Dell laptops

[slimfandango]

I am thinking of buying one of the Dell �500 laptops. Are they any good?

[KebabMeister]

I have a Dell Inspiron 9100, 3.2g P4, 512mb RAM, 128mb ATI mobile Radeon graphics, 15.4" screen etc.

I'm very please with my laptop although mine cost a lot more than �500 last year.  Which model were you looking at?  What do you want it for?

[slimfandango]

I write for a living but it's not always convenient for me to work at home. I just need it for word processing and some money applications. I was looking at the Inspiron 6000. Thanks!

J

[fo3nix]

since you're only wanting it for basic usage, any laptop at dell would suit you just fine.

if you want to be able to use the internet wirelessly from your laptop (so you dont have to sit in one place for the internet), you might consider getting one with Centrino Mobile Technology.

[Oneeyedvic]

If you are just after a cheap laptop - how about Woolworths - �399. Not great spec, but since it is only wordprocessing as mentioned.....

You would get the same one year guarantee as you would with Dell.

[quickthinker]

As long as its not a celeron

[Oneeyedvic]

What's wrong with a Celeron?

Also noticed that Staples are selling an Acer Travelmate Laptop for �399 inc VAT. Celeron Mobile 370 processor, 1.5GHz 400MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, 256MB RAM, 40GB Hard Disc, 14"TFT, and DVD writer.

Which seems like a good deal - though I am curious as to what is wrong with Celerons

[KebabMeister]

Celeron's are okay, but it depends what you're going to use them for.  They're crap for gaming, Excel spreadsheets and other mathematical computations WHEN compared to Processors that have a Level 2 (L2) cache.