Recommended computer ($400 or less)

Well if you are looking for new about the only thing for under $400 is going to be a netbook. Witch is not a bad thing if the main thing you are looking to do is internet but you can pretty much nix out any gaming. Acer makes a good netbook and so does Asus and also Dell.

Under 400 at Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...e&Order=RATING

Dell Mini 10
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/noteb...cs=19&ref=lthp

Looks like a nice netbook! It looks on par with other netbooks in the 300 to 400 dollar range(I don't know what price you are looking at). As for the drive and witch is better that is really hard to say but in this case not knowing all the details about the SSD I would say the Regular HD is probably better.

On a side note I am not a fan of HP, had some really bad tech support run ins. I wouldn't touch there products with a 10 foot pole. Thats more of personal opinion though.

I like them, but again purely opinion. There Mini9's got great reviews and the Mini 10 is suppose to be tops! Dell has come under fire for the customer support lately though as well, so who knows any more. I know Asus is making a big play to enlarge there American market, could be a good thing. I have never owned an Asus product personally but always hear pretty good things.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread228106.html

For Mini notebook, stick with the 160gb HDD.

http://www.notebookforums.com/thread228021.html

mentioned only Acer, but I will not be surprised for others as well.

cheers ...

1 gig is plenty for XP. For Vista it will be a bit tight.

cheers ...

1Gb is pretty standard for netbooks, your right. Is that a lot... not really. On some models you can add more or at least upgrade the chip it comes with. For internet usages running XP 1Gb is probably OK. May want to look into upgradability with what you buy though.

Sorry qhn didn't see your post there, exactly my thoughts!

OK you have a lot going on there. First thing I will say is be careful spending too much money on upgrades some times its cheaper to do it your self, especially with RAM and HD's. As far as XP, Vista and 7 (getting to Ubuntu latter) XP is a great OS works very well with processor and RAM limited machines and is a well designed piece of software. Vista has a lot to be desired and some say 7 is what Vista should be(in other words wait till 7 comes out). The Beta version of 7 was released several months ago, so lots of people have seen it to compare it with Vista. I have installed it my self and it makes me regret spending $100 on Vista. As for Ubuntu it is a great OS it is readily available online for Free download. I suggest you get use to it on a different machine before you make it your primary OS because it is quite different from other OS's. It is very well done though and worth a look see. As for your link it only got me to the home page nothing specific I could see.

Good luck with your search, ask any questions you need and let us know what you decide!

No worries man, bug away!

Yeah I think a purchase from a retailer is definitely a good idea. The free upgrade from Vista to 7 is really cool... get it in writing though!

There is a chance you can upgrade the wireless card yourself too, they are often installed in what is called Mini PCI slot and they are interchagable. That being said some are not and also not all will work with all machines and if you really want the N and the upgrade price isn't to bad... go for it!

As for RAM and HD those are two thing that usually won't void a warranty and are cake to upgrade so smart to wait like you said unless its a great deal(usually not though). New Egg http://www.newegg.com/ is a great place to get an idea on how much stuff costs, that way you know going in if what they offer is good or not. If you know what machine you think your going to get I could help you with some prices on upgrades... if you needed help that is.

The two major brands(competitors) are Intel and AMD most other names (Athlon, Core 2 Duo etc) are just sub categories of these two brands. I don't know a lot about AMD I'm am mainly an Intel man, AMD is a great company as well though just not my area of strength. With Intel you want to stay with the "Core 2" as it is the newest(except for i7) within "Core 2" you have Duo(2 cores) and Quad(4 cores). So like you said "2 duo"(or Core 2 Duo) is where you want to be! Quad is probably over kill as is the new i7's. Another thing you may have seen is the "Atom" witch is Intel's newer single core processor made primarily for "netbooks". From what it sounds like you are moving away from netbooks and moving into wanting a full out notebook. This is pricer but probably a good idea. Any way good luck, it looks like your on the right path though. Keep us updated!

Ok lets see, none of the brands I am that familiar with and I have never heard of the online stores at all, If you are familiar and trust them than thats good. I noticed most of what you where looking at was referbished witch is fine just make sure you trust the place you getting them and you get a good warrenty.
My second choice here, not a bad machine and the price looks fair. Again just check the warrenty and trustworthyness of the sight.
Never heard of this one, doesn't look that great to me!
My 3rd choice, not bad but seams like the least bang for the buck.
This is my first choice of what you have here. Acer makes good machines. Lots of good stuff, probably the best Video of the three.
Have you thought of looking at manufacturers web sights? Dell.com Acer, HP ect. I know Dell has an outlet sight and can have some pretty good deals.
WiFi can work depends on where you live and how many "open" connnection there are near you. There is also Coffie shops and Barnes&nobles. Really just depends on how much you need the internet. Do you have a connection now?

As for how much the broadband connection cost, I don't really know but I think you can usually add on to your cell phone plan, at least that would be a good place to start. Have to by a card for that as well. All of the machine you had listed come with WiFi(I think) cards and that free so you could always try that first.
No problem Man!