Minimum laptop specs?

[Joe]

I'm saving money for a laptop. A shitty laptop that's mega-old. Basically, I want to run MS Visual Studio 2005 Express (namely VC#, but probably VB too) and an occasional game of WarCraft II (read: 2, not 3) or 0verkill. I don't even plan to (directly) access the internet using it (except perhaps to run the MSVS installer) so spyware and viruses don't need to be taken into consideration.

The hardware I'm currently looking at ranges $100-200 and is on average 266MHz-ish with a 4-5GB hd (I'll obviously sink some money in to upgrading that) as well as USB and ethernet ports. Would that do alright with Win2k or XP? I'd probably run Win2k unless MSVS doesn't run on it in which case I'd bear with XP.

I don't plan on doing ANY intensive gaming (if any gaming at all) or watching DVDs etc on it. This would be for word processing and light programming, and the occasional game of solitare in the car.

So, what do you guys call for specs on this stuff?

[rabbit]

You can get a new Dell Ispiron B130 for $490:
1.3GHz Celeron M
XP Home (included)
14.1 inch WXGA
512MB DDR2 SDRAM
40GB 5400 RPM HD
24X CD/DVD combo
Dell 1370 Wireless 802.11a/g 54mbps
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=iB130S1&s=dhs

[Sidoh]

Save up more money.

[Joe]

You can get a new Dell Ispiron B130 for $490:
1.3GHz Celeron M
XP Home (included)
14.1 inch WXGA
512MB DDR2 SDRAM
40GB 5400 RPM HD
24X CD/DVD combo
Dell 1370 Wireless 802.11a/g 54mbps
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=iB130S1&s=dhs

That sounds nice, but for what I'd be doing it's (wow..) overkill, and out of my price range (I'm hoarding lunch money, xD).

Save up more money.

Chip in.

[Sidoh]

Chip in.

Stop bitching, grow a pair and get a job.

[Killer360]

Go work at McDonalds, you'll be able to get that money in about a week... 

[Joe]

Go work at McDonalds, you'll be able to get that money in about a week... 

If you ever say that again I'll see to it you're shot.

Note: I assume you don't know this, but the reasoning behind that is that I applied, was interviewed, and never called back.

[MyndFyre]

On a side note, I just got a new laptop.  It's a Gateway CX2724 Tablet PC.    Core Duo, 1.6GHz, 1gb DDR2, 100gb SATA hard drive, 14" widescreen WXGA, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.  $1249.99.  I'm loving it, has more than a four hour battery life and WAY lighter than my last laptop (what isn't, though?).  Oh, 8x DVD+/- R/RW with dual layer support.  It's solid.

[rabbit]

I'm ordering my laptop today, Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 15.4 WSXGA+, 2.0GB DDR2-667, 512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache, 100GB Hard Drive 7200RPM, 8X DVD, 80GB Hard Drive 5400RPM, and about 7 hour battery (12 if I use dual cell).  Fuckin $2,057 + tax + S&H.  AWESOME!

[Sidoh]

On a side note, I just got a new laptop.  It's a Gateway CX2724 Tablet PC.    Core Duo, 1.6GHz, 1gb DDR2, 100gb SATA hard drive, 14" widescreen WXGA, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.  $1249.99.  I'm loving it, has more than a four hour battery life and WAY lighter than my last laptop (what isn't, though?).  Oh, 8x DVD+/- R/RW with dual layer support.  It's solid.

Nice!  I'm definitely interested in getting a tablet after I save up some money.  I love my laptop, but I'd like to get a tablet for taking notes.  My friend showed me his and it was pretty awesome.

[MyndFyre]

On a side note, I just got a new laptop.  It's a Gateway CX2724 Tablet PC.    Core Duo, 1.6GHz, 1gb DDR2, 100gb SATA hard drive, 14" widescreen WXGA, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005.  $1249.99.  I'm loving it, has more than a four hour battery life and WAY lighter than my last laptop (what isn't, though?).  Oh, 8x DVD+/- R/RW with dual layer support.  It's solid.

Nice!  I'm definitely interested in getting a tablet after I save up some money.  I love my laptop, but I'd like to get a tablet for taking notes.  My friend showed me his and it was pretty awesome.

I'm pretty impressed with its handwriting recognition out of the box.  And it's very intuitive about how to change the text you input.

I haven't tried speech recognition yet, but there's lots of other cool stuff that it comes with.

[Sidoh]

I'm pretty impressed with its handwriting recognition out of the box.  And it's very intuitive about how to change the text you input.

I haven't tried speech recognition yet, but there's lots of other cool stuff that it comes with.

Haha, my friend said the same exact thing about the handwriting recognition.

[Nate]

I'm ordering my laptop today, Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 15.4 WSXGA+, 2.0GB DDR2-667, 512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache, 100GB Hard Drive 7200RPM, 8X DVD, 80GB Hard Drive 5400RPM, and about 7 hour battery (12 if I use dual cell).  Fuckin $2,057 + tax + S&H.  AWESOME!

2 HDD's? who the hell needs 180GB in a laptop?

[rabbit]

Me.

[Chavo]

I'm ordering my laptop today, Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 15.4 WSXGA+, 2.0GB DDR2-667, 512MB NVIDIA Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache, 100GB Hard Drive 7200RPM, 8X DVD, 80GB Hard Drive 5400RPM, and about 7 hour battery (12 if I use dual cell).  Fuckin $2,057 + tax + S&H.  AWESOME!

2 HDD's? who the hell needs 180GB in a laptop?

People that like to watch movies on the go without carrying around a bunch of dvds.