Any good laptop deals for back to school?

[Kipper is King]

I am looking into getting a laptop for university. I will need it for taking notes, running powerpoints and occasional Internet surfing, so high power is not a priority. I sure as heck don't need discrete graphics, smooth HD playback, etc.

I need a 10 inch to 15 inch screen- it's gotta fit in a backpack.

So, does anyone know of any particularly good deals? I hope to spend $500 or less if I can. The cheaper, the better, Suggest any good deals you know of even if they may not exactly meet my above criteria. I just want the best bang for my buck!

Thanks CP!

[Rathji]

Just some random links I have pulled up. I use Dell because when I did have hardware issues they got resolved as long as it was under warranty. Sometimes there was frustration in getting it to happen, but I assume that is true when dealing with any warranty.

Dell Inspirion 15
Basic Dell entry level machine, more powerful than you *need* but can't hurt.


Dell Mini 10
I have not looked into Netbooks in a while, but Dell seems to have a similar product as when I did before. They are among the cheapest netbooks, but they used to max at 1 gig of RAM. If they still do, I would spend a bit more and get a the aspire one listed below.


AspireOne
I always thought the first models of these were good machines for the money spent. This model is a bit newer, more powerful, and is a bit more expensive than the older ones (and the Dell Mini 10), but more RAM, HDD. If you wanted to cut costs I am sure they have models that allow you to do so, but my opinion is 2 gigs of RAM is the best bet.

[Titan]

i know, out of price range but still funny,

[wooohooo]

Oh my God. What kind of lecture is this... how to use a Mac book? That's a disturbingly insane amount of macs out there. Yikes! (I'm a true and dedicated PC guy )

If this is going to be your main computer, like not just a note taking one... you're better off getting something with a bigger keyboard like a 13-15 incher. With the keyboard, make sure it's not super loud. Nothing like being in a quiet library with a CLAK CLAK CLAK CLAK silence... CLAK CLAK... it just gets really really annoying.

And get a light notebook, your shoulders will thank you later.

[NuclearFart]

I got an amazing deal on a XPS Dell Laptop just last month, about 1100$ off what they had originially tried to quote me:

Find the laptop you want on the dell.com website, then google that model for any extra discount E-codes that are floating around. Once you've got a price (save a photo of the checkout screen), find it on dell.ca where it will be significantly more. When you talk to their sales people they'll smugly tell you that you can't buy from dell.com because you live in canada, and therefore must submit to the canadian markup. That's when you tell them you're going to the US for a month, where you'll have a US address, so there is nothing stopping you from buying it there (and save money on some taxes), but you'd like to give dell.ca the chance to match the price so that you can get the laptop a little sooner. The salesperson quickly changed their tone and then had to speak with someone higher up to authorize it, but I got it at 50% off the best .ca price.

In truth I actually was going to be heading to states etc, but they never tried to call my bluff once. The sales person was whining about not making any commision either, but he had a quota of sales to fill for the month.

[Kipper is King]

I have been looking at this one. It seems pretty well spec'd for a netbook.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodde...24&catid=28597

I would immediatly install Windows 7 on it, methinks.

Any opinions on that netbook?

[Rathji]

It doesn't have the Atom chip, which is supposed to be the most power efficient chip that Intel has, no idea if this is a comparable AMD chip or not, but I would look into it.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

I'm selling an Apple G4 ibook for $250 and it comes with MS Office 2004...

[Bobblehead]

Only the newest netbooks will be able to handle HD video.

[3 Justin 3]

Maybe a bit too much for you, but I thought a good deal. This.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Kipper is King

I have been looking at this one. It seems pretty well spec'd for a netbook.

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodde...24&catid=28597

I would immediatly install Windows 7 on it, methinks.

Any opinions on that netbook?

You'd have to buy windows 7 as I don't think vista home basic qualifys for the free upgrade.

[Bertuzzied]

There is a 16 inch msi with a non shared 512mb video card for $549 at futureshop. Pretty good deal.