Need advices for first time laptop buying

[Ahura]

I am looking for one for internet and school stuffs when Desktop is miles away. Mostly surfing, streaming/video playing, word, and more internet surfing.

Not gaming in mind, so graphic can be here or there. Lots of space (200+) would be nice, but just enough is fine too (100ish). Screen in the range of 13-15 is fine. Obviously larger is fine, but not necessarily gigantic. Also, mobility for me is defined in weight so the lighter the better.

Budget ceiling is about 600-900. Hopefully it's not too low.


So far, a whole 2 hours, I am looking at a possible Used Lenovo Thinkpad w500 (2.53Ghz/2Gig/15.4"/160Gig/) w/ Window XP Pro at about 450-500. You guys think that is a good deal, or excellent deal or the opposite? (Perhaps too good?)


Thanks

[pam123]

You can get a new Dell for $700 (Core 2 Duo/250 GB HDD) which should be plenty for what you want to do.
http://www.dell.com/content/products...n&s=dhs&~ck=mn

[glc]

If you want XP, you can get a Dell Vostro 1510 from the Dell small business site with a XP downgrade.

[Ahura]

Usually how much weight are those? The Vostro and other similiar in General

[glc]

The Vostro 1510 is just under 6 lb with the standard 6 cell battery.

[pam123]

The Inspiron weighs in at about the same 5.8 lbs.

[Ahura]

I narrowed it down to two candidates.

Thinkpad T60:

T2500(2GHz) Core 2 Duo
2GB RAM (preinstalled)
100GB 7200rpm HD
14.1in Resolution: 1400x1050
256MB ATI Radeon X1400
CDRW/DVDRW,
6c Li-Ion batt, WinXP

Craigslist, used for a year. "great shape and the condtions are like new" for 500 bucks.

Or

Vostro 2150

Core™ 2 Duo T5670 (1.8GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIM
160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Display w/TrueLife™
256MB GeForce™ 8400M GS
6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Vista downgrade to XP Pro

714 before taxes

Which one would you say is more favorable?

[glc]

You do know that discrete video reduces battery life, right? The only reason to get it is for gaming.

That said, the T60 is a road warrior. You can't go wrong with it. However, I don't know if I'd pay that much for a used one without some kind of decent warranty.

[Ahura]

I supposed...

But you would say the t60 yes?
I think it still has like 1 year of warranty left acccording to the ad.

[glc]

The Dell will be faster. The Lenovo will last longer.

[Ahura]

Too far a drive for the t60, and the other deals are crap.

From California Computer:
Manufacturer Part Number: 7417TUU
Product Name: Lenovo Thinkpad T400 - 14.1in Notebook
Processor: Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz
Memory: 1GB DDR3 SDRAM (buy 2GB more later)
Hard Drive: 160GB 7200 rpm
Optical Drive: CD-RW / DVD
Display: 14.1" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA )
Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet - WLAN : 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft)
fingerprint reader
Operating system: Windows Vista Business / XP Pro downgrade

893 before tax. I'll probably self-pick up, about half an hr drive.

What do you guys think?

Also, you think WXGA and WXGA+ would make that big a difference?
Anyone has like screenshots comparing between the two resolutions? I want to check out the icon and text, and webpage.