Which notebook?

[aaaaa]

Am looking to buy a good, reliable notebook and at a very reasonable price.

Preferably with a 15" screen and DVD and CD-RW not to mention everything else.

Any suggestions appreciated

Thanks

aa

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

aaaaa,

The hottest Notebook I know of is the eMachines:

eMachines M6809 (http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_M6809)

Display: 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA (1280 x 800 max. resolution)
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ Processor
64-bit Architecture operates at 2.00 GHz
System Bus uses HyperTransport™
Technology operating at 1600 MHz
1 MB L2 Cache
Memory: 512 MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2700)
Hard Drive: 80 GB HDD
Optical Drives: DVD +/- RW Drive (Write Max: 2.4x DVD+R/RW, 2x DVD-R/RW, 6x CD-R, 10x CD-RW; Reads 24x CD, 8x DVD)
Media Reader: 6-in-1 Digital Media Manger (Compact Flash, Micro Drive, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital (SD), Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro)
Video: ATI® Mobility RADEON™ 9600 with 64 MB Video RAM
Sound: PC2001 Compliant AC '97 Audio
Built-in Stereo Speakers
Modem: 56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem
Network: 802.11g Built-in Wireless (up to 54Mbps)
10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Pointing Device: Touchpad with Vertical Scroll Zone
Battery: 8-cell Lithium-ion (Li-ion)
Dimensions: 1.6"h x 14.0"w x 10.4"d
Weight: 7.5 lbs. (8.65 total travel weight)
Internet: AOL 3 month membership included, click here for details
Ports/Other: 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 IEEE 1394, 1 VGA External Connector, 1 S-Video Out, Microphone In, Headphone/Audio Out, 1 PCMCIA Slot (Card Bus type I or type II)
Pre-Installed Software: Microsoft Works 7.0, Microsoft Money 2004, Encarta Online, Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™, Microsoft Media Player, Real Player, PowerDVD, Internet Explorer, Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator (DVD Edition), BigFix®, MSN®, CompuServe®, AOL (with 3 months membership included**), Norton AntiVirus 2004

The Price in the U.S. is currently $1,399.99 which is around £750.

Take Care,

Richard

[FunkyMunky]

you could also give Alienware a look, but get rid of any notions of "reasonable price" should you decide to buy from them :P

http://www.alienware.com
http://www.alienware.co.uk:

[aaaaa]

Thanks both for your information. I have to admit Richard the eMachines M6809 looks a pretty good package, having said that Area 51-Mtm also looks good but is possibly a bit too pricey for me.

Just out of interest Richard, will the modem be ok in the UK as you have a different system in the US if I remember rightly.

I am the novice at this game and you are always answering my very novice questions!!

Thanks

aa :ok:

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

aaaaa,

All you need to get a U.S. to U.K. Phone Jack Adapter. I last picked one up at Harrods for around £5 in the late 90's.

Take Care,

Richard

[seacue]

If you don't want to pay as much as the e-Machine, I bought a lesser machine for $850 after rebates some months ago, the HP ze4630us. HP models generally have an exact duplicate sold as a Compaq machine. The equivalent model seems to be discounted at around $899 right now. The list price is around $1200, but rebates seem to be nearly constant.

I'm not a DVD movie fan, so I felt the extra size from a wide screen to be a drawback - this machine is already large and heavy enough.

It came w/ Athlon mobile 2500+ processor, 512 Mby RAM, 40 Gby disk, Parallel, Serial, Firewire, WiFi b/g, 10/100 Mb/s ethernet, phone modem, 2xUSB (1.1 unfortuneately), DVD-ROM/CD-RW, sound, etc,etc,etc.

No internal floppy disk. After I had paid $30 for an external USB floppy, I discovered a rebate slip in the sheaf of HP papers which would have got me one free from HP.

I thought it was an excellent buy, but you may demand more performance than I do. I imagine today's $899 equivalent has a faster processor.

Good luck in finding something that satisfies you.

SC