Here is my scenereo. Having narrowed down my choices and coming up with this model as my pick for a decent DTR laptop falling within my price range of $1400 - $1600 give or take a few $, thus far have not had enough confidence to order through Ibuypower, Cyber..(whatever), or Mwave but happened to come across this vendor: www.avadirect.com
They just happen to be located in my neighboring state (Ohio) and only aprox. 75 miles from my home. They have a good rating @ reseller.com of 9.83 -> http://www.resellerratings.com/seller4632.html
Here is the config I came up with:
AMD, AMD 1025 Laptop (15.4In Screen, DVD/CD-RW or DVD-RW, 128Mb Radeon 9700)
UNIWILL, Premier N258KA AMD Notebook, 15.4In Display
AMD, Athlon 64 Mobile Processor 3200+
DDR-400, 512Mb, PC-3200, 200 Pin, SODIMM
IBM, 60.0GB, 7200 RPM, 9.5mm, Slim EIDE Hard Drive
UNIWILL, Internal Combo Drive (CD/DVD and CD-R/RW)
WARRANTY, Assembled and Tested (1 Year Limited Parts, Lifetime Labor Warranty)
Total is: $1625.85 (does not include shipping)
The only negative is it doesn't come with the built in 802.11 b/g as does Ibuypower's offering but I already have a linksys PCMCIA b/g I currently use in my aging Thinkpad 1441 so thats probably no big deal although I would have prefered it built-in this time.
Has anyone here done business with avadirect?
How is the built-in wireless on this board (where available) vs.s just using my PCMCIA mentioned?
What would you do in my situation:
Take a chance on dealing with a vendor 1800 miles away and save maybe $60 and retain internal wireless on the same basic config OR go with avadirect which is a drive away if something were to go wrong plus gain PC-3200 vs PC2700 SODIMMs?
They just happen to be located in my neighboring state (Ohio) and only aprox. 75 miles from my home. They have a good rating @ reseller.com of 9.83 -> http://www.resellerratings.com/seller4632.html
Here is the config I came up with:
AMD, AMD 1025 Laptop (15.4In Screen, DVD/CD-RW or DVD-RW, 128Mb Radeon 9700)
UNIWILL, Premier N258KA AMD Notebook, 15.4In Display
AMD, Athlon 64 Mobile Processor 3200+
DDR-400, 512Mb, PC-3200, 200 Pin, SODIMM
IBM, 60.0GB, 7200 RPM, 9.5mm, Slim EIDE Hard Drive
UNIWILL, Internal Combo Drive (CD/DVD and CD-R/RW)
WARRANTY, Assembled and Tested (1 Year Limited Parts, Lifetime Labor Warranty)
Total is: $1625.85 (does not include shipping)
The only negative is it doesn't come with the built in 802.11 b/g as does Ibuypower's offering but I already have a linksys PCMCIA b/g I currently use in my aging Thinkpad 1441 so thats probably no big deal although I would have prefered it built-in this time.
Has anyone here done business with avadirect?
How is the built-in wireless on this board (where available) vs.s just using my PCMCIA mentioned?
What would you do in my situation:
Take a chance on dealing with a vendor 1800 miles away and save maybe $60 and retain internal wireless on the same basic config OR go with avadirect which is a drive away if something were to go wrong plus gain PC-3200 vs PC2700 SODIMMs?
I was watching your choice of model and config the past weeks upon making my decision. I was close to grabbing it @ Ibuypower but had concerns about them coming through or not (and the waiting period...), so I had looked up the mentioned vendor which happens to be in my neighboring state and also reviewed their rating on reseller.com . Am very happy with my choice both system and vendor since I got it remarkably 3 1/2 days after ordering. 
And I did get DDR-400 PC3200 
