I need a good small laptop no more than $500 HELP!

[chabooky386]

I need a laptop for my basic needs. All I really need it something that will allow me to use e-mail, internet, POTN OF COURSE, excel, word and dvd player. But, I don't need something super expensive as well. Just basic needs and at a good price. BUT, I am completely clueless :p when it comes to computer stuff. So help a fellow POTN'er PLEASE!

[rklepper]

I have a compaq V6000 I bought off ebay for 129. Added 1 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive. now I have 2 GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive in a dual core AMD machine. Add Ubuntu (or whatever flavor of linux you like) and voila. Great laptop for whatever you want to do with it and for minimal cost.

[Kendoway]

My neighbor just bought a Toshiba - Satellite Laptop ($379 at Best Buy), and had me set it up for her. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but it's a nice little rig for the price - and with only 2 gigs memory, seems to run Vista quite well.

Toshiba - Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9191849&type=product&id=1218053145987)

[20droger]

Newegg.com is having a sale right now. Go look.

[AngryCorgi]

Personally, I'm a big fan of Dell laptops. You can search their outlet (refurbs) and find several Studio 15s, which are nice, for under $500 (most with 3GB+ of memory). The nice part is that Dell refurbs carry a 1 year warranty (same as new), whereas most other manufacturers only carry 90 days at most.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

While they have some under $500, they also have one right now for $550 that has 4GB of RAM, an A/G/N card and a 250GB HD (with free-fall sensor). All of their Studio 15s have a slot-loading DVD/RW drive, an eSATA port, HDMI port and an intel 4500MHD video chipset (the upgraded vid card option will likely be out of your range).

[Tdragone]

Checkout dealnews.com They have linksto different laptops with coupon codes every day!!!

[50D Newbe]

My neighbor just bought a Toshiba - Satellite Laptop ($379 at Best Buy), and had me set it up for her. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but it's a nice little rig for the price - and with only 2 gigs memory, seems to run Vista quite well.

Toshiba - Best Buy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9191849&type=product&id=1218053145987)


Bought the same one for my son and he was in heaven. It works well!!

[Rachel B]

Sunday morning is when Bestbuy starts its new sale, we nearly always have a few laptops for 500 or below with good specs, they sell out quickly though!

[-MasterChief-]

tech4less.com has some pretty good deals too.