I recently picked up a Toshiba laptop from Costco.  I really like the wide screen but the resolution is limited and the hard drive is dog slow.  Worse, there is a defect in the speaker covers that causes static discharge, resulting in freeze or unprovoked reboot.  It has hung twice on me and my install of VS.Net 2005 beta II crashed and burned.  I will be taking advantage of Costco's excellent return policy.  Unfortunately, they do not have another laptop that interests me.

So I found myself on Dell.com looking through refurbs and ended up pulling the trigger on a new D800 with a 128 mb video card, 512 1 dimm ram, and 60Gig 7200 rpm hard drive.  It has an M processor so the 2 hour battery life of this Toshiba should be a thing of the past.  After completing my order, I discovered that I could have ordered a new one (not refurb) for 100 smackers less than the one I got.  However, they no longer offer the 128 mb video (64 is max) and my notebook is coming with a leather case and XP pro.  I have 10 licenses for xp pro but, what the hell.  Although I probably could get a custom order and then upgrade the video, I prefer not to tear my laptop apart. 

So, rather than screw around trying to call and cancel the refurb and order a new one, I'm going to see how this one works out.  I once ordered a laptop the same way and wound up returning it because it wouldn't boot.  The computer I am typing on right now was also a refurb (desktop) and it has a cd rom that will only work for about 2 minutes after a reboot.  After that, the tray won't open.  When I need the cd I just reboot.  All in all, I am very happy with this cd-rom-challenged desktop.  A few months after I got it, my co-workers all ordered the same desktop for the same price, brand new, but theirs came with a monitor (and working cd rom's). 

I just read some reviews and discovered I may need to get a different machine for a more usable screen.  I didn't realize but the screen maxes out at 1200   x 800.  Not so good.  On the other hand, I haven't seen this screen yet and it is probably very comparable to my Toshiba.  I just want a reliable maachine.  If I can get that in the mail in a few days, I'll be a happy camper.