Help Out with Cheap Laptop

[The_Wippuh]

My gf's coworker is looking to buy a cheap laptop. All she wants to do is surf the internet and use it for work. I'm assuming that work is basic stuff that would involve Office at their extent.

I know that Dell is going crazy with deals right now, so what are you hearing about the best values?

[weirdguy]

Dell has one for like $499

[MisterChief]

I'd go Gateway.

[brianstretch]

Compaq V2000z series, either direct from HP or from whichever big box retail store has it on sale if their prebuilt config is acceptable. 14" widescreen, AMD Turion CPU, ATI GPU (waaaay better than the Intel GPUs most "Centrino" notebooks use), 802.11g wireless, weighs about 5.5 pounds, no Intel marketing tax. The HP L2000 Special Edition is a little spiffier looking but costs more (usually) and has the same guts as the V2000z.

Dell is evil.

[Chapel]

DELL do it!, yeah yeah yeah, dells suck ass, but they are good comps with reliable support. There cheep and they last, you cant argue with that.