I have a dell inspiron 8600. I've had it for a couple of years and it's been a road warrior for me as I travel frequently on business. It's a little heavy but worth it IMHO. It has the centrino chip, 512 mb ram, upgraded video, a cd-rw, wide screen, and wired, wireless, and phone modem for connecting in any environment.
It's a little (actually considerably given the way I had it configured) more than your budget, but there are several good performers at your price range. My experience with Dells is much like my thoughts about purchasing cars. If they're going to break or be problematic they're usually a problem from the start. If you can't fix it quickly and have the problem resolved for good, settle up with the company that sold it or dump it. Seriously, I've owned a couple of Dell desktops and the laptop and my employer has a Dell contract. I have an older C610 Latitude in my office with Win98se on it. My wife's is an 8200 that won't die and my daughter has the first one I bought, a PIII 633mhz machine that even her kids can't kill-but they're trying (I just re-formatted it. Had 694 pieces of adware / spyware on it.) I've since moved on to building them myself, but I have no complaint with the laptops. Some on this list are less favorably inclined toward Dell so expect lots of mixed views. Regards Vince Vincent Winterling Vineland, NJ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bobby Heid Sent: Monday, August 01, 2005 2:26 PM To: 'The Hardware List' Subject: [H] Which laptop? Hey, I have a friend that has asked me to pick them out a laptop with a $1200 budget. This budget includes a wireless router and carrying case. So basically I have about $1100 to spend. I have always heard fairly good stuff about the mid to upper range Dells. I have heard some good stuff and some not good stuff about the Toshibas. What is the general consensus for a good laptop? Some things I want at a minimum are: 512MB RAM 40GB 5400rpm HD Pentium M processor (non-Celeron as it will be plugged in most of the time). Possibly wide-screen format. Thanks, Bobby
