http://www.daniweb.com/forums/thread80793.html

Heres my dell specs:

1 223-0456 Inspiron E1505N, Intel Core 2 Duo processor T5600 (2MB/1.83GHz/667MHz)
1 320-5155 15.4 Inch UltraSharp TrueLife Wide-screen WXGA+ for Inspiron6400/E1505
1 311-7354 1GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm for Inspiron 6400/E1505
1 320-5634 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7300 TurboCache, for Inspiron E1505N
1 341-3316 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive for Inspiron 6400/E1505
1 420-7153 Ubuntu Edition version 7.04
1 313-3959 8X DVD+/-RW Drive for Inspiron 6400/E1505
1 313-4217 Integrated High Definition Audio, Inspiron
1 430-1918 Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 802.11a/g Mini Card (54Mbps) for Inspiron 6400/E1505
1 312-0403 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery, for Inspiron 6400/E1505
1 312-0405 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Additional Battery, for Inspiron 6400/E1505
1 950-3337 1 Year Limited Warranty
1 950-9057 No Warranty, Year 2 and 3
1 985-3578 Dell Hardware Warranty Plus Return To Depot, Initial Year
1 980-2860 Type 12- Mail-InService, 24x7 TechnicalSupport, Initial Year
1 960-2780 Warranty Support,Initial Year
1 310-8314 Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor

All for $943.93

I bought the 512MB ram b/c it was the smallest possible that you could buy from dell.. it would cost another $275 for 2 gigs of ram.. which I can easily buy off newegg for $75.

Hope this helps some.

Yeah dell, cheap, cheerful and fairly sturdy

acer, hp or toshiba otherwise

hmm.. I think dell and hp are prolly both really competitive in the laptop industry.. 2 of the best, no doubt.. although, I have heard many bad things related to HP laptops (break more frequently, customer support terrible, not as good as dell) which is why I went with the dell.. but, it really just comes down to personal preference, and what you want your laptop optimized for.

Yeah, you need 2gb ram to use vista properley. Dont ever buy a vista laptop with 512 or 1gb.

Unless your planning to buy the ram cheaper from newegg

For a student.. Those laptops with cheap graphics so gaming will be limited. lolz

i prefer dell over all vendors. Noone can touch their support or MS prices. They're the #1 Microsoft reseller in the world... you won't find a better price than dell if it's made by microsoft.

Yea.. and I'm sure ALL of you would buy dell over hp if you got a $500 discount..

one of these days MS should start making PCs