Cheap/Light Laptop

[swp]

Hello,

I'll be entering my senior year of highschool after this summer and i think that i need/want a laptop for this school year. As i said, im a highschool student, therefore im making a highschool student's wage this summer. Ive been looking at the dells and gateways etc. and was wondering if there are any decent/good laptops around the $500 mark. What i want to be able to do is: word-processing, web surfing, chat(msn,yahoo,aim,mirc). I know for that price gaming is impossible, but i want to be able to the the other stuff with ease.. everything smooth. Is that possible for my price range? What are your recomendations? Links? Oh yea...light wieght makes a HUGE difference. The textbooks students have to lug around everyday are ridiculous and a light laptop is greatly sought after.

Thank you.

EDIT: I also want to be able to watch DVD's.

[glc]

That doesn't leave a whole heck of a lot - look at the Dell Inspiron B130. You can actually get one of those with a Pentium-M and 512 ram for under $600 *after rebate* but I bet they hose you on shipping.

[jimmyrules712]

you can probly find a decent low-end performing laptop for $500 to $600, but it most likely will be average weight (5 pounds or so).

If light weight is more important than performance (it is for me, I carry my 3 lb laptop around to classes at college) then you'd have to get a used laptop to get one in that price range. Just know that to get something lighter, your going to get a slower and older, or more expensive computer.

This store HERE sells used laptops for a decent price, I've bought 1 from them before.

for example they have a Dell pentium 3 1.2 ghz with 256 MB of memory and a 30GB HD that weighs 3.8 pounds for $469 (if you were to upgrade that memory to 512, and buy a wireless add-on card, it would probably meet your needs.)

To get a new laptop in the 3 pund range, your going to have to spend a minimum of $800, more like $1,000 to $1,500.

EDIT: go to www.stealdeals.net and if you scroll down, there is right now an offer showing from dell for a budget laptop for $400, something like that may work for you, although its weight is probably only average.

[swp]

Is the extra $100 worth it to spend on a Pentium M vs a Celeron M? Performance wise.

[glc]

No - but a ram upgrade from 256 to 512 is worth looking at.

[edrod13]

SWP

PM me if you would like. I have a C400, P3 866Mhz Dell that is 1" thick and 3.6 lbs for sale. Not much of a gaming machine, but I have upgraded it myself with a 30GB 5400 drive, 512MB, intel 2200BG wireless card. It will surf, word process, etc.. like a champ