5. Some Under $700 Notebook Candidates

The following best buys were available at the time of this writing. I can't guarantee you'll find them throughout the entire Back to School period, but it doesn't cost anything to check. As you may have noticed, you'll find referrals to vendors that sell the products I discuss here in the little boxes at the top right of each page of this article.

HP dv1000t

Generally you can buy HP notebooks only from HP. That doesn't mean HP doesn't price competitively. They watch the competition closely and price accordingly. However, sometimes HP can be a little behind the pricing curve, especially up against more aggressive competitors like Toshiba and Dell. Always compare HP notebooks with others for price and value and remember that by and large HP produces some of the most well built and reliable notebook products on the market.

The dv1000t series is one of HP's most venerable and high quality mobile computing products. Our referral for the dv1000t shows the notebook priced at $719 with a $50 rebate. Go over to the site and you'll get another $100 in instant savings, bringing the price down to $569.99. Be sure to select the Customize button, because the $100 savings is only available on customizable models. The computer is outfitted pretty much like the generic under $700 notebook I discussed in the first section of this article. However, with a base price of $569.99, you'll be able do to a little bit of judicious upgrading along the lines mentioned in the section on upgrading. This deal also includes a free upgrade from a 40 GB to 60 GB hard disk drive, a free wireless upgrade and free shipping.

Compaq Presario V2000z

HP has a great deal on a Compaq Presario V2000z notebook. This one has a 1.8 GHz AMD Sempron 3100+ CPU, 256 MB of memory, a 40 GB hard disk drive, ATI's Radeon Xpress 200M graphics processor, a 14" wide screen display, a CD-DVD R drive, Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works and Money. After $200 instant savings and a $100 mail-in rebate, the V2000z costs $399.90. That leaves a lot of spare cash for a variety of upgrades before you hit the $700 limit.