Dell.... Gateway.... which notebook?

[KevinH78]

Just recently my desktop decided to eat the hard drive so it's time for me to get a new machine. I've been wanting a notebook for some time now but have put it off due to lack of funds although now I have a small reason to go ahead with it. I will probably get a new hard drive for the desktop in the near future but for now I'm going to go with a laptop. If you were to choose between a Dell or Gateway, which package would you go with? My cutoff on price is $1000 so keep that in mind when making suggestions please. :)

[Stang2be]

For under 1k you'll be looking at the Dell inspiron line. I've got an 1100 that my wife uses now. I got it a little over a year ago from the Dell DFO for around 800. Its a Celeron 2G, 256mb ram, 20gb HD, DVD/CDRW, and 15" Display. For the price it wasn't bad but its got a shared memory video card and 512mb ram would be nice to have.

All she uses it for is email, web surfing, and the random ms office document.

[KevinH78]

[QUOTE=Stang2be]For under 1k you'll be looking at the Dell inspiron line. I've got an 1100 that my wife uses now. I got it a little over a year ago from the Dell DFO for around 800. Its a Celeron 2G, 256mb ram, 20gb HD, DVD/CDRW, and 15" Display. For the price it wasn't bad but its got a shared memory video card and 512mb ram would be nice to have.

All she uses it for is email, web surfing, and the random ms office document.[/QUOTE]

Cool, thanks for the input. One I've been eyeballing is the Dell 1150 which has a 2.80GHz P4 and 14.1-in XGA display. Is this video worth a shit? One of my main concerns is the quality of display because it will be hooked up to my 19" sitting on my desk most of the time and I don't want to be looking at a cartoon looking screen if you know what I mean.

[KevinH78]

Here is the option I'm considering with Gateway. Not the top of the line but plenty for what I'm going to do and a 15" display.3

http://products.gateway.com/products/GConfig/proddetails.asp?system_id=m320x&seg=hm

[Kenny_Stang]

Dell.

[Kenny_Stang]

[QUOTE=KevinH78]Cool, thanks for the input. One I've been eyeballing is the Dell 1150 which has a 2.80GHz P4 and 14.1-in XGA display. Is this video worth a shit? One of my main concerns is the quality of display because it will be hooked up to my 19" sitting on my desk most of the time and I don't want to be looking at a cartoon looking screen if you know what I mean.[/QUOTE]

To be honest with you it will look great on your monitor, just don't expect to be able to play the latest games all that well. If you want a laptop with some gaming capability you'll have to go for a "mobile desktop" like the Dell Inspiron 5600 P4 HT w/ the upgraded NVidia GeForce 5200 64MB card.

[ScottJ]

[QUOTE=Stang2be]For under 1k you'll be looking at the Dell inspiron line. I've got an 1100 that my wife uses now. I got it a little over a year ago from the Dell DFO for around 800. Its a Celeron 2G, 256mb ram, 20gb HD, DVD/CDRW, and 15" Display. For the price it wasn't bad but its got a shared memory video card and 512mb ram would be nice to have.

All she uses it for is email, web surfing, and the random ms office document.[/QUOTE]

I agree, although I had a war with my wireless card right out of the box, for exactly $1000 I got a new 700m, 512ram, 1.6 centrino, 30g drive, dvd/cdrw built in modular drive, 5 hour batt., and 'upgraded' wireless card. Dell was VERY fast to send me a new wireless card and that fixed my problem; love the laptop in every other way; it plays dvd's beautifuly w/ its glossy screen.

If your on a ~1k budget, looking for something compact, check out the 700m inspiron

[KevinH78]

This is what I ended up ordering:

Inspiron 1150
Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.80GHz, 14.1-in XGA, Microsoft® Windows®XP Home Qty: 1
Unit Price: $1,049.00
Inspiron 1150 Mobile Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.80GHz, 14.1-in XGA
IP28GHN

Memory 256MB Shared DDR SDRAM, 1 Dimm
256MB1D

Hard Drive 30GB Hard Drive
30GB

Operating System Microsoft® Windows®XP Home
WHXP

Network Card Integrated Network Card
INTNIC

Modem Internal 56K Modem
56MPC

Document Management Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
ADOBER

CD ROM/DVD ROM 8X Max Variable DVD-ROM Drive
8XDVD

Wireless Networking Cards FREE Dell® Wireless 1350 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g, 54Mbps)
TM135IP

Productivity Software Productivity Pack including WordPerfect®
ICORELM

Security Software No Security Subscription
NS

Digital Music Dell Jukebox - easy-to-use music player and CD burning software
MMBASE

Primary Battery 65 WHr 8-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
8BATS

Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 90 Days Ltd Warranty, 90 Days Mail-In Service, and 1Yr Technical Support
T90DDRR

Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
AOLDHS

Digital Imaging or Digital Photography Paint Shop™ Pro® Trial plus Photo Album™ Starter Edition
DPS

Dell Media Experience Dell™ Media Experience
DMX

[KevinH78]

Is there anything you think I should add/change before it is shipped?

[Eagles2suprbowl]

If you havent ordered yet, you might want to check out the gateway laptops on best buy's website. There are 2 nice ones in there for $1100, one is centrino 512mb, 60gb and the other is athlon 3000+ with 512mb, 80gb and both have built in wireless.

Centrino (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1087342445452&skuId=6759313&productCategoryId=cat01174&type=product)

Athlon (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1093468591848&skuId=6852809&productCategoryId=cat01174&type=product)

[KevinH78]

[QUOTE=Eagles2suprbowl]If you havent ordered yet, you might want to check out the gateway laptops on best buy's website. There are 2 nice ones in there for $1100, one is centrino 512mb, 60gb and the other is athlon 3000+ with 512mb, 80gb and both have built in wireless.

Centrino (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1087342445452&skuId=6759313&productCategoryId=cat01174&type=product)

Athlon (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1093468591848&skuId=6852809&productCategoryId=cat01174&type=product)[/QUOTE]

I did actually cancel at the last minute on the Dell and got this one. (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1093468786895&skuId=6852872&productCategoryId=cat01174&type=product)

[Eagles2suprbowl]

Nice :) , I didnt recommend it because I thought it would start a flame fest. I have an emachines(m5312) myself and have had no problems whatsoever.

[iwannaridethapony]

[QUOTE=KevinH78]Just recently my desktop decided to eat the hard drive so it's time for me to get a new machine. I've been wanting a notebook for some time now but have put it off due to lack of funds although now I have a small reason to go ahead with it. I will probably get a new hard drive for the desktop in the near future but for now I'm going to go with a laptop. If you were to choose between a Dell or Gateway, which package would you go with? My cutoff on price is $1000 so keep that in mind when making suggestions please. :)[/QUOTE]

thumbs down on gateway