I'm thinking of buying a new laptop.  I'm not looking for the most expensive thing out there.  I would like to stay under $750.00 if possible.  Generally looking for something that will do word and excel documents, store photos' from my digital camera ,surf the web, download and store MP3's, burn CD's, maybe DVD's if price isnt that much more.  What are Must have in the way  processor speeds, how much RAM do I really need, Hard drive size, should I go with the internal wireless modem?  I'm not much into playing computer games.

Best bang for buck right now is a entry level Dell .

Never buy a TOL laptop because you will be pissed two weeks later .

Quoted: Best bang for buck right now is a entry level Dell . Never buy a TOL laptop because you will be pissed two weeks later .

TOL?

Powerbook

Quoted: Quoted: Best bang for buck right now is a entry level Dell . Never buy a TOL laptop because you will be pissed two weeks later . TOL?

Top Of Line

The best Thinkpad you can afford would be my inclination.

ETA: Didn't see the $750 limiter.

Probably a Dell then.  They aren't the best but in that price range you'll likely get the most bang for your buck.

I always tell people that a laptop is not the place to skimp.  Spend as much as you can.  There really is a difference in component quality at the higher levels.

My feeling about laptops is get more memory and get the better/best graphics card/processor.  I find that the base processor is plenty for most things, but they lack in terms of memory and graphics.  Buy only the minimum processing power needed and no more, otherwise you will be wasting money.

Office max ad today ...

ETA: In the Printed Salt Lake Tribune today.. 30 March 2006.... but your local store might have the same deal.... check your newspaper ...

$649 out the door ... (no mail in rebate just an instant $50 off from $699 ) Toshiba...

Will also burn DVD's ..

Ted...

Just remember (and I'm sure you already know this) that there is very limited upgradeability with laptops.  Usually what you get is what you have.  Sometimes you can add ram (but often not) and the drives can/may be swappable--an option worth looking into.  

Decide what you want to spend and get as much packed into it for the buck.  

Dells tend to be a pretty good buy... good bang for your buck.

If you can spend a bit more get an Apple iBook.

Hell, I thought this was a BOTD thread.

Dell or Toshiba

Quoted: The best Thinkpad you can afford would be my inclination. ETA: Didn't see the $750 limiter.

Not a problem.

Check out the Lenovo/IBM Thinkpads at newegg.com. Several models are available for $750 or less (including rebates) - and that's delivered to your doorstep, with no sales tax.

• 3-year warranty (first year free labor)
• XP Pro installed on every system at no extra cost
• Legendary build quality
• Unbeatable documentation and service after the sale

Quite possibly the best (non-Mac) long-term laptop investment you'll ever make.

Quoted: If you can spend a bit more get an Apple iBook.

Ibooks fall apart. Even my Apple koolaid drinking partner at work will admit it.

Powerbooks seem to last much longer.


Whatever laptop somone gets. GEt accidental damage protection from the Mfr. Not a third party company like SafeWAre.

IBM- if you ever have to send it in, they will replace every part EXCEPT the one that is having the issue. No lie, They are teh suck. Units are great when they work, just pray you never have to send it in.

HP, they stand behind their products better but occasionally lose stuff when you ship to em. Units come back without HDD and batery etc. Sometimes they lose the unit. Stay away from the nx6110 it has issues

Dell, fairly stout construstion. 300 series are teh suck though.

HP Pavillion, Compaq Presario, AVeratec and Acer all are flimsy as  hell.

Sony are decent. We dont get too many where we work but not too bad.

Toshiba have crapy HDDs and the plastics seem kind of flimsy. Actually are probably built by the same that make ACer, Averatec, Pavillion and Presario. VERY similar.

Apple- ibooks seem pretty flimsy as compared to the powerbook.

Panasonic? real nice, but $$$$$$$

Gateways actualy seem pretty decent but we hardly get them through my department. Not as widespread as thye used to be.

I would probably get the Dell for the $$

Gateway / E-Machines make decent machines for decent prices.  The parts aren't top of the line in the more entry level of course.  Just a 4200 RPM harddrive, and maybe PC2700 RAM.  The one I have that is now two generations old is the Gateway 7426.  It can be found for about $800 with a bit of searching.  AMD 64 mobile Athlon 3700, a gig of RAM, 100 gig hard drive, CD/RW, DVD+R/RW (-R/RW too I think), and a Radeon mobility 9600 with only 64 megs of video ram.  It sounds like it would do what you need.

Get at least an AMD Athlon 64 in the mid to upper 3000+ range, or an Intel mobile CPU, the 700 weries is their best.  Don't get a desktop P4 in a laptop, they have horrible battery lives, and are slower in this use than the mobile P4's.  Centrino is just a marketing term that means it has a mobile P4, and an Intel Wi-Fi card built in.  Skip the Semprons and Celerons, they aren't much cheaper for the performance loss.
The biggest hard drive you can get, and the most RAM, and it still won't be enough.  Especially fi you want to have a lot of MP3's, and photos.  A 40 gig hard drive will end up being pretty small in a few months.  Look at a hundred, and consider an external drive in the future for keeping photos and whatnot that you can just leave at home, or a 2.5 inch external that will fit into your carry case.
I'd suggest at least a 512MB of RAM as well.  Anything less is not enough for Windows, and more might up the price too much, but a gig if you can afford it would be the sweet spot of price and performance.
Also check out www.notebookforums.com/ for a lot more information. They tend to focus on the performance and modded laptops, but there is still a ton of info that you can get for a good basic, utility rig.