Thank you very much for the awsome advise. If you see anything appropriate, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know. We have a brick and mortar, Staples, Office Max, Best Buy, Wal Mart and Target with a 1/2 hour away. He does store music on his computer, uses the internet, will need office 07 (I don't know that any computer comes pre-loaded with that anymore) He does watch movies online from Netflix. Wireless capablity. I didn't even think about the weight, that was a really good point. The lighter the beter to haul across campus. He will need ample storage and speed.
I was not happy with Wal Mart. In fact, I sent them an e-mail today. I have not yet heard anything back from them yet. Luckily our Wal Mart is a 24 hour store, so I did not have to stand outside. I had called the store on Thursday to see how many they had and ofcourse, they don't know how many of what they received. Maybe I am niave, I would of thought they would of received at least a few of them and being third in line I thought it was a sure thing. The two people in front of me wanted the X-boxes. I did go back later in the day just to make sure maybe they missed putting them out.
Once again, thanks for the wonderful advise and if you see any amazing deals, let me know in case I miss them. You did give me some guidelines as to what to look for!
So just so I know when Im looking for you in the next couple of weeks, would you like one with a 160GB HD or one with a 250GB HD? Im guessing the 160GB one would be fine, but then you said ample storage space would be nice...so by ample, would 160GB fit that category? And your correct your not going to find Microsoft Office on any of the laptops, unless its a trail version. Hate to break it to you.
Alright well like I said Ill start looking into things for you in the next coming weeks. In fact here are two that I saw that I personally think are on an even grounds to the Toshiba you were originally looking at, but at a cheaper price. They are both at Office Depot.
#1 (look up item # 978005)
Compaq
15.4 inch screen
2GB Ram
160GB HD
Athlon Ql-62 Dual-Core Processor
Windown Vista Premium Edition (doesnt state 32 or 64 bit though)
$399.99
I personally like all the specs. I love Athlon Dual-Core & Intel Core 2 Dou's processor, so the processor is pretty sweet. It could use another GB of ram to max it out, but that is something you can always get for cheap later on. Im not sure how I feel about Compaq. I hated them back in the day, but HP bought them out, so now they are supposedly suppose to be like HPs rather than the old kind of Compaqs that they used to be. All in all, I would have wanted this one a lot more than the Tosibha you were originally looking at for the price that its going at.
#2 (look up item # 993090)
Toshiba
15.4 inch screen
3GB Ram
160GB HD
Pentium Dual Core T-3200 Processor
Windows Vista Edition (doesnt state 32 or 64 bit though)
$479.99
This one has the extra GB of Ram, which is a plus. The Pentium Dual Core T-3200 is an older processor, still good, but not as energy efficent and fast as the newer ones. Long story short, this processor is more suited for a desktop, but it is still good for a laptop. Finally its a Toshiba. I just cant get past the fact that Toshiba makes computers. Its still weird to me. On top of that, their key boards have been known to make a lot of noise when typing on them. Whether or not thats a big deal, its just something I thought you should known.
If it were me Id pick the Compaq if your ready to pull the trigger on something. However, it would be nice if we could find you a HP with 3GB Ram, 160 HD, and a 15.4 or 14.1 screen with a Turion, Athlon, or Core 2 Dou processor for $449. That would be ideal. But like I said, the Compaq isnt too shabby. So keep it in mind and tell me what youd like to do. Ill continue to keep my eyes open. Once again both of these will be at Office Depot and the sale begins tomorrow (Sunday November 30th.) While you wont have to line up early in the morning, I would get their maybe a half hour-an hour before the store opens just ot be safe.