Tas, please come to the Computer Room.....

[Tek_Freek]

Here's how I usually narrow it down. It is still a bit overwhelming at times, but you have to start somewhere. I use this website for two reasons when helping others with purchases. First it is really easy to alter the listing by price, manufacturer, CPU, amount of RAM, etc. Just pick what you want at the left side. Use the Back button to revert and change to a different combination. Second, they are very competitive price-wise. If you find a product in a store within $25.00-$50.00 it's worth the extra to have the supplier local.

Newegg.com - PCs & Laptops,Laptops, Notebooks & Netbooks,Laptops / Notebooks,$500 - $750,

Sorted by what they consider "best Match" whatever that entails.

Here is the same list in lowest to highest price

Newegg.com - PCs & Laptops,Laptops, Notebooks & Netbooks,Laptops / Notebooks,$500 - $750,

This is a list of laptops in the $500 - $750 dollar range. As you may have already noticed Gateway has been eliminated (not from the list, by more than one of us here) and I do lean towards Dell being a not right now, they seem to be dropping the ball a bit on quality. Their service if you need parts or replacement, however, is excellent. Lenovo desktops I have purchased and placed with clients have been in service over a year with no calls or complaints. I have no experience with their laptops.

If it's any indication (but not really an advertisement) both our laptops are HP.

Toshiba, Sony, HP, Compaq (also HP) are good and can be purchased locally.

I have heard Acer and Asus are good, but I have no experience with them.

From the description you give you don't need a powerhouse laptop. Of course, even the inexpensive ones make mine look like a slogger!

I would recommend a dual core CPU either AMD or Intel, although Intel seems to be a ahead in the bang for the buck right now.

At least 2GB RAM more if it's available.

Hard drive size? Well the cheapest one on the list has 120GB and it will take you a long time to fill that.

Vista Home Premium 64 bit. Keep in mind that it will run both 64 and 32 bit applications. If you use Internet Explorer and use Flash (pretty much a given) you need to run 32 bit Explorer because Flash isn't available from Adobe in a 64 bit version. If this is confusing, don't let it bother you. If you ever run into problems just ask here. I am by no means the only tech on these forums.

I do agree with Mike regarding Windows 7. I have no idea when it will be released, and have no faith in any date given by Microsoft since they consistently run very late with their releases. If you can wait Win7 sounds like a better OS. I have the Beta and have tinkered with it on a PC that has three drives in it. One with XP, one with Vista Ultimate, and one with Win7 Beta. Win7 certainly outdoes Vista, and I think it is a tad faster than XP, too. But I must also tell you that I have had no problems with Vista, either on my desktop or my wife's laptop.

With all that said about Vista and Win7 note that the cheapest one in the list, a Toshiba Satellite Pro has the option of "downgrading" to XP Pro. Not a bad idea. About the only thing I dislike is the 1GB RAM, but if you ended up with XP on it, it would run fast. You can always add RAM. It will take 4GB max. $530.00

You know, the more I look at that laptop, the more I like it. It has a 1 gigabit lan card and wireless, multi DVD/CD drive, 3 USB ports and an esata/USB combo port, built-in card reader. Not bad.

Here's the link:

Newegg.com - TOSHIBA Satellite Pro S300-EZ1512 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T3400(2.16GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 1GB Memory DDR2 800 120GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel GMA 4500M - Laptops / Notebooks

In looking a further I also found a Toshiba, very similar, without the XP option, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 100 megabit LAN, and pretty close on everything else, and it has an option to buy a Targus laptop kit containing a laptop cooler, carrying case, and a wireless mouse. $499 for just the computer, $539 with the Targus kit. $40.00 is a good price for that kit.

Here is that link:

Newegg.com - TOSHIBA Satellite L305-S5921 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T3400(2.16GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 2GB Memory DDR2 800 160GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel GMA 4500M - Laptops / Notebooks

Mike, or anyone else, do you see anything that isn't kosher on either of these?

[tasmtairy]

Ok Mods please move this thread to "computers"

Thanks,

Thanks for everything guys!! I will dm you for more info, unless AksarbeN wants to keep this open for kicks and giggles!!

[Tek_Freek]

Tas,

Prepare yourself for some more advice. Those techies over there love to help!!!!!

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by AksarbeN

There was nothing wrong with DOS 3.1 but DOS 5.0 worked better for me. Can I downgrade from Vista to DOS?

LOL.. sure you can, just run Windows command shell (run, then cmd.exe) you can run Microsoft's old DOS 3.1 commands, plus newer ones.

[bjh]

Originally Posted by Ronzou

I use Vista. It runs just fine. Never once had a problem with it. Play video games, listen to music, browse the net, FTP my work, all at once just fine.

My understanding is it is a problem on machines where it is an upgrade. My laptop has Vista and also no problems, but it came with it.

[rrtechno]

I know you can't get it for $500, but I have really become attached to my MacBook. I run the Mac OS for most things, but if I need to run something in Windows, I just launch Fusion and boot up my XP and do what needs to be done. 2 computers for the price of 1.