This is very true- scan for coupons on different websites, stack them and you can really get a good deal. Update- I did some research on what I said earlier about Dell and I was wrong: http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,123409,pg,9,00.asp PCworld's latest reliability survey puts Dell solidly in the middle of the pack on reliability and service for notebook computers. Lenovo(IBM) and Apple are predictably on top. I have no idea how they got average ratings on their customer service, when the number one complaint of thousands of customers is massive wait times to connect with a rep in India with poor english, usually reading responses from a sheet. I myself returned an axim for a refund which was to be credited to me in less than four weeks. It took five f*cking months. Including constant nagging from me- all I got were repetitive canned responses, apologies and deflections from peons. Svpernaut- Since you buy computers by the thousands (I assume it's for your business) would you have any different level of access to Dell customer service/tech support than the rest of us regular joe consumers? Or do you just call the 1-800 customer service line and wait 30-90 minutes to talk with someone in India like the rest of us do? I think you're right, they deal in such huge volumes that by percentages, you're going to have more complaints overall. None of this matters if your stuff works well, which it probably will because it looks like their QC is up to par with competitors.
thanks for the 100th time for all the advice guys. i ended up using all the info you guys told me to pick out a laptop (kinda went in a different direction though). got a compaq v2000, amd turion 64, ati radeon xpress 200m, 528 ram, dvd rw. fast little bugger and happy with the purchase so far. w/o your help, i wouldn't have known what to look for, but thanks to this thread and mateo's... well... it helped out a lot.
enjoy your new notebook. i think hp/compaq has a 2 week or 30 day money back guarantee? so if you decide this isn't the notebook for you, you can return it and purchase a diff. one. this is what i would do, either uninstall all the junkware preloaded on your notebook or install a fresh copy of windows, drivers etc and install the programs you want. this way you dont have unwanted programs running in the background slowing down your computer.
yeah... i did notice all the bullschit on here. i just may do that. i'm here in a starbucks now... looking like a trendy mofo. all that's missing is the black framed glasses, a pair of chucks, green coudouroy (sp?) pants, and an old school adidas jacket. yes! i fit in now.
On a related note, I made a huge purchase from DELL today: 50 in. HD plasma screen Inspiron 6000 laptop XPS 400 desktop I can't wait for it to arrive!
