Best Buy is offering this Toshiba Laptop; http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218092959299 till Saturday for $299.95! It also is available with a case and wireless mouse for $339.99.

I was offered an "optimized model" for $350.00. Don't do it, they only pull out the bloatware and manage the start up programs,. We can all do that ourselves. They were out of stock (Concord Pike, DE) but a salesperson said that he was expecting more this Friday. All other stores in my area, other than Concord Pike, show the unit as available.

Granted that this is an entry level machine with a Celeron CPU. But hey, it's got a DVD burner and 2GB of RAM.

Bump, because this deal is current and an old thread was on top.

that looks real sweet. i wish i had the cash to be able to get that. i need a laptop to take places with me. especially since i'm going on a trip this weekend and won't have a pc to play with.

That's a great deal, it may not be the greatest, but I would definitely go for that instead of netbook for sure!

OK,right up front, this machine is not going to make you a legend in online gaming, get that out of your head.

So far, the fit and finish is excellent, and with only Vista Home Basic installed, the OS won't make anywhere near the hardware demands that Vista Home Premium would with the "Aero" interface. So, it's almost, but obviously not quite, "down graded" to XP. That said, there is no free upgrade to Win 7, if that's an issue for you.

There's a DVD burner and wireless LAN installed, plus software to play DVD, and also "Movie Factory" (Corel), to allow movie/DVD authoring. M$ Works 9 is installed, and that's all most of us need for basic word processing and organizational tasks.

I bought the machine so that I can take it along to different places to show my photos, and the 15" screen is far superior to any netbook for this use. And light years better than using the LCD on the back of my DSLR cameras.

If I we're a high school student, or living at home while attending a community college, I would also be thrilled with this machine. It's not someone's "only" computer though, and you would still need access the the family desktop to do the "heavy lifting" tasks like video rendering, encoding. and repeated media burning applications.

Anyway, for 300 bucks, this is about as much as your likely to find in a laptop. Keep in mind at this price, a drop or a stolen machine doesn't escalate to anywhere near the disaster that a forgotten Mac Book Air, would entail. In fact a comprehensive insurance policy, with damage coverage, would cost as much as this machine.

It's surely worth a look. The sale continues until Best Buy store closing Saturday August 1 (Today), for a carry away, or 'til midnight for an online grab. Think about it.

Thanks for posting this Toshiba bargain. Middleweight laptop performance for a netbook price.

seems like worthy enough

This item is no longer on sale, the thread is almost 2 months old...

It is true that at the moment this particular computer is not available @ $299.95. The normal sell is only $329.95 and it is available both in store and from the BB website; http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218092959299 They also run it in their weekly ad from time to time.

It's worth looking in to whether Walmart has begun to stock this machine; http://www.techspot.com/news/35820-w...k-for-348.html

It has a larger, higher resolution screen, 250 GB HDD, plus 3GB memory, at the bargain price of $348.00 USD

For $18 more, the Walmart special is far better.
Too bad it's only a Celeron processor (I think I'm asking for too much . )

True enough, that's why I posted the link. However, assuming it will appear again at the sale price, with the Walmart model at $48.00 more, the decision is not as simple. Both machines carry the same Celeron 900 CPU, but the Walmart offering is 2 pounds heavier.
Gee.....,ya think?

The Vista Home Basic that comes with both machines, is a lot less demanding on hardware than Vista Home Premium would be. So, that should dial down some of the appeal of the XP or Linux of the netbooks. The downside is that you don't get the free upgrade to Win 7 that VHP would offer.

Walmart carries many of the same brand of laptop cases and backpacks that BB does, at about only 60% to 80% of the price.

Hard to figger how Toshiba can make a working machine that will last, at that price. A year from now, replacing the inverter might be too costly to do.

. Oddly, I don't hear any complaints that DDR2 is not reliable now that it is cheaper.

Oddly, when I say that Toshiba drives suck, you say they're the best thing since sliced bread.

My L305 came with a TSST drive that I have very little use for, hence it will last almost forever.

So, with that in mind I've already said that this isn't a desktop replacement, and you could always spring for the extended warranty. I also mentioned that it only costs as much as a Macbook insurance policy.

Given all of the foregoing, @ 300 bucks, it's almost worth not springing for a new battery, let alone an inverter.

Besides, if these inverters fail as you foretell, it will be your windfall.It will give you something to hate besides Emachines.

So, just gut the case, and install an all new computer in it. But remember, you'll have to spring for a new copy of Windows. >> <<