Dell Inspiron or Sony Vaio???

[Talk2raffi]

I'm in the market for a laptop.....

I've heard a lot of good things about the Dell Inspiron, but I also like Sony products a lot...

Im either gonna purchase a Refurb Sony or Refurb Dell...

Which do you guys think is the better of the two (in the same hardware configs).....Thery are priced pretty similarly, except with the Dell you get 5% off for being a student and 6 months free AOHell....

I'm probably looking at a P3 > 800Mhz, 256 RAM, DVD, at least a 14 inch screen and minimum 20 gig hard drive...

If I go with the sony I would also like to get an external fire wire enclosure for my CDRW (do these exist and how much $$$???)...and a USB enclosure for the DELL (cost??)...

Thanks....

[Kermy]

What 5% off from dell? Grr, didn't know that and I just purchased a dell inspiron 4000 from them 2 days ago. Damn in any case, I went with dell because of the better customer service and tech support. Though the Vaio's do have better case design, I don't like their support much nor do I like the video cards that comes with the Vaios. The Dells are a better value in any case.

[Jeffbx]

Most definitely go with the Dell. Sony PCs are nice to look at, but are not very reliable IMHO.

[colour]

sony's are on the more stylish side, decent systems. however they have poor upgradeability, not sure if the one youre looking at is a microtower but sony seems to favor microtowers all be it stylish cases. i own a vaio e203...

are monitors included? a sweet trinitron would decide for me...

[Razz]

The Vaio just seems flimsy to me and with the cursed touch I have with LCD screens and the lack of ruggedness in the Vaio I would definitely break something including my heart. Dell's seem to have much better costumer service department and not to mention a more rugged construction. Oh and if I am not mistaken Dell will stand behind there refurbs just like they were brand new. I am just waiting for Panasonic to come out with a Toughbook with a P3 Tualatin with DDR support (DDR requires less power for therefore ideal for laptops to produce betterbattery life) and a 32MB GeForce2 Go vid card (wishing for a 64MB), touchscreen, wireless lans, oh and not to mention their trademark handle technology.....these babies are rugged. Missing my CF-35