Allright, I'm supposed to find a laptop for my sister. She wants something light and thin and performence isn't really an issue in the 1500 range.

Only good one I've seen is the Dell 2100 Inspiron. $1580 for 700mhz PIII, CD-RW, 128mb RAM, 10 gig HD, 12.1 1024x768 screen. Its only a an inch thick and weights 3.4 pounds. Anybody have other viable alternatives to this laptop? Better yet, anybody own this laptop and have some thoughts/opinions about it?

 

check CDW for some great prices. They run specials from time to time. I got a Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 for a great price with memory upgrade and larger hard drive. Paid $1,900 on special.

www.cdw.com

1.2 ghtz
30 gig HD
384 memory upgrade

 

I have a dell laptop and I love it!

I have the Inspiron 5000e...PIII 700 with speedstep, 20Gb HD, 128MB SDRAM, 15" monitor, DVD, etc...

so the specs are somewhat the same, except mine is A LOT bigger and heavier...i think mine weighs like 10 pounds or something....but i still love it.

The one thing about the 2100 series is that everything is modular. with madd thin laptops, you have to carry around the externals...most of them anyway...

But i can say nothing bad about Dells, except that you might be on hold with customer service for a while...

you should also check out the new Sony VAIOs...i heard they have everything fixed (nothing to carry around)...but i think they are a little more expensive...

you can check out www.pricewatch.com

I would not recommend Toshibas or Compaqs...i've heard A LOT of horror stories with them...

but in the end, you're going to get what you pay for....a year ago my laptop was almost top of the line and i shelled out 2600 bucks. but then again, i can't complain about the quality i paid for. so if you want proven reliability, i would recommend Dell...

This is what happens when you go to a top ranked (i think we are still number one) computer science univeristy...you end up talking about computers a lot...kinda sad isn't it?

i would recommend staying as far away from Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh as possible...horrible place to spend four years of your life....

-kenly

 

I have the Dell Inspiron 3800 PIII 600. If I had to do all over again I would go with a IBM ThinkPad. The IBM quality is better the batteries last longer, and at the same speed (MHZ) the IBM's out perform the Dell's. That's just my two cents. Try http://www.IBM.com IBM has Free Ground Shipping through 8/14/01

 

Not true! The DELL Inspirons are among the fastest notebooks (refer to the ZDLabs tests). The DELL Inspiron 8000 which I have is the fastest notebook on the market because it uses an actual desktop motherboard compressed into a notebook. Which is also why it weighs several tons

The IBM Thinkpads and Inspirons both tend to be excellent choices and are head to head in most of the ZDLabs tests.

 

factor-in the amount you want to spend ($1500) you can get a slim one from Sony SR-33:
Celeron processor though with an external hard drive for $1099 and a $100 mail-in rebate. no dvd, it's optional or cd-rw.

 

Do not get a Dell laptop. They make great computers... but notebooks are a whole different story. Unless you get teh top of the line Dell Inspiron, I suggest you stick with a Toshiba, which you can find at around 1500, a Sony Viao for about 1700, or an IBM Notebook T series. Just a few words of caution... notebooks in that price range tend to be heavy as hell... so make sure youll check the weight. Also, most of the laptops, excet the Viao have a pretty small (14") screen. Go to Cnet.com.. Go to hardware reviews, notebooks, and then click on the "most popular laptops". OH.. the Sony Viao model is PCG-FX170 (Windows ME) or PCG-170K ( windows 2000). <_-- my choice . Hope that helps.

 

Just to add.. the sony one has:800Mhz, 128, 20Gb,15.1" screen, 8x DVD, 8x4x24CD-RW, Ethernet Card, weights 7lbs, and have a lot of software. It well justifies the extra 300 bucks you will have to spend. and Im sure if you send out a few bos in order to find the best price you will be able to get it for around 1700.