My sister is hurrying me (how unusual) and I haven't had time to check everything out, but one thing that is narrowing the possibilities is that I'm stuck on the idea of a big screen since it made such a big difference when I went from a 14" to a 17" on my desk-top. Dell is the only one I've seen with a 15", plus they are known to put the most up-to-date technology in their computers, which makes it so you don't have to research so hard. Their 15" model comes with Mobil Pentium II, 8MB ATI 2X AGP, and a 2X DVD or 24X CD ROM. I'm thinking, if you're going to have the killer graphics card it would be a shame not to have the DVD. But, does the DVD play/read CD ROM's, and if so does it play/read them as well as a CD ROM drive?
Dell has a selection of refurbished units which they say are not used, merely "returned", and they therefore cannot sell them as new. You can't pre-configure what you want if you get a refurb--you have to select from a list. I see one for $2800 that has the 300PII, 4G, 64MB, 8MBAGP2X, AND 56K V.90.
Speak now or forever hold your peace. She was going to get a Toshiba w/12" screen for $1300 and much cheaper components. She's not a big app user--mostly just word-processing and she wants to use the net, although she hasn't up to now. Her old machine is a 10" IBM thinkpad from the 30's or 40's. (Did they make notebooks back then?)
Any yay's or nay's?
Thanks everyone for your ideas,
wily |
