Need all of your help :)

Ok, this is the deal.  If I'm going to be in Iraq for over 18 months, I'm going to try and get a laptop to bring with me so I can download/burn/mail pictures and videos from there to home.  Since email is an unknown at this point (More of a probably not) I'll have to rely on air mail back to the states.

I intend to bring my Sony Cybershot with me (I've already verified that I can bring it and a laptop) so I can get pictures and videos, but with no platform to download them to, it would be a waste of time.  Therefore, I'm looking at new laptops.  I've looked at Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic and Winbook.

My price range is pretty limited.  Cheapest possible with a CD-RW/DVD combo drive and at least managable features.  I don't need anything over 2ghz or 256M of RAM really.  Dell seems to be leading the pack in price per performance ratio.

I'm trying to keep it as far under $1000 as I can.  Hit me with ideas or sites.

There is no way that I'll be gone for that long and not have my daughter at least see pictures of me. Video with sound is preferred actually.

Dell, hands down, don't look anywhere else. I'll see if I can customize something for you.

Dell would probably be your best bet. Gateway is horrible and I hate them. Don't go with them, I know from experience. Dell has the satisfaction you need for the price you want.

Last edited by ChrisMG on Sun Jan 08, 2006 9:12 am; edited 1 time in total

Well, like I said. I don't need anything that can emulate a Cray. I just need something decent to burn CD-R's to send back home and maybe watch some DVD's on.

Looking at a Dell now, they seem to have the most bang for the buck. The M6000 or whatever, the very base one looks like it will do what I need. I just wanted some opinions.

Actually, this is probably the best bet:

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/con...=iB130WK1&s=dhs

Well when my dad is in Kuwait he can email and instant message us back home, so you might be able to.

Dell is definately what you'd want. They are easy to work with and reliable.

You may want to look into deals at Comp USA or Office Depot, Office Max, etc. They usually have rebates on laptops that bring them below $500.

Thanks for the info guys, the next step is to wait and make sure it's 100% that I'm going before I go out and buy a bunch of stuff. I'm about 95% sure now, but stranger things have happened (little green men ever land in anyone's back yard?)

I thought I lost the thread for a moment. Sorry Predator. I didn't know if the 'General Hardware' was just for desktop parts or what not. Probably doesn't help that I'm running on 4 hours of sleep in the last 2 days. Fun.

Once again, thanks for the input fellas. I guess I'll browse around to all of the different electronics sites and see what kind of deals they have running.

Yeah, get a Dell. Who'd-a-thunk I'd say that? Yup, that's right. Just about everyone. But that's because Dells fricken' rule. It really depends on your need, and you may actually find a good balance of computing power in a Latitude-series laptop as opposed to an Inspiron. The reason I say this is that Latitudes may come with the Radeon X600 graphics card, which, while it isn't amazing, it can play Half-Life 2 very well (according to a friend of mine who owns one).

Do you need portablility? Are you looking for a computer that can do basic stuff and that's it? Do you want the ability to play limited games... or...?

-Pikl

Last edited by ChrisMG on Sun Jan 08, 2006 10:46 pm; edited 1 time in total

Looking for something that will play DVD's (for those very boring days that you get in the military sometimes) and also burn CD's so I can send pictures back home. I know many come with combo drives now that do both. I don't need to burn DVD's, just play them. If I can throw a few older games on it, that would be cool too, but I'm not looking for something with a 256mb video card. I really do not want nor need a high end laptop. I just need something portable that I can take into Iraq, burn some pictures/videos to CD to mail home and play a few games/movies. That's it.

I'm trying to keep it as cheap as possible while being able to do what I just said above. The Inspiron B130 seems to be perfect, even at it's most basic setup for $499 after the instant $100 savings. I can always upgrade the memory up to 1gb later. I'd rather have the Pentium in lieu of the Celeron though, but that's not a major concern and $150 extra for 300mhz is eh...dunno.

I'd take the one you linked to and upgrade the processor to the Pentium and upgrade the ram to 512MB.

m travelmate only cost me just over 900$ CAD after taxes.

it has

Celeron M 1.5ghz
256mb ram stock
40gb hdd
cdrw/dvd combo
wifi built in
LAN
15 or 15.4\" LCD
win xp
the stock battery sucks at 1.5 hours use max but they make a bigger one.
3x USB 2.0 ports
pcmcia

Its an acer travelmate 2310 Series (mines the 2313lCi)
it has never failed me yet, only took some getting used to moving from a desktop to a new laptop and all. its pretty sturdy ive dropped it a couple of times and its only scuffed and runs fine.

Yeah, if you don't want to build your own, go with a Dell, or bestbuy acctually has some fair deals on lappys, if you look in their weekly ad.

Myrdaal, I think I'm actually going to do that. Just upgrade the cpu and ram and that should be perfect. Even a little higher than I really need, but oh well.

Comes out to $599 even before all the shipping socked on.

Now to see if I can just get Dell to build it and get it to me soon enough without charging me my first born for shipping.