Okay, basically, I'll be starting college fairly soon and possibly be spending a lot of time on my family's land, which is out in the desert and lacks power except for a generator. Since I can't live without internet access, and since I'll need it for school anyways, I'm looking towards buying a laptop.
We're lower-middle-class (read: not rich) so the main selling point I'm looking for is that it's as cheap as humanly possible. Ideally, I'd like to get something around or below $600.
The second point is that, being that I'll be dropping a significant (to me) amount of money on said laptop, I need it to have longevity, since I most definitely will be using it for quite a few years before the possibility of buying another one comes up. So, I need a lappy that won't break down or blow the LCD or something.
As it will mostly be used for the usual college crap like taking notes and/or downloading pornography during lectures, I don't need a gaming rig with a 3.2 hyperthreaded P4 and a gig of PC400 RAM, but for the purpose of longevity, as I mentioned above, I'd like the fastest CPU I can get.
I'm okay with upgrades too, as long as it isn't anything major like HD replacement. I can justify shelling out for an extra 256MB of RAM, but I'd rather not have to spend $200 to replace the stock 20GB hard drive.
The only brand I've heard consistently good things about is IBM, every other make 'sucks' according to someone or other. I'd appreciate reccomendations (on brands in general or specific models) and references to any good deals you know of. Thanks in advance, and sorry for the huge post.
We're lower-middle-class (read: not rich) so the main selling point I'm looking for is that it's as cheap as humanly possible. Ideally, I'd like to get something around or below $600.
The second point is that, being that I'll be dropping a significant (to me) amount of money on said laptop, I need it to have longevity, since I most definitely will be using it for quite a few years before the possibility of buying another one comes up. So, I need a lappy that won't break down or blow the LCD or something.
As it will mostly be used for the usual college crap like taking notes and/or downloading pornography during lectures, I don't need a gaming rig with a 3.2 hyperthreaded P4 and a gig of PC400 RAM, but for the purpose of longevity, as I mentioned above, I'd like the fastest CPU I can get.
I'm okay with upgrades too, as long as it isn't anything major like HD replacement. I can justify shelling out for an extra 256MB of RAM, but I'd rather not have to spend $200 to replace the stock 20GB hard drive.
The only brand I've heard consistently good things about is IBM, every other make 'sucks' according to someone or other. I'd appreciate reccomendations (on brands in general or specific models) and references to any good deals you know of. Thanks in advance, and sorry for the huge post.