I got this for about $850 direct from Dell, and a lot of that was upgrades from the basic.
http://oddones.org/newsys.html Upgrades I got were: Screen to max res: $100 CPU to Core 2 Duo instead of Core Duo: $70 ? RAM to 667 MHz instead of 533: $60 ? Linux issues (Debian specifically, not sure how other installs would go): 1) Had to install ndiswrapper & Windows driver to get wireless working. Real driver may or may not exist, I didn't look too hard once I got it working with ndiswrapper. 2) Full resolution not supported out of the box; installing 915resolution from apt repository fixed this (no config, just installed it.) 3) on suspend/resume, video had dropped back to pre-915resolution. Found 915resolution line in the suspend/resume config file, uncommented it, works now. The burner worked on first boot w/ Debian 4.0. I note that Dell has a system with Ubuntu preinstalled for $599: Inspiron E1505 N Intel(r) Pentium(r) dual-core proc T2080(1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB Ubuntu Edition version 7.04 512MB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 DIMM 80GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive Personally, I'd just watch for a good deal on stealdeals.net and get a Dell with more RAM than the above. For instance, $499 gets you: # AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50 # Genuine Windows(r) XP Home # 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display # 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm # Size: 60GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) # 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability # ATI RADEON(r) Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated) # Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps) --DTVZ _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/