Looking for advice on laptop purchasing, any help at all would be appreciated. I’m pretty computer literate (have built a couple desktops), but I’ll be purchasing my first laptop soon (for law school). I’ve read the laptop guide and found it helpful, but I still need a little guidance…

Basic things I’m looking for:

-Decent quality… i.e. no worse than Dell. I don’t need anything top of the line, but would like a good sound card at least. This computer will basically be for playing music (through my own speakers, of course) and doing schoolwork, so K|N, et al are out of my price range.

-Must be a PC: My school’s networks have problems with Macs.

-Windows XP: Not interested in dealing with Vista right now… once it’s matured in a year or so, I’ll upgrade through my school for $50

-Low cost: i.e. something below $1200, including warranty; preferable $1000 or below. Anyone know when new Dell coupons will hit slickdeals, etc.?

-Minimum 3-year parts and labor warranty: This part of the process is proving to be a real headache. I’ve found lots of great deals on Newegg, et al, but they all seem to lack Dell’s warranty prowess. I really need this for convenience purposes… but then Dell gets a terrible resellerrating.

-Portability: I don’t need something ultra-portable, but my ideal screen size is 14.1-15.4 and weight as little as possible of course

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Some of the systems I’ve looked at thus far:

-Dell Inspiron 1501: Seemed fine, and I found a good config on Dell Small Business for only $900, but got blasted at notebookreview: http://www.notebookreview.com/defa [...] piron+1501

-Dell Inspiron 1420: Reviews well, but Dell refuses to config it with Windows XP – any (free) way around this? http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2150869,00.asp

-Other Dells: Maybe E1505 or D-series… I’ve also heard Dell is coming out with new stuff soon, Vostro and so forth.

-Lenovo ThinkPad T61: Apparently higher quality than Dell, but on the pricey side, especially with warranty. Should I wait on Slickdeals or XPBargains to put up some coupons?

-Fujitsu LifeBook: Also more renowned than Dell, but very expensive, couldn’t find one with a decent warranty/config for less than $1500 shipped.

-Other Brands: I’m not really sure if Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Everex… I’m pretty sure HP/Compaq is low quality, but that’s about it.

Any advice would be appreciated -- thanks!

My wife has a Dell 1505 and has had no problems with it. Toshiba seems to have pretty could reputation. A couple of advantages to Dell, you can buy the Windows CD for $10 (Got this, formatted the hard drive to get rid of the crapware and did a clean install of XP), now supposedly you can order Dells without crapware but I'd still get the Windows CD, and I've read you can order XP instead of Vista. Upgrading laptops is expensive and you're best off getting what you want at the time of purchase, e.g., a separate video card, hard drive, RAM, etc. Learned this the hard way a number of years ago when I bought a cheap laptop and later tried to do some upgrades. Given your budget you will likely trade off some durability going with an ultralight computer. This could be important if you'll be taking it out a lot. I've used Dell "chat" support and got the answer I needed, no muss no fuss. If money is an object, when isn't it?, and I needed a laptop, I'd go with Dell. Prices are very competitive and they at least give you some choices.

don't bother with the warranty. they suck, are overpriced and don't cover anything other then bad parts.

look into a personal article policy through your insurance company. its usually liek $50 - $100 a year and covers almost anything.

spill coke on it. get a new laptop
surf the web in the tub and drop it, get a new laptop
stolen from library, get a new laptop

PAP's don't count against homeowners insurance and usually don't have deductibles

way better then dells crappy warranty