals / fatwallet for deals on Dell laptops, you can get some pretty nice setups if your willing to wait a bit / watch for coupons and such.

 

[ZoomZoom Diva]

Don't forget the manufacturer's outlet sites. Often a source of great deals. My laptop was one ordered and then returned to DELL, but never booted.

 

[Schmitty]

I got two MacBooks i am looking to unload that might meet her needs. Exactly the range i was looking to sell them for too.