Really cheap laptops: Dell Home has the following new coupons on notebooks. Restrictions apply. Inspiron notebook coupons: (exp 6/22 6am CT, or after 4000 uses). These include free Bluetooth wireless and a free Netgear router.

30% off $999 Inspiron notebooks w/ coupon code: DL6QX6MSHQV03B
30% off $1499 Inspiron notebooks w/ coupon code: 2ZT4G81K9BLPD2
$750 off $1999 Inspiron notebooks w/ coupon code: 7BPQ?QQM75GDBD

So I upgraded some more things -- 1.83 ghzprocesor, 1 gig of memory, 100 gig hard drive, 9 cell battery (vs. 6) , TV tuner, integrated Soundblaster card, etc. (I read that the ATI graphics drivers don't always play nice here, so I didn't upgrade that.)

At checkout the page showed a price of $1613 although the running total was $1290, with a 20% discount they were automatically applying. I applied the coupon code below, and it went down to 1129.10 (free ground shipping, $8 handling)

I used this code, but there might be others: 2ZT4G81K9BLPD2

By the time tax was added, I paid $1,216.69, so that coupon made it tax-free and legal.

You can start real low if you just want a basic system. (There are other models -- a 14 inch, and a 17-inch, 8-lb. widescreen that will take these coupons, too.)

What clinched it for me was the dual core processor, which is reviewed as blazingly fast.

It's getting hot in the computer corner here, and I'm ready to take my wifi laptop out to the porch. But I dropped my beloved Acer TravelMate, breaking the pins inside that connect the power cord, and its keyboard had stopped working, too.

The deadline here made me just do it. I didn't want to waste weeks researching, and it wouldn't have helped. There aren't really other low-end laptops with the dual-core processor. I spent a coupla hours configuring, applying coupons, reading reviews, then I bought it.

Google "Dell coupons" to go in via a lowest-priced, configurable link. (Some of the preconfigured systems can't be downgraded if you don't want Office included, for instance, and the basic E1505 link goes to a solo core and doesn't upgrade the processor.) There's also a 35% coupon off Dimension desktops.

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