ARgggh. I"m in the process of trying to find a good laptop and I'm at my wits end, LOL. Soooo much crap to look at, and specs and blah blah blah blah blah. Maybe some of you can give me some guidance. OK so this is what I"m down to. I found a really good comp at Best Buy that i really like. Its a Gateway Notebook 6510GZ. Pentium M Processor 725, 80GB, CD/DVD Burner, 15.4" widescreen display with Ultrabright, and its 6.3 lbs. Then I found a couple at Dell for a comparable price. Both are Pentiums, one is the 6000 not as great specs as the gateway. The second one is on sale and has has more stuff, its the 9300, has a HUGE 17" screen but the sucker is like an over 8lb bohemith! Now, I"m not really convinced with Dell cuz I HATE buying something I cannot see and touch first and actually play with before buying to know that I'm really going to like it. ONLY reason I'm even considering Dell is cuz they are the ONLY company I know that offers the 'accident' insurance. LOL, so basically I'm debating, should I go for the 'idiot proof' insurance and pipe down and just get a Dell. Or just try to NOT be an idiot, and try hard to treat my laptop properly, lol, and buy a laptop I've seen and played with and that I seem to really like? Another little detail. I was just approved for a comp with Dell, BUT, I don't qualify for the interest free until 2006. Which means I will have to pay the 21.99% friggin interest from the time I make my first payment. With Best Buy, I get 12 months no interest automatically cuz I already have an account with them, so that gives me a whole year to pay off my laptop interest free. That would add up to like an extra 300$ just with interest alone otherwise. Argh, decisions decisions.

Well... What do you plan to even do with this lap top? Gaming on them isnt really a option on them unless if you want to fork out alot of money.. If your wanting to game go for a desktop. Alot cheaper and better, A laptop once its out of date its out of date. A desktop offers many upgrades over the years.. Now if you want one just to have one go with the cheapest. If you need one for bussiness and such gow ith one that has a softwear package. Processor P4@ 2.6 Ghz, FSB@535Mhz RAM 512MB's PC2700/32001 256 stick of each. Hard Disk Drives 1 40 GB HD 1 10 GB HD CD/DVD Drives CDRW52X

I would be inclined to go with a local purchase, not only because you can see & touch the merchandise, but also in case you have to return it. I'm sure there are quite a few satisfied Dell customers, but I would encourage you to look at their customers' input from Resellerratings.com