I've had two of the newer model (last 2-3 yrs) Inspirons and they were fine. Not outstanding but ok. Never had any serious problems with them but I didn't care for the case design and it costed far too much for a high-res monitor (1680x1050) upgrade. If the base model is what you're looking for, they're a decent bang for the buck, IMO.
I'm on an HP DV9000 right now which is quite good for what I wanted. It's closer to a desktop-replacement than a super-portable. 17" screen, full size keyboard with number bad. It's not bad but if you are planning to go with XP, don't bother. Getting XP set up on this took far too many hours and finding drivers was a nightmare. If you want XP, make sure that the manufacturer supports it and provides drivers.
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