Laptop preferences for under 300 used?

[charvelguy]

Just as it says. Good or bad experiences, but if you have actual preferred choices from previous shopping the market, please relay it. I'm looking at PC based..probably a Dell as I have a few kits for XP pro and win2K. P3 tualatin or P4M anything over 1.0 mhz that can be converted easily to a wireless.

[atomic charvel guy]

I could steer you in the direction of a lot of quantity pushing distributors that sell fully refurbed machines with warranties, but you might have to pay more since you're buying one. Let me know, i'll give you some numbers of some large joints that have ridiculous pricing if you wish.

[xenophobe]

There are a lot of nice brand new laptops on the market in the $500-$600 price range...

[charvelguy]

Thanks for the posts guys..I was thinking of going new for a few hundred more but I went with a used Dell C400 1.3mhz. 'refurbed' from a local vendor off of eBay for under 250.00.
I'll pick it up to cut ship costs. I plan on getting the extended warranty thru squaretrade for 3 years just in case but these things are very well rated field laptops. Batteries and accessories are cheap for them now too.
Tualatins P3's have a very good rep. They almost match the P4's in the same range, tho I've read somewhere that P4-M's are typically faster.. I'll have to visit Tom's Hardware to see some bench tests.
Its already setup for wireless G and I bought a wireless router for the home recently.. I just needed something light and reasonbly priced for the couch surfing or occasional transport.

[m2pmd70]

Man, you just missed the 17", 2.4GHz, 2Gb rig a guy I work with was selling for $300. He had back surgery and it was too heavy for him so he bought some tiny Averatec.

[charvelguy]

that blows.. I was willing to spend up to about 350.00-400, that sounds like an insane price for a laptop with those features..memory alone is over a 100.00

[atomic charvel guy]

dude, shoulda pm'ed me, i have stuff available from guys i sell memory too for sub 200, and if i bark them hard enough about all the money they've made off of me over the years i could grind them into submission.

[charvelguy]

well, I'm still looking for some other items Tommy.. namely a mac. I'll pm ya later today.

[atomic charvel guy]

please do, i'll e-mail you a ton of lowballing low flying buzzards, and i'll help you out when it comes to the point of you buying one instead of 500, i'll say it's for me, and we'll pull the double reverse daddy dead brain on one of them.

[charvelguy]

you got it..

[atomic charvel guy]

i'm ready for a verbal lashing on some cats who always grind me down to nickels on large volume deals. It will be at least fun if we don't succeed. Balderdash!!! How can we possibly lose?