Who has the best laptop for under a grand? (non Apple)
 

Who's got the best laptop for under $1k?

Seems like a lot of choices out there.

More interested in ram than CPU clock speed, workstation class if possible. (Don't need the hard disk constantly grinding away when closing and opening Windows apps.)

Don't need games and extra crap, 16x9 aspect ratio to the LCD would be nice.

Or, any brands I should steer clear of?

Thanks...

Dell Inspiron...

Oops, I mean the Dell Inspiron is good, not one to be avoided...

I just bought a Dell Lattitude open box for $749+tax and shipping

Dell Lattitude 620
1600 Core Due Processor
60 GB Drive (Only 5400 rpm)
1 GB RAM
XP Pro
Bluetooth
Wifi
DVD R/W drive
16x9 Aspect ratio
Both track point and touchpad (I like the clitoris!)
4 USB ports
Oh, and it comes with a 3 year warranty.

I added a 3 way charger (AC-car-plane)

The total for Everything including tax and shipping was $909. If all you need is MS Word, you can add MS Works 2006 for $99. It has a full version of word.

Just bought the laptop off the site that red-beard recommended. Great site with many great deals. I believe I got my Inspiron B130 with 80 gig hard drive and 1600 ghz processer for right around 500 dollars. The Insprions are more media based, so since you are looking for more of a workstation computer look at the Latitudes.

You probably know this already, but incase you don't. Microsoft is comming out with a new operating system in January. If you get a new laptop consider waiting until dell runs their free upgrade offer that comes up time to time. Good luck on the hunt

Cheers
Rich

Also, make sure that any laptop you buy is 'Vista Ready', meaning that it meets the specs for Vista.

The Lattitude 620 I bought came with a "Designed for XP, Vista Capable" sticker.

Thanks for the input guys...I know I had mentioned I wasn't real concerned with the processor; but what are the names of the decent ones now? My old laptop is a Toshiba with a 2.6 Ghz celeron and 240 MB of ram. Just curious...

Thanks.

Daughter is a freshman in HS...went to Best Buy and bought an HP Pavillion for way less than a grand this summer.

Warning: We don't try and crack unsolvable paxadoxes so YMMV.

Picked up an HP Pavilion dv6119us a few weeks ago. Beautiful design, great features and nice performance for about $875. Check it out at http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-Pavilion-15-4-Widescreen-Notebook-PC-DV6119US/sem/rpsm/oid/160290/catOid/-12963/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

I've got to admit, I've dropped, punched and slammed my Dell (Inspiron 8200)...and it's still ticking.

My friend has been through two Toshibas in the same time 'cause it couldn't take it. Not to take anything away from Toshibas.

I wonder if my MacBook pro is vista ready...huummm.

Aurel

Might be...Intel processor?

BTW, this 620 seems much more substantial than the 600 I use at work. I am really impressed with it.

They are all pretty much equal - there are only a couple chipsets, etc. to choose from amongst all the vendors. Buy based on support. At work, I'm really happy with Dell's next day on site parts warranty - you have to buy from the business line - optiplex desktop or lattitude laptop IIRC - but the warranty is 3 or 4 years.

As a bonus, they take Linux very nicely. They are more p-n-p with ubuntu on my gx270 at work, and our last series of laptops although I haven't tried the newest ones we have.