Reliability and prices have both gone in favor of the buyer now!  
  With the 15.1 widescreens available on laptops in a number of brand names and priced well below 800 u.s. dollars, I'd go with the laptop option.
   
  Now, as far as brands, you will find yourself starting a Ford vs. Chevy and Dell vs. Hp war.
   
  So, here's my exprerience:
   
  I have bought from Best Buy, online with Sony for a Vaio and numerous 10 to 20 units throughout the years from Dell.com.
   
  Best experience for price and longevity has been Dell.  Again, there will be people who have had bad experiences and will come to disagree; however, I own 3 Dell laptops none of which I have spent more than 699 and they all still work well.  I got financing right on their website and have loved the value.
   
  As far as ones to avoid, all I know is that I have 3 Compaqs circa 2002 and 2003 that are in my closet from customers who didn't want to spend 300 for a new motherboard.  HP in my opinion has done much to improve Compaq's quality so the models as of late are much better.
   
  While our PCBuild venue was built for discussion of hardware and troubleshooting, I do hope that this post meets our standards -- posting traffic has been light lately and I thought I'd jump in with a helpful comment.
   
  good luck!
   
  gary r. tennesen
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Dollie Scercy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
  Hello,
My daughter needs a new computer. I do not have a clue how to build one and will have to purchase something already configured. Does anyone have any recommendations of a good "right-out-of-the-box" setup. She would prefer a laptop. Also are there brands to avoid?
Thanks so much!
Dollie

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