Whats the best deal I could possibly get for $1000 on a laptop new?

My current suggestion is to go configure a 6000 if you don't mind not having core duo. Base system with a DVD burner & ATI 128MB dedicated graphics card for $699. I'm tempted by the price myself...

got my sig for 980$

i wouldnt buy anything but a new system now. for another 100$ you can have duo, and thats worth it to everyone.

I say the Inspiron 6000 as well, a few add-on options and you'll easily be able to get it for less than a grand.

what is the point in buying an i6000 now that duo is out? for about the same price he can get a 6400 with the x1400 when it becomes availible.

coupons are on www.techbargains.com , but there arent any good ones out this time around. they will expire and put out good ones again, its a cycle.

Yeah, the X1400 is probably gonna be a $150 upgrade when it comes out. You will be surprised that there will be someone out there who will still buy Pentium M instead of Core Duo.

This buying of old technology being silly also applies to me as well because I shouldn't have bought a 700m as it is using even older Pentium M chips. But I still did & so does the rest who just bought or are buying 710m (No offense meant).

Furthermore, the shocking thing to a lot of people is that I have a couple of relatives who had Windows 2000 on their system still so.....

im going to be replacing the 6000 with a desktop rig with conroe, and buying a "700m sized" dell at that time.

hopefully there will be an upgrade to the 710/700m lineup by then. i did have a few days with a 700m and loved it, it was so tiny and portable. but i will not spend the 600-1000$ for that tech now. its just too old to be buying for a almost "brand new tech price"

but i do love the 700m

Yeah, I agree with you though that it's probably not worth spending hard earned money on "old" technology.

I'll also love to see a 12" duo core replacement for the 700m/710m but I wonder whether I'll be able to let go of my beloved 700m. Definitely tough choices to be made in the future....

Really I dont think its a surprise that people would buy a pentium M core over a pentium core duo. First off that first release of core duo chips are a bit buggy, as to be expected I suppose for a first release of a dual core chip. Secondly, there are very few applications that can take advantage of that extra core. Hardware and software just arent out there to really get your bang for your buck with these processors. In time that will change ofcourse but over the next two years that change is going to be very slow indeed, folks just arent embracing bleeding edge technology as they used to and for very good reason, its just to dam costly I mean how many of us can really afford to replace our laptops every year? our desktops every year? our motherboards, processors and video cards that are soaring in cost well out of reach of most consumers. Look at 64 bit processors, theyve been out for quite a long time now at least two years as I recall, still no 64 bit operating system to speak of, vista is continually delayed (not soo much a complaint as an observation, better to delay it than to ship it out all buggy and unsupportive). As for 64 bit processing on a laptop, the memory becomes a big limitation, windows 32 bit can adress up to 4 gigs of memory, for 64 bit true computing to shine it needs more as more memory is what makes 64 bit faster and more attractive than 32 bit operating systems. I have yet to see a laptop that can address 4 gigs of memory, let alone the 128 gigs that a 64 bit system can address.
I guess my point here is that while all this new stuff is nice, when one considers that a laptops lifespan is in the 2 to 4 year range ( heavy users and business users often have their laptops die in this 2 to 4 year span and those who are using a laptop as a desktopreplacement shouldnt expect more than 4 years of life from their lappies) that its probably a moot point to go dual core, 64 bit and bleeding edge with a laptop, 99 percent of the populatioin is using a 32 bit system and lets face it, who wants to replace all those 32 bit software titles we are using? There are few software patches, hardware updates etc for either of these scenarios so with a laptop purchase, staying with a 32 bit pentium M processor really does make alot of sense and will ofcourse be cheaper than 64 bit or dual core solutions for laptops. 64 bit systems will not give a big boost over 32 bit systems especially since laptops are limited to a maximum of 2 gigs of memory anyways.

You could go with a 6000 or I think I've heard its been replaced with a "6400" model. I would suggest steering away from dual cores and 64 bit cores for now see previous post. You could also probably get a 9400 or a 9300 with a much bigger 17 inch screen in a package thats only an inch deeper and an inch and a half wider than the 6000 but would offer you a more powerful graphics solution though I hear these days that since a 9300 is discontinued the 6800 nvidia graphics is no longer available to order a model with but you can at least upgrade a 9300 to a 6800ultra card or 7800 gtx or 7800 go card making it very attractive just dont get integrated graphics with any laptop that you buy make sure they are dedicated graphics which offers hope of upgrades in the future. I would steer away from those trendy, tiny laptops, smaller is not better, it's just "smaller", try typing a paper on an inspiron 710 for example, the keyboard is very small and inefficient. Last time I checked my fingers arent getting any smaller........how about yours???
Also check out whats available in the dell outlet for great deals. It sounds like your looking for a good performing lappy, Best advice I can give you at this time is to WAIT if you can, a few months or more and meanwhile save up some money.

Youre comments here are actually quite wrong. Pentium M sonoma chips are not "old" technology. They are very good chips, very reliable, they just aren't 64 bit and they aren't dual core. Now anyone who spends a bit of time and research looking at 64 bit and dual core will quickly find that it is NOT needed on a laptop and indeed cannot live up to its expectations on a laptop platform ( with regards to 64 bit especially). The whole point of switching to 64 bit and getting the speed gains spoken of is that 64 bit can address more than 4 gigs of memory unlike widows xp 32 bit. Now can anyone here tell me the last time they used a notebook that had 4 gigs of memory in them? they dont exist, 2 gigs is currently the max and more gigs would need more POWER so laptops are definitely at a technological crossroads that will not be easily addressed without using a different powercell for the batteries. 64 bit processors do not offer much if any performance improvement on 32 bit applications running on a 64 bit operating system emulating in 32 bit. Dual core processors lack any realistic hardware of software support to take advantage of that extra core either and it's not likely to change anytime soon.
Now are dual cores and 64 bit cores the future of computing? MOST CERTAINLY, but currently they do not offer enough or any performance gains to warrant their purchase over an "older" as you say, pentium m 32 bit processor.
Bottom line here, buying a pentium M 32 bit processor in a laptop is a very good buy and makes very good sense, now more than ever because they are cheaper than the bleeding edge technologies of 64 bit and dual core which are NOT being quickly embraced and wont be must haves in a laptop for at least two years, most likely more which means that folks who are buying dual core or 64 bit lappies today will end up using them to the end of their lifespan ( two to four years depending on usage) before they truly come of age. Even if you were to order an inspiron 9400, it would be best to go with a single core processor.

To make up an analogy here of the current situation, its alot like everyone driving model t's then all of a sudden they come out with a ford escort, now these ford escorts in this scenario would be the cutting edge of technology as compared to the model t's that everyone else is driving and they will perfrom soo much better and faster than model t's especially when they build those new freeways through out the country, everyone knows a model t doesnt fare well on a freeway right?
Apply this scenario to the current computing situation..........the escorts are here..........the freeways are not and escorts dont fare much better on muddy dirt roads than model t's do.

Thanks for your comments. It sure enlightens many people who visit this thread. If you have read the very start of the thread, you'll find that I was the one who suggested to the thread starter to go for an i6000 & even I myself am currently thinking of getting one myself as mentioned earlier.

Yeah, I was trying to agree with another poster that his views are not totally wrong because just as you have said, not many people can afford to change laptops annually so I thought maybe it's slightly better in terms of money spent to go for the latest technology because if you check the Dell website, the price of taking duo core instead of a Sonoma chip is not by a lot more.

Yep, even though I feel that spending money on "old" technology is silly, I myself have got all 3 laptops (including my 700m) that are running on Penium M Dothan which is older than Sonoma so the word silly is being referred to myself & not others.

actually the 7*5 chips are getting outdated. yes they still work fine for normal use, but lets face it. duo is out, and the sonoma chipset has been out for well over a year.

that puts the older banias chips at more than 2-4yrs old.

to me, thats old tech.

The Inspiron E1505 w/ Dual Core is available for $949 before discounts. Take the price before discounts to $999 or more, and apply coupon code RH0TFJGWX9JHCM for $300 off $999 or more. Apply a $35 off $300 coupon from eBay. Use Dell Preferred Account and apply coupon code X35M8PQ6Z?5XWK for $25 off $999. The final price should be $999 - $300 - $35 - $25 = $639.

857$ is ok, but i almost got one in outlet with 2.0ghz for 700$flat and it was cert. refurb/ decked out.

That's simply not true - you can take advantage of dual core technology right now by running just one cpu intensive task. On a single core processor this will grind any other application to a halt whereas on a dual core system you can continue to work smoothly. I'm sure most people would like more responsive systems when multi-tasking, I would say very few people only ever run a single program at a time.

John

You can get a e1505 for 699

I'd still rather have my 9300 than a E1705/9400.

why, because of the video card dilemma?

except for that the 9400 is a much better machine. dell will sort it out, seems they have finally made some gfx cards availible in the 6400 now.