I bought a refurb from Dell a couple years back, and got what was then a state-of-the-art machine for a song. No issues with it, except the batteries died.

I'd recommend Dell.

JP

I like the HP I picked up at Circuit City. Didn't get the $100 back ... they had changed the display when I went to pick it up - knew I should have gone back the night I paid for it. Oh well ... still a good deal.

I've played with it a bit and it works really well. Nice graphics and great sound.

Remember, you get what you pay for. If you're getting something from Toshiba, pray that it never needs to be repaired under warranty. I consistently have 4-6 week waits for replacement parts. Toshiba has never come through with parts on a timelay fashion despite repetitive promises, and thats not limited to 2 or 3 models, it's across the product line. They have a higher rate of failure than the other systems I've worked with.

What you need in a laptop is really dependant on what its going to be used for. I will caution you this on Celeron vs. P4 debate, usually folks think that the price point of a Celeron is more attractive and take the "that's all I need" mentatlity. Shortly after they purchase, they suddenly start discovering all the cool things they can do on PC and start asking it to do more than it was designed to handle, end result being a perception that it's crap.

Well, it is. Buying PC's is the only situation I'd recommend buying more than you need at the moment, you never know when your needs will change. And it's typically cheaper to buy up front than upgrade.

Well I really threw a monkey wrench into the celeron/pentium gears. I bought AMD. So far, so good. It doesn't run hot like some said it would. I haven't given it any real challenges, however.

AMDs running hot are the result of improper heat sink installation. The factory sink has a layer of thermal compound that can only be used once. I have been using AMDs since the A1500 and now have a S2800. No problems. Can overclock 10% and still not get hot.
Video encoding no longer takes overnight....
:)

...at your own risk!!!!!
 

yes, try them if you want to be thoroughly ripped off, then completely ignored by customer service.
pm me if anybody wants details.
:mad: