1st laptop-looking for refurb, used $500 range

[thetexaskid]

not a big computer guy. just wanting one for surfing and watching dvds mostly, and for wife to check e-mails for work. not a gamer or anything but do burn cd's. looking at diff places seeing: ibm 600's and T20's
dell lat cpx
hp omni 500
tosh sat 4010
tosh protege 7020ct

any thoughts and what memory, mhz, mb, gb, etc... to look for

before anyone rags me for lack of comp knowledge i do have skills elsewhere i promise

thanks in advance
thetexaskid

[kieran]

i think i read somewhere that the minimum for dvds to watch was around 500mhz -or was it a divx?
you might want to find out what you need for watching divx-videos.
you want to carry it around a lot?
if not, the portege and latitude are overkill .
they are considered ultraportable and thereforequite a bit more expensive.
i guess yyou will want to run xp or w2k, so you should have 256mb ram min as well.

[BobOmega]

dvds play fine on my 700mhz. never tried when it was steped down to 500 though. .... can always go to a computer expo if you have any in your area and look around. sometimes they have good prices but you almost never get any sort of warrenty. and that way you can at least get a feel for the laptops if they have any you are intrested in before you decide to buy one.

[kotonk]

averatec 3120v's have sold for new for $550 AFTER rebates at bestbuy.com, but i think they sold out but you might want to keep an eye out for them.

i have a 3120x which is a 1.2 celeron w/dvd player and dvd's play smooth w/o glitches.

http://www.averatec.com

-kotonk
http://www.kotonk.com/sotec

[pickel]

I purchased an 820 P last November and except for one small software clitch( I believe of my own making ), it has performed flawlessly. Installed a wireless card a few months ago and enjoy sitting in the backyard ( till the misquotoes showed up ) and surfing the web. Tech support seems a little flaky but they seem to stand behind their product.