Can someone recommend me a good laptop?

its for my mom, she doesn't game, do anything resource intensive. want to spend 300-500 bucks. heres what i would like for it to have: dual core proc., 3 gig RAM, 250 gig hard drive. thanks guys.

someone please?

This is a hard one...which probably explains why you haven't received a reply yet.
Unless you are willing to spend at least $600, you won't buy much.
For $500, you could get something like this..
Maybe you should look into a netbook instead of a laptop.
If you can wait until the spring, you may find a better deal on sale.

Most laptops are going to start in the high $500 if not $600. If you are looking for a basic system, I'd recommend Dell. They are reliable, come with a good warranty, and are great for the everyday user. (not so much the enthusiast, but that's not what your after)

An Insiprion 14 come with 4gb memory, dual core Intel i3, and a 250gb hard disk at about $650

Net books typically have a lot less memory, but they also come with windows XP, which 1gb of memory if fine. These systems start at about $300 and go up from there. The screens are small, less then 10". They are designed for mobility, internet use, and the basic, bottom end use (music playing, solitaire, office suite, etc)

You can also hit up the local computer store, Best Buy, Ultimate Electronics, even Wal-mart, and see what they have to offer. If nothing else, it lets you use the system personally and determine if it will suit your needs.

well my moms eyesight isn't getting better so she needs at least a 15 inch screen. she says she doesn't want a dell b/c of bad customer service.

ok then, in any case: Going with any name brand unit really is a decent choice. All the major brands have warranties and similar products.

Asus, HP, Acer, Dell, Sony, or a Mac (though you wont find a $300 Mac)

If you are looking for a 15" or bigger screen, you are going to have a really hard time finding one under the $500 limit.

In general, you'll get more computer than what you pay for from Acer, and they build great laptops lately contrary to what some believe.

well, you arn't from the UK, but it is possible to get a decent 15" laptop for about $630USD. At least I was able to find one on a UK site, and believe me, everything is more expensive over here.

I was just browsing the HP website and found THIS. It allows you to pick what goes in the laptop, so you can make it as cheap as $450 at base line. Of course, it won't have what you wanted up above, but you can pick and choose among a few different hard drives, RAM, video card, CPU, and network cards.

Is the price range fixed? or if you wait a month or two could you go to $600-700? That is where most of the good laptops start coming into play and if you are able to wait i would highly recommend it.

I guess the other question is - is a laptop necessary? or could you go with a desktop? You will definitely get more for your money going that way if you can deal with the less portable system.

we have a family desktop and then my desktop. my mom wants the laptop because its better for her back. she just surfs the web so she doesn't need a high end one. yea the price s fixed, which is why im having a hard time finding what she wants for the price.

Another approach might be to go to; http://www.newegg.com/Store/Computer.aspx?page=1, sign up for their Email deals, and let a laptop come to you.

Plan "B", read the Best Buy ads first thing Sunday morning, and if you see something you like get there stat. Don't let them sell you a bunch of extra s***, the deal tends to go away quickly if you do.

Here is one option:
Dell Vostro 1015 Intel Core 2 Duo T5780 2GHz 15.6in Laptop w/ Windows 7 $451
http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/194104

If you can stretch a little at $570 this one looks promising:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba...eeze/9716096.p?id=1218158634323&skuId=9716096

Or this Asus is in your price range:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus - ...nium/9700714.p?id=1218152462975&skuId=9700714

hey thanks guys, for some reason the best buy links are always saying the page is not found.

The link issue seems to be you. The Asus @ BB hooked right up for me.

Acer from newegg $450 via the email deals

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115728&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL012110&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL012110-_-Notebooks-_-L0E-_-34115728

forever: I'd advise you to go for that Dell Vostro 1015 compdata linked you to. You will not find much better deal than this for a notebook in your price range.

Eddie's linked notebook carries Pentium processor whereas the dell carries more modern Core 2; which is much better choice anyway.

I found this lenovo, which is 560$ but still worth a look:

http://www.notebookforless.com/ssproduct.asp?pf_id=1013596853

However, I think i found something which is good and costs 523$ which is slightly over your budget but looking at the specs it definitely looks reasonable:

http://www.notebookforless.com/ssproduct.asp?pf_id=1014395158

The T4400 Pentium in the BB laptop was launched in Q4 '09, which is pretty much the day before yesterday. http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=40739&processor=T4400&spec-codes=SLGJL

As you may or may not know, the current line of Pentium dual cores (desktop) are "Wolfdale" 45nm cores. The smaller L2 caches are the only thing that separates them from the E7XXX and E8XXX lines. Since certain Pentium Dual Cores are actually the latest products released in the C2D family, the only thing that could be argued here is whether the new one, "T-4400 Pentium" (mobile), is not as good as the "older C2D" (mobile(s)).

Well if i remember correctly Core 2 introduced a Wide Dynamic Execution Unit and a much better branch prediction unit, which works much better with more L2 cache as it can feed more data for processing to it, and that was the idea behind my comment. However, in this case the performance difference may be limited.