Laptop purchase sites

Hi

Does anyone have any good websites from which to purchases a cheap brand new laptop with warranty, etc. Dell is an obvious site. Are there any "fly under the radar" online shops?

 

I buy laptops used and it's a great deal. Here's an example: I bought a Dell Latitude C640 which had a 14.1in screen, 2GHz Processor, 80GB HDD, 512MB RAM, 4X DVD +/- Burner, and a HP Photosmart 8400 printer all for $880.00 to my door.

The laptop originally came with a 20GB HDD and a CD Player, but I swapped them with the 80GB HDD and the burner.

I get all my software discounted because I'm in school so that really didn't cost me anything since I already had it.

Here's the kicker, I ordered all the computer stuff from ebay!

Later,

 

www.newegg.com sells laptops for good prices and I belive they have a warranty and such.

 

I bought my current laptop on ebay. The good thing was that it still had a warranty which saved me some extra cash when my laptop started exhibiting some problems. Luckily I decided to extend the warranty because the cost of the repair exceeded the cost of the warranty. I've owned two laptops in the past and the both exhibited problems down the road and the warranty helped me save some cash.

I don't mind buying a used laptop as long it comes with a warranty over a year (being able to extend it would be nicer). Unlike with a desktop , notebooks are more risky because I can't yank out the damaged item and plug in a new one.

How are Dell laptops? I've heard some not so pleasant reviews about them.
Thanks

 

Depending on what you know about laptops, your perception may change. The laptop I bought and pieced together from ebay sellers could have easily cost more than $2800 to get the same amount of performance from a new machine.

The cool part is that laptops do have a lot of interchangeable parts. I used to think there were so many proprietary components that they were ridiculous. However once I started messing with them, I found they're pretty easy to repair. Dell laptops have had their qwerks. Qwerks is all I call them because once you know about them, a remedy is so simple. For instance, Dell stopped using PIV processors. Why? The answer I come up with is based on the problems I've repaired for people. They get too hot. The solution, take a can of air and blow the heatsinks clean. A little bit of maintenance, but nothing I'd throw negative comments to Dell about. The good thing is that because of this problem you can find PIV Dell laptops for really reasonable prices. I tell who ever uses them to watch the dust and if it just shuts off for no reason then it's probably overheating and clean the heat sinks out.

The main point is that the more you know about troubleshooting, maintenance, and repair, the less risky you will think it is to buy used equipment. This forum is capable of making people feel 10ft tall and bullet proof when it comes to problems. There is a rich pool of resources so everyone's confidence should be sky high.

 

Hi Jason

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Your advice is much appreciated. I've had this site bookmarked but joined just a few days ago. I'm sure there's a lot i can learn from you folks.

Thanks again to all