I'm thinking of turning in the old desktop for a laptop. While I have been building desktops for quite sometime. I really do not know much about the progression of hardware concerning laptops. If I was interested in buying a laptop for mostly surfing the net, getting email, and a little bit a gaming. What would you suggest. Now, remember! I'm still in graduate school and do not possess a ton of funds.

What should I look for a in laptop.

How long is a lifespan for the average laptop.

do you have your interested brand? IBM? DELL? HP? SONY? ACER?

I would look at Dell, and configure to your budget.

The lifespan as in hardware working is longer than the useablity of current software on notebook.
I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 that is over 5 years old, and running fine. Bought two batteries with it, and both were replaced near end of 3 year warranty, and are still holding charge.

<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

I'm actually looking at HP considering the they are the only manufacture that currently supports AMD. This is what I have configured.


Review your zv6000 series PC

price $924.00 *
instant rebate − $100.00
mail-in rebate − $50.00
price after rebate $774.00

Operating System Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2


Processor AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3200+ (2.0GHz/512KB L2 Cache)


Display 15.4" WXGA Widescreen (1280x800)


Graphics Card 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM)


Memory 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)
edit

Hard Drive 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive


Primary CD/DVD Drive DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive


Networking Integrated 56K Modem + 10/100 Ethernet LAN


Primary Battery 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by bjpatrick on 08/02/05 11:45 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

That is a pretty good setup. Dont expect to be able to play the latest greatest games to well with that video card. Any older games should run ok. The XPRESS 200M is ATI's answer to intel extreme graphics.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>