My friend is looking for a good laptop, for under 1000 dollars. She wants to be able to do the basics, like word processing, internet ect, and a CD Burner would be nice. What do you suggest? She'd probably want something with some sort of warranty.

not sure but I remember someone on WHT linking to this site...

http://www.powernotebooks.com

here's a notebook from the site she might be interested in... (no burner included in this one, altho im sure you can get it added)

--------------------------------------------
Sager NP2280-C

14.1" XGA TFT Active Matrix
Intel Pentium III 1.13GHz
10.0GB Ultra DMA Hard Drive
128MB (1 DIMM) PC133 SDRAM
24X CD
3.5" 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive
Built-in 56k V.90 Data/Fax Modem
Built-in 10/100BaseT Ethernet w/RJ-45 Jack
Built-in IEEE 1394 (Firewire)
Deluxe Carrying Case
Productivity Software Bundle
Smart Li-ion Battery

Cash Discounted Price
$980.00
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very high ratings at resellerratings.com - http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1980.html

any lappy under 1000 dollars isnt going to be from a decent make. when i say decent make i mean ibm or tosh. compaq used to make half decent laptops but have gone into the bulk cheap rubbish market. dell have started to inflict a little bit of quality in their machines but your still going to get the same problems,
-cracked hinges
-dead keys after short periods of use
-coating coming off case
-poor battery life
-very poor resistance to the rough life
-poor performance. (yes it does matter, benchmark an ibm p3 1gig against a ying tong special 1 gig and the ibm will be 10% faster at least.)

personally considering what you friend wants to do i would reccommend a refurbished ibm or tosh with an external cd writer or internal if you can find one. the reliability and quality will be well worth sacrificing the newness.
the bottom of the range tosh's arent made by tosh anymore unfortunately. theyre just branded clones. i have an ibm a 21 m and the amount of hassel, knocks, drops, varying conditions etc its been put through and keeps on kicking is amazing. previous laptop was a tosh portege which was simply amazing, it got left out overnight in the rain and worked fine the next day. if you cant afford new quality then buy refurbed quality. i couldnt reccomend buying new rubbish. all the clones come out of one or two factories and demostrate the very worst workmanship ive ever seen.

For the basic tasks you've described, consider Celeron or Duron chips. They are cheaper. Also consider getting a refurbished laptop. But get it DIRECTLY from the company website. Here are good spots for refurbished laptops directly from manufacturer (they usually come with at least 3 months of warranty. Don't forget to read the small print):

Refurbished Dell Laptops from Dell (http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfh/products/line_notebooks.htm)

Compaq Factory Outlet (http://www.compaqfactoryoutlet.com/)

Or just go to any manufacturer website and look for their refurbished products. They usually give you warranty.

If you want to stay away from refurbished, visit this site (http://www.techbargains.com/coupons.cfm) and look for Dell coupons. Then go to the Dell (http://www.dell.com) website and start with the cheapest laptops (http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/products/series_inspn_notebooks.htm). Then apply the coupons, and voila. Many times Dell offers no S/H with coupon and no tax. :)

I like Dells. They're good computers. Their customer service is awesome and they usually hold up in price when you want to sell your used laptop (just look at eBay). Other good brands are:

Toshiba (http://www.toshiba.com)
Sony Vaio (http://www.sonystyle.com/vaio/)
IBM (http://www.ibm.com)

:)

Good luck!

Jessica

i'll have to agree with enlightened jessica above!!!! go to the major's websites and look for their factory direct or refurb areas. you can get compaqs, dells, gateways, and many other name brands for much much less than retail. WITH warranty.

try IBM, their laptops look so elegant.. monitor opens and closes smoothly... it also has large monitors.. its skins has a smoother texture than Dell's...

and their cases are by far cuter/more compact than Dell's. Dell's monitors are usually smaller than IBMs.

:D

well, and IBM hardddrives run more quietly than any others..
VAIO has the best design of all, but they are too fancy i think.

ML

Originally posted by nmluan
try IBM, their laptops look so elegant.. monotor opens and closes smoothly... it also have large monotor.. its skins has a smoother texture than Dell's... I know plenty of people who have and are happy with Dells and Gateways and whatever... but at my company we've used IBM laptops for years and I've been nothing but impressed. I have a cheap i-series powerbook that's three years old. I carried it between home and office every day for two years, I bang it around a fair bit -- not one glitch or complaing. And, it's the only model I've ever tried where I actually find the "pointing stick" to be intuitive!

These days I pretty much work at a desktop both at home and office, and I tend to have access to a workstation at client locations, and I like to take advantage of airliner time to do something other than work so rarely use one on a plane. So I don't use a laptop much now, but I'll probably get a new IBM just for those occasional times when I do want the convenience.

But.... actually on topic for the original post, I couldn't get one for under $1000. But isn't a new laptop for under a grand something akin to a full service hosting account with 10 gigs of transfer for under $2/month?

Ya get what ya pay for.

IBM and Dell make very good laptops. IBM tends to be more expensive compaired to other companies so if you're looking for a low-priced laptop, go with Dell.

ive had a sager laptop for a while and while its still functioning, ive had a number of problems with it as have several other people i know who have bought a laptop from sager, qualitys not really up there. Id recommend dell