We want to get her one as a gift...and have about $600 to spend, give or take a bit! What should I be looking for?? Dh and I are both so confused at this point! LOL Any brand names to NOT get?

__________________

You know, I really don't think it matters, I would just look for a good warranty. We bought a totally cheap Compaq at Walmart for $400 for me to use and it has been fine. We were just pricing them again because our daughter wants one and it seems your price range is fine. I think it just depends on what she uses it for. Games or anything really demanding might require a bigger hard drive but my daughter plays all her games with no problem on mine. I have a Compaq Presario. We've had a couple others and I have not really noticed a difference, except my dh's work ThinkPad, which I totally don't like. I think most are wireless ready now so that shouldn't be a concern. I thought this was a decent deal:

Buy the Everex StepNote 15.4" Widescreen Notebook PC (VA4103M) and other Notebook Computers at circuitcity.com

__________________

I want you to know that, OUTLOUD, I just said, "WHOA BABY"!!!! That is a really good price! Thank you. We have a Circuit City right up the road!

__________________

Nuts. They are out and probably won't get back in. The next price up was the same...and the one after that had bad reviews. Guess I'll keep looking.

__________________

Bummer! I wish it hard worked out. I'm not a techie so I don't know what "specs" to look for but I showed that actually Circuit City computer to my husband and he said that would be fine for generally use so I would look for something like that. I'll post a deal if I see it but from what I have seen, I was sure I could find something for under $500.00. Personally, I don't trust refurbished but there are lots of deals of those, usually around $300.00- $350.00.

14.1" Refurbished Laptop, 700MHz Pentium III Processor with DVD | Compaq | Walgreens

__________________

OMG....dh just went to Office Depot.....they had what we had originally wanted...for $629...and it has a $150 rebate...AND, we had no idea of this..BUT.....THERE WAS NO SALES TAX ON IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We knew this was no sales tax weekend on clothing, but we had NO idea it was on computers, too!!!!!!!!!!!!! Woohooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had $300 of it saved, and we had put back another $300...so it is MORE than paid for!!!

__________________

Awesome!

__________________

:yay!:

Great job!!

__________________
Mommy to Ariana 8/11/01 & Davis 4/11/05
I love my kiddos!

[/url]