<p>Are there any recommendations?</p>
<p>Right now, I’m looking at the Dell Inspiron 1525. I’m not positive about this choice yet since it runs on Vista and I’ve heard that has a lot of problems.</p>
<p>Check out the HP Pavilions. I would recommend the Thinkpads, but I’m not sure if they’re below $1200.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure you can get an XPS 1530 or 1330 starting at $999… XPS’s have better customer service and are probably better quality than Inspirons, so I’d probably suggest one of those over your 1525.</p>
<p>Eventually the majority of people will be running vista, I’ve had it on my computer for about half a year and haven’t had problems. </p>
<p>The HP laptops are pretty good deals, be sure to check out amazon too, I saw a post somewhere on this board with a pretty good deal.
Amazon doesn’t have any taxes and has free shipping.</p>
<p>You can always save quite a bit of money by getting the lower RAM options and just upgrading it yourself. </p>
<p>My friend got a pretty decent thinkpad for under $1200 by getting lower RAM and then buying her own.</p>
<p>I’d sell you a Dell XPS m1530 for $1,200+shipping. Unopened…still in the original shipping box. Comes with laptop, headphones, Lord of the Rings Online, soft laptop case, soft CD case</p>
<p>2.4 ghz Penrynn Core2Duo
4gb ram
WSXGA+ LCD Screen 1680x1050
Geforce 8600GT 256mb GFX Card
Fingerprint Reader
2yr Warranty</p>
<p>I know this isn’t a buy/sell/trade forum, so PM me if you’re interested and I’ll give you my contact details.</p>
<p>kkei08, no thanks.</p>
<p>don, what makes a Dell XPS better quality than a Dell Inspiron? Isn’t Dell a reliable laptop brand?</p>
<p>XPS uses higher quality components and provides better customer service for that line of laptops.</p>
<p>Should I wait until July or August to buy a new laptop? I don’t really need one now. Will there be more powerful processors and updates to the XPS and Inspiron lines between now and 2-3 months later?</p>
<p>We<em>tard</em>it,</p>
<p>If you wait until then, the laptops will be upgraded to the new Montivina platform from the current Santa Rosa generation. You should see a minor performance boost (10-15%) with the change, along with a few other improvements/additions. If you can wait, I would advise it.</p>
<p>yep, i’d wait till at least june or july. Personally, I’m hoping they’ll have some nicer graphics card options by the time i’m ready to buy… a GeForce 8800 is a pretty big step above the current 8600… and chippy had it right, the customer support is much better on XPS systems (although their tech reps still have odd accents…)</p>
<p>[Dell</a> Outlet - Refurbished Computers - Refurbished Laptops - Refurbished PCs](<a href=“http://www.dell.com/outlet]Dell”>Refurbished & Overstock Laptops, PCs, Monitors: Dell Outlet | Dell USA | Dell USA)</p>
<p>There are some good deals there.</p>
<p>i’d definitely recommend going with the xps as well. i’ve heard a lot of complaints about the inspirons. my dad has one, albeit the very large/heavy one (i think they have new ones out that are a bit smaller?). still, the xps m1330 is very lightweight and sturdy. also agreed on their tech support – it’s specialized for xps owners, which is a plus.</p>
<p>I was set on the xps m1530 until the new toshiba satellite came out. With facial recog tech, intel core 2 duo T8100 processors, and dual 200gb sata drives for cheaper than the xps, it is the better deal for me. I have the old inspiron series and its hardware is pretty cumbersome. Plus, i believe the toshiba came out literally days ago if im not mistaken.</p>
<p>Go for the ThinkPad T series. They’re on sale right now, and they’re top-of-the-line.</p>
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<p>One thing about that is that one of those 200 GB harddrives is a 4200 RPM drive, which is slower then any drive you’re going to get in another laptop. Its the same speed as the drives in ipods.</p>
<p>Any other recommendations for laptops under $1200. Has any new ones came out recently that fit my budget?</p>
<p>MacBooks are $1000 for students. A copy of Windows XP should you choose to install it would run ~$130 from a place like newegg.com</p>
<p>And yes, Vista is horrendous.</p>