Cheap laptop advice

[malfunction]

Hi folks,

My father in law is wanting a cheap laptop to check email and browse the web with from home. Doesn't need to be uber powerful but does need to be reliable so want to avoid anything that's flimsy and / or liable to overheat. Am currently thinking of this:

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/123094

Pros:

1) Major manufacturer (though I appreciate it's probably built in the same factory as 10 other brands)

2) It has XP installed not Vista (I assume Vista should still be avoided - and Vista laptops in the same price range also only have 512MB RAM which I know is nowhere near enough for Vista).

Cons:

1) It has shared memory graphics (I may upgrade the RAM to offset this a little)

2) Could use a bit more memory (see 1)

Or would it be worth stretching to something like this for (supposedly) better build quality (and a dual core CPU - though I'm really not convinced it's worth it for a simple web + mail machine):

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/129385

Cheers!

[GoNz0]

pc world, or dell, ring dell and haggle at least 10% off there current sale price.

[listy]

my mate has bought 4 of them 2 for him and wife and 2 for kids

[Syd]

pc world, or dell, ring dell and haggle at least 10% off there current sale price.

Hmmmmm, Dell will do bout 10% you reckon, on 'list' discounted price?

[GoNz0]

from what you read here its 10% off without trying, play the call me back game and you can save even more..

[Syd]

I shall let you know how I get on

[staffsMike]

I got over 30% off list on my new xps 1330...but im special

[GoNz0]

well i think rule of thumb is to get some ammo from another website, ie pc world and play dell off against it, get a discount and tell em you will get back to em, make sure they have your phone number, a mobile is best. leave it and they will call back, they hate losing a possible sale. a good one is "well you undercut PC world by £40, but at least with them i only have a 5 min drive and i can be talking face to face with a tech guy, they may give you a nice warranty deal on top to clinch the deal !

[Syd]

I got over 30% off list on my new xps 1330...but im special

Lol - I know you are "special"

But seriously - how did you justify that deal with them!

[staffsMike]

It was through my comapines account manager at dell. We just agreed that it was the laptop I wanted and we wern't going to haggle. So I gave him a spec for £1700 and he came back with £1170

[TheVoice]

www.dmxdimension.com is a good place to look for Dell stuff. Links straight to the Dell site, but lists their best deals.