k, the parents ordered a laptop for me today. They are ordering a Dell, through the Dell website (blah, blah, blah.... I know some of you don't like em, but I need constructive criticism not bashing!)

I got an E1505 Dual Core

Soemthing along the lines of this: http://www.dell.com/content/products...n&*=dhs&~ck=mn

But cost a lot more.... :? Good buy?

I love my Inspiron notebook.
It hasn't given me any trouble since I got it 2 years ago......knock on wood.

Cost , yes they get you with the options.

good to hear, thanks paul!

I got The Missus a Dell laptop a few months back (which is actually better than mine). It'* a Latitude D620. The only bad thing I can say about it is that I don't like (read "not used to") the widescreen display. And the display doesn't seem to be as sharp or bright as my thinkpad

Other than that, it is an excellent machine

If you would have gotten a desktop I would have vented to you all the times I have had a technician come out and fix the computer....but since you have a laptop I won't say nothing because I know nothing about them. I have a Gateway laptop, when I was in the market, Dell was going through the whole recall thing plus with all the problems with my desktop I said no thank you to a laptop from them. All my friends enjoy theirs. Just make sure to get a extended warranty, I got the four year warranty with the desktop and man I'm I glad I did, the problems didn't start until after two years, well after the standard one year limited warranty.
I don't think that was bashing

Just got my Dell XPS 600 3.0 ghz (refurb) last friday. This is one awsome PC.

Yeah, they're excellent, I have a toshiba satellite myself, but I like dell laptops alot more. They are very solidly built, as are HP'* notebooks. You've made an excellent choice John.

7200RPM notebook hdd = for the win.
anything slower is a major pet peeve of mine.

the refurb store at dell is a heck of a deal.
i got my system which contains:

dimension E521
AMD Athlon 3800 Processor
1 GB DDR2
1 DVDRW
1 CDRW
160GB HDD

$300 with shipping plus tax (before any discounts/promotions)
The same system was retailing for $600 at the time.

I've built my own computers from scratch since 1998 but most recently I could get a much better deal buying a dell vs building my own..I'm not hardcore into games anymore either just browsing and movies.

In my office we have a Precision 690 with dual prescotts dual core ($3000 for two processors), 15K SAS drives in a Raid 0, 16GB ram and 4 monitors. Around $15,000 for the desktop designed for CAD work and 3d design/creation.

BonnevilleLERocks:
http://www.gateway.com/battery/
Make sure your gateway'* battery is not in their recall, they had one the same time dell did (a little later, dell was the first to come forward)

You have got to be kidding on that price.

Can I order one like that or is it only available in the USA :?:
......maybe you could do a transfer shipment for me.
I'll gladly pay an extra $100 for shipping at that price.