Member Avatar for rybo

So as I will soon be going to college, I am searching for a suitable laptop. I am going into Computer Info Systems, so I need it to be something I can program on, etc...

Also, being a high school kid, I'm poor, so I'm trying to spend 500-700 bucks OR LESS.

I plan on trying to get a Windows laptop w/ XP instead of Vista, and then most likely adding the normal open source programs (ie openoffice, firefox, thunderbird, etc).

One of the main things I am looking for is portability/compactness. I am not a fan of the very extremely wide screens.

Any suggestions as to what I may look for? I am not in need of an excessively large hard drive...I don't store movies or songs on my computer since I manually manage my iPod, and I will not be clogging it up with tons of extra software/programs.

Thanks guys!

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by GrimJack
Member Avatar for ScudRunner50

Check out Dell, they still allow you to get XP on their 15.1" model and if you go into the Small/Medium Business section you can get any of those computers with XP. Another upside to Dell is that they offer AMD chips in many of their laptops now. If you have any specific questions about what you need for individual components post here and we'll get back to you.

Member Avatar for bobbyraw

I agree deel is the better site for cheap, portability. HP and sony on the other hand is Very good but might be out of your range. IF you have registered for college already you might want to check out if they offer discount from dell ( most college are registered with dell for discount)

Member Avatar for GrimJack

Check out Fryes - they generally have laptop specials in that range - getting XP might be a problem, though. I ended up sucking it up and accepting VISTA - if it gets too bad, I will pick up XP and dual boot. I walked into Office Depot while they were unloading some Toshibas - it is a Satelite A215 w/2 gigs of ram built in w/less. It was $700 (I finally received the rebates so it was actually $500). It is not much but does what I want it to do -- I will probably buy the docking station shortly as I don't actually use it directly - I have w/l mouse/kybrk and external monitor.

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