A suggestion-

The P4 is a real power hog and will a) drain a battery like nothing you’ve seen before, and 2) boost the cost into an unnecessarily high realm. I’d recommend staying with a P3 or AthlonXP, as they consume far less power.

You will have a hard time finding a 1.4 MHz processor, but 1.2 GHz P3s start at $1075.

I have been thoroughly satisfied with my Sony VAIO PCG-F580. It is a 650 MHz machine with a 15″ monitor and 12 gigs of storage space. There is an auction for one closing on eBay in 3+ hours.

You can throw a wireless card in whenever you want. A bit cumbersome but…

Sam

I looked on pricegrabber and they had some good prices on Sony P4 1.5’s, but without the network card…

anyone up for some golf this afternoon?

My opinion on laptops:

a 14 or 15in screen in nice, but they aren’t all the same. My 14 in SXGA+ screen with a resolution of 1400×1050 is amazing…and they have one with a resolution of 1600×1200 that I think is a little small. It works out to 86% more screen realestate….I will never go back to 1024×768.

I have a pIII 1ghz….it’s very fast. Sam is right about the power consumption of the p4 and the speed increase is very minimal….but with a Dell it might be your only option.

I love my internal wireless network card, more and more places have a wireless network, and not having to carry a card around to put in and check for wireless is awesome. It’s just a nice little surprise to find you have connectivity.

Sony makes some really sexy laptops…dell’s are not as sexy but they are known to have the best service. I had my keyboard replaced after I dropped a fan on it with no questions asked. Next day on site service is worth the extra hundred for three years. I’ve already gotten it back.

I was just looking at dell. With a 15in screen requirement…the small laptops are out. I have an Inspiron 4100.

Buy extra RAM at crucial.com and install it yourself. Having 512MB is nice.

Thanks for the great feedback guys!

Online auctions are usually a good option, but I don’t have very good comfort level with online auctions. I prefer buying $1,000+ items from a vendor that will provide a service agreement for 3-4 years, like Sony or Dell.

What the call on refurbished items??

I have a refurbished Vaio GR390 (1.2GHz Pentium III, 512MB, 30GB, DVD/CD-RW, Windows XP, 15″ TFT) available for $1,450 w. tax and shipping.

If that’s not good, then here’s a similar, new Vaio GRX520 (1.6GHz Pentium 4-M, 256 MB, 30 GB, DVD/CD-RW, Windows XP, 15″ TFT) for $1,456 w. tax and shipping

- Michael

I feel that buying a laptop is a much different purchase than buying a desktop computer. I will not buy a new laptop without a good warranty because they just don’t sell the parts you’d need if something broke. A ‘90 days parts and labor’ warranty isn’t much help next year when you keyboard stops working. These things cost so much that I’d like to have a good warranty covering it for at least 2 years, as that is my minimum expected life of ownership.

Because of my experiences with Dell, I highly and exclusively recommend them for computer purchases. Their prices are competitive, and again service on a laptop should be a major consideration. I can’t speak for Sony or HP owners and their experiences with service.

Tips for buying from Dell. Call their ‘Small Business’ division, you’ll usually save at least $50 and can often order the computer without some software you might already own. Not part of a company…make one up, they don’t care. Also, check back over a week or so. You’ll find that some of their deals are more beneficial to what you want to buy.

Which computer did you get?

Still looking. I have a friend with a one-year old Dell Inspiron 8200. It has all of the above and more, and two years service left and he will probably sell for around $1000.

Otherwise, I will probably go with a new notebook from one of the non-vendor sites (pricegrabber or cnet) and buy additional warranty from the original manufacturer… not sure if that’s possible, but worth a shot