Wal-Mart Black Friday specials for 2005:

http://www.blackfridaybargains.com/walmart.txt

 

Dell Inspiron 6000, IMO. Check http://www.fatwallet.com for coupons for additional deals. Try both home and small business sites.

 

if the laptop is really going to be a portable you might think to keep the screen size and keyboard as small as possible. mine; got it at a good price but the screen is too large and fragile to be a true portable. you should be able to plug a external monitor in to resolve some applications that need a larger screen.

-make sure you have enough slots to upgrade its memory to 1g
-a sd memory card slot, an optical spdif audio plug are good things to have

 

Actually Rich, apparently it will be 400 dollar laptops because last year's benchmark was 500 dollar ones.

Walmart is a difficult BF store because of the type of shopper. They tend to get there at 10 pm the night before and camp out. Best Buy is getting tough too. Last year I hit Circuit city. It depends on which store you hit specificially. One is a less populated or popular area will more likely reap you the sweeter rewards. Strategies I've seen in the past are:

1. Go with multiple people each with an item to get multiples of so you can each get one

2. Send people to different stores and communicate by cell phone

3. Send people to stores in different time zones.

 

I've been looking into the Dell 6000 and apparently it seems to be the best bang for the buck laptop.

I am going to be using it during my graduate studies and as my home computer, with some multi-media cababilities. Even though the 6000 won't be the top of the line it will be able to do most everything I need it to do until make enough money to buy a home supercomputer version of HAL.

Some companies have special deals with Dell through an EPP program. My work actually participates in this program and I am able to get a 6000 for $830. But I found some deals for $650 with slightly slower cababilities.

 

Get a used Apple.

 

The Dell 6 is a nice series. So many options makes it tough to say what is good and what is a good deal.

I go through laptops pretty quickly. My most recent was my first Dell -- an XPS Gen 2 purchased through the Dell refurb site. It has been a solid machine -- but feels a bit poorly put together -- and it is a ****ing tank. Still -- I can run WOW while on the road in 1920X1200 .. so there you go.

The Apple folks. You guys crack me up. I recently had to fork over the cash for the wife to get a new 17 inch PowerBook. Granted -- they are sexy but they are horribly overpriced and saddled with that worthless OS a totally moronic one button mouse on the device itself and limited product support. An evolutionary dead end.

Now that I think about it -- another good Apple comparison. I was using an apple 23 inch LCD for most of the summer. I purchased a Dell 24 with similar specs (a bit off on the colors) for 1/3 the price a couple weeks back -- and it has a built in card reader.

 

I disagree. I am generally an apple basher, and have come to hate apple lovers even more - but they make good machines. One can have a 12 inch powerbook for 1200 dollars with a student discount, and it has just about the same specs as the larger powerbooks. While I do agree that your apple monitor was overpriced, other apple paraphernalia (Laptops, IPods, ect) hold their value extremely well compared to PCs. One can resell a one year old apple for a reasonable price, such is not generally the case for PCs. As such, I think that apples are generally going to pose a better value in the long run, even if they are a little more pricey. Also, my anecdotal evidence suggests that Apples are going to be more reliable that most manufacturers of windows based labtops.

OSX doesn't suck by any means - and if you plug in a two button mouse, you will find that the right button does do something.

But I forgive - we all know how WOW distorts the mind.

 

I don't know why, but I thought the thread title was "can I get some lap dance advice"

FFS!

 

2 brands you should look for, Dell and IBM. I have owned both. You need a laptop thats made for realibility. For Dell, get the Latitude series. IBM get the Thinkpads (most IBMS are for business anyways). I personally like IBM better than Dells. IBM's technical supports is 10 times better. What is your budget?