What do you think about these 3 models?

[The Backlash Cometh]

Dell Latitude, Inspiron and XPS.

The computer would be for a college student, not involved in the Techie fields. They'd like to get away with a grand, but willing to listen to reason why they shouldn't have to. I know where to go get a deal on an Inspiron, but the buyer says Warranty and service is important and wants to buy new.

[DavidMS]

1. Look at the Latitude or Vostro...

That said an HP Compaq business laptop is just as good.

The Dell Vostro 1400 with a T5270, XP pro, 2GB of DDR ram and a 3 year warranty looks good. I was able to configure one for $900.

HP has some nice small business notebooks like the 6515B that are also in your price range.

Any Dell Latitude or Vostro, HP business laptop or Lenovo Thinkpad is good. Avoid HP Pavilions (poor support), Dell Insperions (poor support), Compaqs (Budget laptops, less rugged), Any Sony or Acer (driver problems, poor build quality), Toshibas (Hard to service).

HP and IBM machines can be serviced by a local Authorized dealer and may have a faster turn around than shipping it out (the case with Dell).

Look for machines built for business users because they tend to have features useful to a student. For instance more rugged construction, magnesium alloy structural components, shock resistant hard drive mounts, and spill resistant keyboards show up commonly on business machines but less often on consumer machines.

Good luck.

[hobbit709]

2. Whatever they buy.

Have somebody run PC Decrapifier on it to get rid of all the junk and "trial" offers. That will speed it up considerately. Dump the Norton that's bound to be on it and get AVG or Avast. Use Spybot Search and Destroy. I freed up 10GB of disk space by getting rid of the junk on mine(Compaq) and it boots up almost twice as fast.

[Gore1FL]

3. There are + and - to all of them -- I assume you are talking laptops

If you are not looking for a laptop some of this info will be different.

I went with an inspiron from the outlet store. Here is the trick:

1> Patience is required to get a good deal. The equipment goes in and out regularly.
2> Whe you find something promising, add it to your cart. (no one else can take it -- it reserves it for you) If you find something better add it and remove the old.
3> as long as you do a search every 10 mins, the one in your cart stays there.

So go here:

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

Put the following in the fields:

Min Memory: 2000
Video Card (MB): 256
min hard drive: 120 (I prefer more, but this is a minimum)

For Operating System I recommend Windows Hom Premium, but you can leave that as "All": if you want.

Pick an Intel Core 2 Duo (I would suggest a minimum of 2000 Mhz (2 GHz) myself)

Then click the "filter results" link

If a list comes up, click "price" to sort them.

on the list you will see a link with 8 characters (seemingly random) on the right side for the ones it pulls up. Ths give more detailed specifications. If you find one you like, click the link and verify the following:

You want to see the words 4MB L2 Cache
and 800Mhz

[Gore1FL]

4. as an appendum to the above

I have a scratch and dent. This saved me $500. The scratch is nearly invisible except under bright light, and it looks like a hair when it is visible.

[Betty88]

5. just got an inspiron 1420 for $800...

about 2 months ago by watching the sales and checking gotapex.com for coupon codes. I am very happy with it. It works well and even handles some light gaming. IMO a grand is not to much to spend for a nice laptop but you can get a good one for about $700 if you look. The 1420 would have been about 700 but I added a video card.

If they get it with vista get 3gig of ram and upgrade the processor at least one step for happiness.

[hunter]

6. Darn. I thought I was in the Lounge.

Imagine my disappointment when this turned out to be a thread about computers.