Reply #19: I've been happy with the refurbished Sony Vaios I've bought on uBid [View All]

uBid generally is a cheap knockoff of eBay, but they always have many lots (as in "lots of 10," not "lots and lots") of Sony factory refurbished Vaios. I bought a desktop five years ago and a laptop last month, both through them, and have been generally satisfied. Because they sell in lots of 10 (and because it isn't a very popular site), you get competitive, if not bargain basement, prices. I bought both of these for around $1,000. Just make sure you check over the machine's specifications very carefully (they are provided in great detail) before bidding, because you may win an auction somewhat by accident (ie, "Well, I'll bid, but surely somebody else will outbid me before the auction ends." I always seem to buy stuff I wasn't seriously trying to bid on; I've always been happy with the results mind you, but just be careful. This is a wonderful laptop but has MS Works instead of Office. Oops!)

Can't really comment on other options except that Dell is reputed here to be a totally Republican outfit (and my girlfriend's Dell ran into a lot of hardware problems) and that Gateway quality is everywhere ridiculed.

Other than that, if there's a game or other application that you particularly want the computer for, check its system requirements and make sure any machine you look at clears those. Pretty obvious stuff and I'm sure you know it already, but some people forget to think about this.