High-end laptop for <$1500? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

My dad wants to buy a medium to high-end laptop and wants to spend no more than than $1500. He wants a machine with Win XP Pro, MS Office (Word & Excel), port replicator (docking station), 3-4 year warranty, Pentium M 1.8 GHz (min), CR-RW / DVD ROM, and a good sized screen. And he wants it from a well-known company, like Dell or HP.

He admits he may have unreasonable desires, but this is the goal. This sort of machine seems to be around $2000; I checked the HTF deals page but they didn't help much.

So is there any hope? Do you know of any remarkable deals, corporate discounts, small-business discounts, or other ways to get the machine he wants for such a low price?

Or, any advice on how to convince him he's completely unrealistic?

Thanks!

 

[SethH]

I must say, I thought the MS Office would be a deal breaker, but I think I've found something that will work.

Go to www.hp.com and build the following:

HP Pavillion zv5000z
Windows XP Pro
AMD Athlon-M 3000+
15.4 WXGA
64MB nVidia
512MB RAM
60GB HD (free upgrade)
DVD/CD-RW (free upgrade)
54g WiFi
MS Office 2003 Basic
3 year warranty
TOTAL COST: $1326.99

Things I would consider to upgrade from here:
-Possibly the processor to an Athlon 64 if willing to sacrifice battary life (~$50)
-Hard drive to a 5400rpm model (~$100)
-Longer battery (only $25)
-1 stick of RAM instead of 2 if you think upgrades may be necessary

 

[Harold Southard]

Go here:
http://pctorque.com/

They sale Sager laptops. I have had one for 2 years. Love it still. I have a 8887 (they don't make it anymore, they have updated). They also have a great forum. I would post some prices, but you can config so much that it would be pointless. You need to take a look and find the one that meets your needs and wants. You can even get a tv tuner in some of them. Mine has one. Some have GREAT sound systems (4 or more speakers and sub, built in!) These are the same systems (company) alienware uses to make theirs, just lower prices.

 

[DaveF]

Seth - Thanks for the suggestion. I'll pass that to my dad. That might work out.

Harold - Thanks for the idea, but my dad is staying with well-known brands. Since I've never heard of Sager, I can't imagine he'd want to buy from them.

 

[Dan Mercier]

Another thing you might consider is OpenOffice instead of word and excel.
I've been using it for about a month and have had zero problems with compatability. Granted I've been doing the
reading part only and not creating or modifying word docs.
spreadsheet files have worked for me though and OpenOffice even has powerpoint support.

Check it out at www.openoffice.org (it's free after all)

Dan

 

[Christ Reynolds]

sager machines are great values, and performance beasts. i also recommend openoffice, no compatibility problems for me so far.

CJ

 

[DaveF]

Thanks for the suggestion. The Pavillion is promising -- about $1600 for what my dad wants. But Sager is an unknown and probably not something he'd consider. And OpenOffice is not a consideration for him.