or talk me into buying a desktop instead


basically i carry my laptop to class from time to time, no real reason to...

need something that can handle my musical needs for downloading(im a DJ)
need something thats fast
need something that will hold up for awhile/durable
and something that looks fairly well, i mean i know this has nothing of real value, but aesthetics helps.
finally need something that will work on my budget.

9/12/2007 5:11:39 PM

for <=$500 you don't have very many options..its going to be bargain basement, cheapest parts etc. If you can stretch it up to $650 or so you'll get a MUCH more capable machine. Biggest things are to make sure you get at least 1GB of RAM and avoid Celerons.

The two places i'd look:

1) Bens Bargains:
http://bensbargains.net/
Look on the right hand side, midway down the page...and search for various things like "Dell" or "notebook" or "laptop" or "lenovo" etc to see some deals.

2) Local deals:
http://salescircular.com/nc/computer/laptpp.shtml

One nice think about going with Dell is you can still order computers with XP instead of Vista...if you want to go that route.

9/12/2007 5:18:31 PM

what about tiger direct

anything from there trusted?

9/12/2007 5:20:49 PM

^ are the deals there better than the ones I linked above?

I'd avoid them, and buy Dell...but thats just me.

Just go to Tiger Direct on Capital one evening. picture yourself waiting in those hellishly long lines staffed by incompetent people who don't care about their job. then go home and buy a dell.

9/12/2007 5:25:08 PM

Well I got a pretty good deal from Tiger Direct in NorthGate Mall in Durham.

A Gateway MX6961 (refurb, but thats ok) for $599 : heres the specs
http://www.support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Q106/BladeC/1014080Rsp2.shtml

May be a little more expensive now because I got it during their grand opening, but I don't think you can get a cheaper one with a Core Duo T7200, 2 gigs of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. It doesn't have many options like a card reader, but I have 2 other laptops that have em so I didn't need em.

9/12/2007 6:52:03 PM