Best notebook for $800?

[imported_swishbish33]

I need a suggestion for the best notebook for about $800 including shipping and tax (damned California). It *should* have integrated wireless and 512MB of RAM. Those are the only requirements my friend has. Thanks everyone.

 

[Ionizer86]

Welcome to AT! $800 for 512MB and wifi isn't asking for much at all. Most base config laptops come with wifi now along with 256MB ram. An extra piece of 512MB DDR runs about $45 (256MB for about $25), and if the laptop uses DDR2, that's even cheaper (about $70 for 1GB).

With $800 your friend can ask for more, or your friend could downsize the budget. With that said, are we looking for something with more portability or a bigger screen? How about expected battery life? Hard disk size? Drive type, CPU type?

 

[imported_swishbish33]

Ha, I used to post here under a different name, but I can't for the life of me remember what the email was, so I signed up fresh. Thanks for the welcome though.

I was looking at the Dell B130, Gateway NX200S, and the HP ze2000z. How about Lenovo? Lots of good things about those, but the price tag seems higher than the others.

I think the bigger screen is more important than weight/portability. The Dell and the HP have 15" screens, which I think is a big plus with her. My friend won't be transporting it much, maybe between her house and her boyfriend's. She'll plug it in most of the time, so battery life isn't a huge deal either.

Hard disk is not important at all, 40gb is plenty. This notebook is going to be used for email, homework, internet surfing - basic tasks.

CPU type is a question mark. Celeron-Ms in the Dell and Gateway, Sempron 3000+ in the HP. What's the performance difference? I think for her, the difference won't be extremely crucial/noticeable. But I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks everyone.

 

[bREwIn dOdgEr dUDe]

i purchased the ibm/lenovo r50e from newegg for $749 with no shipping, included a free stick 512mb upgrade, i've been using wirelessly now for about a month, and i have been very happy with its quality and performance to price... here's the specs:

#1842STU
P-M 725 1.6ghz
256MB
40GB HD (4200rpm)
win xp pro
cdrw-dvd
15" tft
802.11b/g wifi
modem/nic

i think the pricing has gone up, you may find the same deal elsewhere at lower cost...

 

[Ionizer86]

Not too sure about the Dell B130, but their few month old budget laptops (1200 and 2200 models) had poor battery life and sometimes came with NiCad batteries (customers would have to pay extra for LiIon). As for the HP 2000 series, if it's the sempron/turion 14" wide that I'm thinking about, I think the laptop's battery life is 2.5 hours max and your friend would rather have a 15 or 15.4 instead of a 14".

If you're considering the Thinkpad, here's how you can get one for a good price. Same model that brewin dodger has, the cheapest R50e with a pentium M:

$779 from Newegg then fill out $100 rebate. With some of the below budget money, it'd be easy to add another 512MB ram.

I have the 14.1" version, and it's been nice. 4+ hours of battery life after tweaking out a pentium m, a fan that stays off most of the time, a nice keyboard, wifi, trackpoint, and all tthat jazz. Finally, affordable thinkpads

 

[i game with a gateway]

Originally posted by: bREwIn dOdgEr dUDe
i purchased the ibm/lenovo r50e from newegg for $749 with no shipping, included a free stick 512mb upgrade, i've been using wirelessly now for about a month, and i have been very happy with its quality and performance to price... here's the specs:

#1842STU
P-M 725 1.6ghz
256MB
40GB HD (4200rpm)
win xp pro
cdrw-dvd
15" tft
802.11b/g wifi
modem/nic

i think the pricing has gone up, you may find the same deal elsewhere at lower cost...

i have the same one except purchased from lenovo in september when had free 512mb and cpu upgrade for, i think it was $850 or $750, i cannot remember. linuxator also has one but upgraded his

great notebook

 

[cheesehead]

I have a HP NC4010. Very nice laptop. 800$ at geeks.com. However, they lack an internal optical drive, and the battery life is only three hours. I own one and love it.
That said, the R50e is one heackuva notebook. If you don't need a hyper-portable, I'd go for it.

 

[mroverclocker]

BEst notebook for 800..HP v2000z after rebates below 800, and its the best notebook/price performance, i was thinking about getting it. Configure it with a turion 37ml, 256mb always can upgrade, 40gb ,briteview, standard 8xdvd,broadcom wireless. I didnt need big hard drive nor memory since i have a 7200rpm drive slap it in there with the turion, and it'll kick some centrino 1.86 ass..that cost like 1200.

 

[The Linuxator]

Thinkpad R50e.

 

[jessieqwert]

iBook G4 12" from Amazon. Airport, Bluetooth, 512mb, nice!