Need Laptop Buying Help!!

[sdxicana]

ARgggh. I"m in the process of trying to find a good laptop and I'm at my wits end, LOL. Soooo much crap to look at, and specs and blah blah blah blah blah. I basically need the laptop for school. I am starting a graduate program with all online classes, and I drive out of town a lot and spend most weekends out of town, so I need to have a good laptop where I can log into the net and be able to do all my word processing stuff on the go. I'm also on a bit of a budget, I need to be able to get something that won't run me more than 1500$ including the service plan and tax.
Maybe some of you can give me some guidance. OK so this is what I"m down to. I found a really good comp at Best Buy that i really like. Its a Gateway Notebook 6510GZ. Pentium M Processor 725, 80GB, CD/DVD Burner, 15.4" widescreen display with Ultrabright, and its 6.3 lbs. Then I found a couple at Dell for a comparable price. Both are Pentiums, one is the 6000 not as great specs as the gateway. The second one is on sale and has has more stuff, its the 9300, has a HUGE 17" screen but the sucker is like an over 8lb bohemith! Now, I"m not really convinced with Dell cuz I HATE buying something I cannot see and touch first and actually play with before buying to know that I'm really going to like it. ONLY reason I'm even considering Dell is cuz they are the ONLY company I know that offers the 'accident' insurance. LOL, so basically I'm debating, should I go for the 'idiot proof' insurance and pipe down and just get a Dell. Or just try to NOT be an idiot, and try hard to treat my laptop properly, lol, and buy a laptop I've seen and played with and that I seem to really like?
Another little detail. I was just approved for a comp with Dell, BUT, I don't qualify for the interest free until 2006. Which means I will have to pay the 21.99% friggin interest from the time I make my first payment. With Best Buy, I get 12 months no interest automatically cuz I already have an account with them, so that gives me a whole year to pay off my laptop interest free. That would add up to like an extra 400$ in just interest for the year alone otherwise and don't know if its really worth it. Argh, decisions decisions.

Hello

I recently got an Inspiron 6000 and am very happy with it (so far). I had to email Dell tech support requesting the OS CD, which was promptly mailed to me, so no problems there. They also did a follow-up on the 'accident insurance' which I declined. I'll take my chances, thanks I did, however, invest in a good laptop case for travel.

I have no personal experience with laptop purchases at Best Buy, but the interest-free deal definitely sounds like a Dell deal-breaker worthy of more consideration. Perhaps you can use the Best Buy interest-free terms as leverage with Dell and see if they won't give you a match.

[bombledmonk]

Yes, if you talk to the right people when purchasing they have a bit of latitude in offering deals if it will sell the machine.

[mrtekk]

Why don't you consider a real laptop and get an IBM ThinkPad? You can get one refurbished on some reputable sites or a good used one on eBay with a warranty. You'll be much better off in the long run. Forget the clamshell slabs.

[mrtekk]

Why don't you consider a real laptop and get an IBM ThinkPad? You can get one refurbished on some reputable sites or a good used one on eBay with a warranty. You'll be much better off in the long run. Forget the clamshell slabs.

[pianowizard]

Originally posted by mrtekk
Why don't you consider a real laptop and get an IBM ThinkPad? You can get one refurbished on some reputable sites or a good used one on eBay with a warranty. You'll be much better off in the long run. Forget the clamshell slabs.

I agree that IBM makes really good, sturdy notebooks. I just got an ultralight (3 lbs) Thinkpad 240 on eBay for only $156 shipping included. It's about 5 years old and has only 192MB RAM and 300 MHz Celeron CPU, but it runs Windows XP Pro, Office 2003, and other demanding programs surprisingly well. So, getting a cheap, somewhat outdated Thinkpads on eBay is not a bad idea.

Dell is usually not as reliable. The Inspiron 700m that I bought last October was already making ominous clicking sound the first time I used it! Fortunately, I have a 2-year warranty. Another Dell I own, an Inspiron 8200, likewise had problems (with its CD-RW drive) after just several months.

Anyway, what I really wanted to point out is that if you travel a lot with your laptop, make sure you get the lightest laptop that you can afford. I have a 5-lb Thinkpad 600E that I used to travel with for about two years and it really hurt my shoulders (I put it in my backpack). The 4.1-lb Inspiron 700m, though it's just 0.9 lbs lighter, made a very noticeable difference. But many very light notebooks don't have internal CD/DVD drives, so check before you buy.

[nmpls]

Gateway notebooks tend to be steaming piles. . . . .
My 2.5 year old gateway has had something RMAed at least every 3 months. Awful.
Lately, i'm been buying from powernotebooks.com (http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1980.html). Best service, great prices, and good quality.
I have an M5:6, but they have newer sonoma based notebooks that will kick its butt.

[Bloodlust]

I have had my dell xps gen 2 notebook for couple of weeks now, no problems the only neg is support line is india and had one guy just hang up on me so found number for sells in us and lady give me her personal ext if i needed any thing she said she would get me to quality
personnel and battery life is only about 3-4 hours but in the truck i have a converter to plug it in and just plug in when i am home or in a hotel.
I paid about 3200 for it but i picked extras that werent nessacary but made the gamer in me smile.