Hi. I was looking round for laptops. I want one for high school and so I'm looking for something affordable. I'd like to be able to do work yet also go on instant messenger listen to music, web browsing and the occasional dvd. I would like: 1gb of ram, 120gb harddrive, internal bluetooh, and an intel processor duo or whatever its called. Also along with all of that id like to get some productivity software such as word, excel and possibly powerpoint. I'd like it to be a dell. Is there anyone out there who uses a laptop for the same uses as me and owns a dell that they think works well with what i want?
thanks,
Dill

I'd go for an T60 or X61 Thinkpad.

Oh, hang on you said affordable.

1gb of ram, 120gb harddrive... affordable.... hmmm.....

In that case, I'd go for a cheap laptop and upgrade the RAM and HDD. Try to get one that has PATA HDD not SATA, it will be cheaper to upgrade.

bless you :P sorry can you please translate

OK, what I am suggesting since you are on a budget but also expect 120GB HDD and decent RAM (and why NOT expect that?!) is that you need to buy a cheap laptop and upgrade it.

Now, there are two types of hard drive that laptops take in general. One is a Parallel ATA, and one is Serial ATA. PATA is easier to get hold of as an upgrade, and will cost you less. But you can still get SATA disks for laptops as an upgrade too - it just costs more and the disks might not be as big for the money. You'll likely find out what type of hard disk that the laptop takes in its specs, which you should read before buying it.

Why not find a laptop you like, and post back here? I or one of the others can tell you what upgrades to buy for it. Or I can find out how easy it would be to upgrade. Where were you planning on buying this laptop?

I like the dell Inspiron 640m (E1405) or the 6400 (E1505)

That machine can take up to 2GB of Dual Channel DDR2, and is available to 160 GB hard drive. You might as well, if you want this machine, just buy it from the Dell online store but select the bigger HDD and 1GB of RAM.

You can get the following

PROCESSOR Intel® Pentium® dual-core T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home
LCD PANEL 14.1 inch Wide Screen XGA Display
MEMORY 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
HARD DRIVE 160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
VIDEO CARD Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless 1390 Mini Card (802.11b/g, 54Mbps)
SOUND OPTION Integrated Audio
MEDIA DIRECT Media Direct 3.0

...from Dell online store for $649, which is pretty damn reasonable if you ask me.

above machine will do these things, but will not play games, as the graphics are integrated - Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 - so you won't be able to play 3d games, but it will do all the other things.

ok thanks very much

whatever BUDGET system you buy, ensure it has at least 1gb of ram and a fast hard drive (7200 speed or more) or you can buy it and add those items later.
Bear in mind no budget system will allow too much of 3d games. But for general productivity it will be just fine for surfing, school, paper writing, etc.