I need a new laptop PC some time between now and fall quarter (september 23rd). Is there a time of year when laptops can be found at a discount or do their prices remain pretty constant?

Depends where you decide to buy and what make/model you want. As far as I'm aware there is no laptop bargain time, best you can do is wait for a sale or look up discount coupons online and hope you get lucky.

What are you looking for in a laptop? A general idea of what you expect to do with the machine would be a good place to start.

I'm really only looking for a low to mid range laptop. I'm not going to playing games on it or anything like that. The only thing I expect from it from a performance stand point is for it to handle vista reasonably well or I could put on my copy of XP if vista is too demanding for a laptop in the range i'm willing to pay for.

all I need for it to do is use fox fire and microsoft office both of which are pretty much layups.

all I need for it to do is use fox fire and microsoft office both of which are pretty much layups.

Size/weight is another key consideration. Based on what you've said so far I'd think you could choose just about anything in your budget and be fine and for that matter stating a rough budget would help too. And I'd run XP if I were you until Vista gets a bit more support and a major service release from Microsoft. Any reason you're not considering a Macbook?

Size/weight is another key consideration. Based on what you've said so far I'd think you could choose just about anything in your budget and be fine and for that matter stating a rough budget would help too. And I'd run XP if I were you until Vista gets a bit more support and a major service release from Microsoft. Any reason you're not considering a Macbook?

I like macs but they're a little pricey for my budget. I also have little experience with macs and really don't want have to relearn short cuts and all that shit over again. I know they're easier to use than PCs but I've been using windows since you had to boot it from C:> so it's just what I'm used to. I also plan on using my external hard drives with it which are all formated in NTFS. I know OSX can read NTFS but I don't believe can write to it. I'm sure that there are ways to get around all this but I just don't want to deal with a ton of bullshit.

budget?

I'm looking for something around $700 but am hoping to find one for less then that if it's possible.

I forgot to mention this earlier but size isn't an issue for me really.

in Australia laptops get considerably cheap coming up to the end of financial year

1. business wanting to clear out stock before the new financial year

2. consumers wanting to buy up as much as they can before tax time

Hey, you can get one of those new mini-laptops Asus released recently.. well last year I think. They're really small, I don't know the name.. perhaps someone can tell you about it. They go for really cheap like $400-600CAD but I'm not sure about performance. Personally I use a laptop that uses a lot of power.

Nvidia Go 7700

Core2duo 2.16GHZ

2GB ram, etc

At max it can run for 3 hours on max settings, and a bit more on the lowest setting. Battery-life is an important issue imho, so you should think over that as well.

that would be the Asus eePc

I'm looking for something around $700 but am hoping to find one for less then that if it's possible.

That's a really tough budget in my opinion. My experience has been (through friends) that at that pricepoint laptops aren't really worth paying for. You're going to get something that is absolutely stripped in terms of hardware and software and is really just built so that the company can advertise a laptop under $1000. It'll have integrated everything all sharing the same RAM and none of it using it particularly well. And the longevity of the thing will definitely come into question. You know what, I may have jumped the gun. If you could live with a used/refurb notebook Apple currently has 13.3" Intel Core Duo MacBooks for $749. That would probably be about the best thing that you could hope for.

You know what, I may have jumped the gun. If you could live with a used/refurb notebook Apple currently has 13.3" Intel Core Duo MacBooks for $749. That would probably be about the best thing that you could hope for.

sometimes I wish Australia had such deals too =(

well then I guess I'm not getting a new laptop then.

That's a really tough budget in my opinion.

Well, considering what he wants to do with it, I think that's completely realistic. I think just about any current laptop should be able to handle Office at its most taxing. Even things like the entry level Asus Aspire models (which is probably what I'm getting my sister). The start at US$300-400 (I haven't been able to find the $300 one, even though I saw it listed in an article, and no, the Aspire is not the same as the Eee -- it actually has the full MS OS).

Uhh, I have a ~$700 basic lenovo and its treating me fine

the best prices are right around late /November and December... at least for Lenovo.

Uhh, I have a ~$700 basic lenovo and its treating me fine

Well, considering what he wants to do with it, I think that's completely realistic.

I said tough, not impossible folks.