keep checking
www.slickdeals.net
Once or twice a month, every month Dell has a laptop or two for ridiculously cheap. I got mine for $550 and my wife's was $600. They're both dual core XP, 128megs
ATI, I get my ram from crucial as it's cheaper but they both came with 512 on a single stick. Hard drive in mine is 60 my wife's is 80.
The key with Dell is you have to buy it via the Home/small business or higher, higher being business accounts. Dell sh1ts on home users. For example, Loismustdie and a problem with his "Home User" dell laptop. After an hour of tech support they told him that he had to mail it to them. I had a problem with my Home/Small Business laptop (same model) after a 4 minute chat session their tech support said to me:
"We will overnight the part to a tech in your area. He will call you within the next 24 hours to schedule a time and place convenient for you to repair your laptop."
Oh yeah, the problem that I had with my laptop was that I knocked it off of a table when I tripped on the power cord. I admitted this to them! The first words out of my mouth were "
I broke the screen on my laptop".
They replaced it free of charge, at my office at a time that was convenient for me! You can't beat that.