new laptop

[NOFX]

So my old Dell c400 has about bit the dust. I bought her used about 3.5 years ago and she has served me very well. The screen hinge broke again and battery doesn't last more than 30 minutes, plus the hard drive cover broke off on my last trip. So it looks like it's time for an upgrade. The dell c400 is an extremely lightweight coming in at 3.6lbs. Has a 12" screen, 866Mhz PIII, 256 megs of Ram. Not only do I mostly use my laptop for travel, but I would still take lightweight and versatility over horsepower any day.

 

Dell c400 You can actually pick up a decently used one off of ebay for under $100. If you just need a lightweight computer for anything other than gaming, I personally think its a steal for $100.

 

However, i want a little upgrade. More specifically I'm looking at a Dell Inspiron 700m. The one Im looking at has a nice 12.1" XGA widescreen (1280x800 resolution). Intel Centrino 1.7Ghz, 1.2gigs of memory and a 60 gig HD. Should be plenty enough room to shrink the Windows install to about 10 gigs, Setup a 15 gig ubuntu partition and format the remaining as a sharded data between the two OS's. It also comes with an extra double capacity battery(5 hours), small laptop bag to fit this machine and a Sony 1 gig MP3 player. Not sure why he is throwing in the MP3 players, but hey, it looks pretty sweet. This laptop is about 4.1lbs a little heavier, but shouldn't be to noticeable. The person wants $400 the laptop described above. I believe they went for about 1200-1500 new.

 

Dell 700m

 

Think this is a decent deal? Also, does anyone have any other recommendations on small laptops?

Edited May 18, 2008 by NOFX

[boiler]

In your price range, the 700m is pretty solid. I worked with one a while back, and the build is basically like my current 9400, only much much smaller. No frills, but compact and solid.

 

There are obviously better and faster options that are new, but they won't come anywhere close to that price obviously.

 

If you want to increase your budget, I can help with suggestions for that as well

Edited May 18, 2008 by boilersax

[NOFX]

If you want to increase your budget, I can help with suggestions for that as well

 

Sort of sounds like your going to give me a job or some money. So yea, sure I want to increase my budget

[boiler]

If you want to increase your budget, I can help with suggestions for that as well

 

Sort of sounds like your going to give me a job or some money. So yea, sure I want to increase my budget

uh, no.

 

You didn't officially say your budget was $400, but the 700m for that price is a pretty good deal

[Ice_Berge_00]

I didn't see what Windows OS you're going to have on there, but if you're getting Vista make sure to get 2 Gig's of RAM. Ram is dirt cheap right now so that shouldn't raise the price much at all.

 

For the record I have a e1505 Inspiron with Vista Home Premium, bout a year and 1 month old and working great.

[NOFX]

Well, I picked up the 700m, I feel like I paid a lil to much for it, but for the laptop with 1.2 gigs of ram, a nice small carrying case, an extra 5 hour battery and a pretty sweet Mp3 player, I guess $400 isn't a bad deal. I needed an mp3 player anyway. It's a little heavier than I thought, but its small enough to be OK for traveling.