Time for a new Laptop

Every few years, it is time to get a new laptop, and donate your old one to the needy...in my case, my wife gets it.

I had been putting off the upgrade, my Dell C800 worked ok, I bought it used off ebay in early 2005...to replace my old Micron(that I bought refurbished in 1997). It worked OK, but was weighed a ton...cost me 450 bucks...I subsequently bought a video card, some ram, two DVD drives, and two batteries for it...to get almost 3.5 hours of play time out of it, and play Battlefield 1942 (total investment was around $900).

I needed a mobile computer I could throw in a suitcase, and have good battery life.

I was strongly tempted to buy the new ASUS eeePC. First I was tempted by the original version...with the possibility of many hacks to it...then the (not released yet in the US) 900 tempted me with its larger screen etc...small, I wouldn't be too sad if I broke it...slow.

But I went with the Dell M1330. I priced the new ones...with discounts, I could get a fully optioned one (with a small battery) for $1500. It was very tempting. But I took a look at the Refurbished ones at the Dell Outlet, and found exactly what I was looking for for only $1100 out the door. Best display, best video card, remote, 2gig ram, biggest battery, etc(every option I planned on getting). I will put the $400 I saved to anything I want to.

When I get it, I will post a Futuremark benchmark, to put things in perspective.