help finding cheap non gaming laptop!!?

I'm looking for a laptop and i never play games:

Priorities are as follows:
1) Cheap -- definately under 1200, hopefully close to 1000 or less
2) Nice big screen -- i.e., 15 or 15.4 and greater than 1024x768 res
3) Build quality and reliabilty -- i really don't want a POS w/ some screen that looks wack and a keyboard that is jacked up. That would get old yeah??
4) Portable, but doesn't have to be really portable. I.e., 7 lbs is OK i think -- but i don't want a monster either like the Dell 9100 (not to diss the 9100 just too big for me).
5) Vid card doesn't matter at all to me .

In terms of battery life -- i guess i need at least 2 hours but really antyhing more than that and i'll be looking for a plug sooner or later anyways so not that important.

The main things i will do w/ this laptop -- run apps like visual studio, surf the web (wifi neccesary), run office, play videos/dvds/mp3s. Some photoshop/dreamweaver apps, email.

Hopefully i don't have my head in the clouds and most of these criteria can be met at my price range?? I guess i just don't know.

I noticed that almost all posts in this "Notebook General" area revolve around the pentium-M chips. So i guess that means that most people here really want to have good batter life? Because to me processing power probably takes priority over long battery life (to a degree). I.e., if i can get a Pentium 2.66 that only has 2 hours of life but can haul ass over a Pentium-M 1.5 and is a cheaper laptop that is prbly cool.

I've been watching the bargain sites for a while trying to find this baby -- but they seem to focus mainly on Dell, which i guess could be OK. But alot of people also say Dell quality is bad. And then i came here......

You guys blew me away w/ the # of ODM's that you check out -- so i need to learn more.

Ok enough ranting... any suggestions??

Thanks a bunch!!!!
w.

Here is one of the stupid Dell deals that i looked at

The HP's look OK and do fit my budget i guess. I need to read up on them more.

Here's one of the Dell deals i was checking out. I guess this is definately a little bigger (its a fatty) then i was hoping for -- but it is so hard to turn these specs down for such a retarded cheap price.

Inspiron 5150 Desktop Replacement Notebook - Mobile Pentium-4 2.66GHz, 15" XGA, 256MB DDR/30GB, Free 24x CDRW/DVD, GeForceFX 32MB Video Card, 10/100 Ethernet, 56k Modem, Word Perfect/MS Money, XP Home, 1-Yr Warranty, 8.2lb $999 - 10% off code = $899, free shipping.

What you guys think about that emachine 6805? I wonder if i can find that for cheap.

What about these ODM's -- are there any dog-ass-cheap ones that i should be looking into?

Thanks for input enderet!!
w.

Tourney, you are definately right about the vid card on dell -- the only thing is though that i *really* never ever ever play video games on the PC. So having a totally "craptastic" video card really doesn't mean anything to me.

I do like the fact that the athlon is a true "mobile" processor -- so hopefully less heat and a 2.5 hour battery like you said.

But according to "the authority" CNET (hahha -- sick joke i know) they say the 5150 can get 254 minutes of battery life according to BAPCo MobileMark 2002. I don't know if that is total BS or not though of course.

All in all i agree that emachine is prbly a better quality machine. So many people say the dells are like fisher price toys when u get them -- big hunk of ugly plastic.

I will have to look into how to get emachine M6805 for 1250.

Are there any other laptops that are about 1200 or less that I should be checking out?

Thanks again -
w.

Ok so after a bit of digging i'm wondering why everyone and their brother hasn't gotten the M6805 eMachine? Is it because the name is eMachine and they used to be the cheapest POS computers known to man? I guess that is an OK reason.

The other notebook that seems to rock is the HP zt3000. Looks pretty smooth. But as soon as you bump up the processor to 1.7 (to compete w/ the fast AMD chip in the M6805) and add 512 megs and blah blah -- the HP price starts to get up there.

So what gives -- am i missing something regarding the M6805/M6809 or are these machines pretty friggin awesome. People have said build quality is as good or better then HP/Compaq/Dell ( i guess prbly not IBM but can't beat them all ).

I found that deal for 1250 after 2 Mail-in-rebates for the M6805 (but it is expired now).

I'm thinking the next big sale like that for 6805 and i'm on it.

Thanks for all the input people and lemme know if there are any other great "bang for the buck" models I should be looking into!!

w.