Hello what would be the best laptop for these uses:
 
1.)  Paper-writing/web browsing/iTunes.
2.)  17" display preferred to see more of paper.
3.)  Ability to play some games...don't expect any miracles for $1000 though.
 
Prefer a Dell laptop and it must be running XP or Vista for compatibility with the school's word processing software etc.
 
Any suggestions?

I like my Dell 1505.  I have no regrets.  I think that model isn't available anymore though, they are up to like 1520 or something now.

Hello mate
i agree with boonality but i also add Dell Vostor 1400/1500

Hi there,
 
I work at Best Buy and you should know there's a big jump in price to a laptop with a dedicated graphics card.  The Gateway FX series is usually the best value gaming laptop and it retails for about $1250 when on sale.  We usually have good deals going on for non gaming laptops, just look for the best price on a Core 2 Duo, stay away from AMD and the Pentium duals and you should be fine.  

Hmm craegslist.com  
 
every now and then thy have good deals. ie I got a 7900gs oc agp vid card for my old P4 system for 60 bucks.

Yes they are solid lapotps but they are in US only ?
 
i have a questions for u, u only ship to us right? if so then do u know anywere that ships GATEWAY FX laptops to outside of US?

HP dv9700 series.

diro wrote: "stay away from AMD and the Pentium duals and you should be fine.  "
 
For what you're using it for it doesn't matter what brand of processor is in it. Heck, for most users it won't matter what brand of processor is in it. Just make sure it's something relatively current.
 
If you buy from any retail store you'll most likely get Vista Home basic and won't be able to downgrade to XP. If you shop from Dell's website you may be able to downgrade to XP (not sure if that's only for business computers or not.) Be sure to check techbargains.com for deals/coupon codes. If you're a college student you might also want to check out delluniversity.com to see if they have any special deals for you university.

Cool information, definitely some more looking to do based on this information.
 
Another question:
 
I see a lot of laptop HDDs are only 5400 RPM.  Coming from a desktop world, this is a disappointment.
 
How much does a 5400 RPM VS a 7200 RPM HDD on a laptop affect performance?

You can totally find a laptop for that price with a Nvidia 9500GS on NewEgg. That GPU is somewhere between the 8600 GT and the 8700 GT parts. Since you're not expecting miracles, I don't think you'd be disappointed going that route.

Voila!  
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6834220317

9500M GS = 8600M GT and yeah that ASUS laptop looks fine
 
to Waspy: Well 7200 is better than 5400 (faster) and u will notice the difference in some cases but not all

Its a trade off on the hard drive deal- the slower drive uses less power.  I agree the Gateway FXs are good deals but only if you primarily wish to game- they cut corners on other stuff to fit in the killer 8800 graphics.  Also, isn't the FX a 17in screen?  If you actually want to carry your laptop somewhere, try to stick with 15 or even 14 in screens with good resolution, at least 1440x900, 1680x1050 if you can find it.
 
I'd be looking for something with 8600M graphics if you really want to play games.

 
The only thing that bugs me about that laptop is the resolution- 1280x800 just doesn't cut it if you do any serious work.  I make my living off my laptop and it's got to productive.  I guess, though, for the needs the OP stated, it would be fine.
 
With such a nice video card, you'd think there would be some option to buy that thing with an updated LCD.
 
BTW, my co worker has an Asus laptop and has never had any problems with it.  Might be related to the fact that he's running Ubuntu and not Windows, but that's just pure speculation...

Yeah, the screen is a downer, but that's the same resolution as my current laptop so I've gotten used to it... the lower resolution should just mean you get to turn up the AA a bit more in games and hopefully that'll compensate. But in general office work, yeah... I see your point.  
 
Another thing about Asus... check out that warranty... that's very generous for a laptop in that price range.
 

A common complaint I hear about Asus laptops (although I've never heard one in person) is the quality of the speakers... I've read several complaints with people saying you'd better be prepared to use headphones.  Toshiba has a couple of laptops (they're massive) with Harmon Kardon 4.1 speaker setups. For me the perfect laptop doesn't exist yet... the Gateway has the GPU muscle, Asus has several with the 2.5 Ghz CPU, and Toshiba definitely has the sound part down... the problem is that I want all of that rolled into one machine that doesn't cost over $1250. And so I wait.

The X1300 in my Dell 1505 can manage some games, although on low settings.  Battery life is good; well over 3 hours, but I think I was just playing Diablo II on a flight from TN to MN.  I paid <$900 for it a couple years ago.
That ASUS has nice looking specs, but the battery life probably sucks unless a 9-cell battery is also available for it.

I would stay away from Dell if I was you, I own a Dell laptop w/ 2ghz TurionX2 2gb RAM, ATI IGP, and its junk. Sure its pretty quick, but made of extremely low quality parts and has the tendency sometimes to freeze when I tell it to shut down, or randomly lock up, and I've seen other peoples Dells that have some of the keys popped off b/c they are so low quality.
 
Just be careful what you buy.

I'm pretty sure you can expect barely an hour when gaming on the battery. That's just the nature of the beast. Currently no $1000 Dells seem like a decent gaming laptop... in my opinion at least.