What laptop manufacturers make a quality BIOS?

[Tophinator]

I think I have desided to spend a little dough on a low performance computer for school. Im just looking for something small, light, and good battery life. However nothing drives me more insane then proprietary BIOS that wont let you do anything. So whats a good manufacturer for notebooks? I was thinking of something around ~$500 by Antec, Acer, or maybe something else? Iv been out of computers for about a year now so Im not sure whats good.

Also, whats a good processor for a laptop. I was thinking of a Pentium D or something. Any suggestions?

[glc]

I'd get a refurbished Inspiron 700m out of the Dell outlet. Any new laptop in that price range is going to be very marginal quality.

[Tophinator]

Thanks for the post glc but I will never ever own a dell computer. I havent spent to much time repairing them to know I dont want one. I have been looking at used laptops as well though. Im looking for something like this http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&Sku=A180-1298

Tiger usually has some pretty insane deals every holiday so Im hopeing this holloween they will have a good deal on something.

[glc]

Oh well - I'll never ever own a laptop with an AMD processor. I've worked on too many of THEM. The only laptops I totally trust are Thinkpads. You can buy refurbed Thinkpads in your price range.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...907630&CatId=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...456611&CatId=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...648550&CatId=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...456610&CatId=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...286720&CatId=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...364864&CatId=0

[Tophinator]

Thinkpads are nice but to overpriced. Besides, Im going to need something with more power then what those have. A lot of my work and reports rely in heavy computing with things like macros and 2 models in accell with the occasional solid works. That means atleast a top of the line 32-bit proc with 512mb of ram to back it up. I would be willing to spend around $600 shipped maybe for the Acer I posted.

[glc]

I think I have desided to spend a little dough on a low performance computer for school. Im just looking for something small, light, and good battery life.

A lot of my work and reports rely in heavy computing with things like macros and 2 models in accell with the occasional solid works.

Lacking a bit of consistency here.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115285

[Tophinator]

glc, I think thats just about exactly what I am looking for. I especially like the 5.5 hour battery life. I just hope tiger has a little bit of a better deal then that for holloween.

[glc]

Note that Solidworks is going to be somewhat doggy due to the integrated graphics. To get a decent machine with discrete graphics is going to cost considerably more. You can make up for it to a point with more ram.

[Tophinator]

All of my major CADing and simulations I will be doing on my desktop which after 3 years is still somewhat powerful. I just want to be able to take stuff with me on weekends and be able to work on it. It doesnt have to work well, just work.

[glc]

Okay, just make sure the Intel GMA is compatible. I know you can run Autocad on it, but I'm not sure about Solidworks.