Mom wants a laptop for Christmas

She doesn't do anything special other than your basic web/email type stuff. She currently has a Dell desktop which is a piece of junk. :\

I want to get her something that wouldn't be loaded with trial software or stuff that'll slow it down that most retail computers come with. Are there any companies out there that let you customize a PC/laptop like Velocity Micro/Dell/etc.? that won't overload your system with that?

Thanks in advance.

Judging by what you said, it seems she doesn't need anything more than the least expensive Acer or Dell laptop. Just buy it, remove all the garbage, and give it to mom.

The Dell Vostro series business laptops don't have any preinstalled garbage. They're quite inexpensive and have good specs, so I suggest you look into one of them.

Any dell that fits her budget from the business side though. Not the Home side of sales.

Cool, thanks for the info everyone.

Ever consider a Macbook?

AVADirect is aggressively launching a new line of laptops, but I haven't seen one in person. The rumor mill says that there will be a review in December on CNET, for whatever that's worth.

I wasn't thrilled personally with the VM laptop I tinkered with, but others have expressed their satisfaction with them.

Honestly, the cheapest and best way to get a decent laptop is to buy from one of the big boys and then wipe the hard drive. Of them, I've been most impressed with Gateway's build quality, thermal control, and responsiveness.

Though I disagree with the choice of Gateway. Unfortunately, the lower end, affordable laptops are almost always going to be mass produced. The good news is that your mom probably won't care, because you are such a righteous kid to be hooking her up with some laptopage.

I picked up a refurbished Dell Inspiron from the Dell Outlet, completely wiped and reloaded the hard drive, and use that to surf the web and do e-mail because I'm too lazy to go downstairs to get on my main rig. Out of curiosity, I loaded EQ2 on it, just to see if it would play well enough to keep me from tearing my hair out, and it did OK. I think I paid...$599 for it?

Just a thought...refurbished doesn't mean crappy...at least not always. LOL.

Heather