I was afraid of taking a new laptop overseas and having it disappear, so I got a refurbished one from sdiego.com. As you might infer from the name, this place is in San Diego:

http://www.sdiego.com

They threw in a carrying case. They stand behind what they sell: the laptop I got from them was only lasting about 20 minutes on the battery, so I brought it back and they immediately replaced the battery with a new one, no questions asked. Haven't had any problems with it since.

Update: I've had problems with it since. You get what you pay for. It's not new, but it'll do.

Update 2: Man, this thing's really falling apart now. It's been thrashed. No more refurbished laptops. I'll buy a new one next time.

Depending on what you paid for it, it might well have been a deal. If I could get a basic machine for a few hundred bucks, I'd take it, load it with a minimal amount of software and with me to SEA or SA. I'd sell it before I left, though.

Anyone out there have an Averatec laptop computer? If so what has been your experiance with it? I am looking on buying an Averatec 1020ED1

RG.

never heard of Averatec, I just bought a M170 Dell on Ebay for $1600. Awesome machine that can play BF2. Wouldn't even think about any other laptop now that I have it.

Walmart has some very cheap laptops:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4768243

Bought a Dell Inspiron laptop B120 four weeks ago through Dell.com (a TV special) for $423.00 which included the shipping ($623.00 before reducing $100 instant rebate and $100 mail-in rebate). Works well. Would recommend for a base unit.

I'm looking for something real small, that will fit in an in room safe, something with a 10" or 12" screen.

RG.

Roadglide - Averatec is pretty good, they are sold in the PX's over in Iraq, the troops love the low price $799 - $899, and you can play DVD'd without having to boot the computer. They even come with a thin, credit card sized remote control that pops out of the side. Good, basic multimedia/gaming machine.

RG- My old 15" Mac PowerBook G4 fit nicely in hotel safes in BKK. Just got a new 13.1" MacBook that will fit even better!

Blumpy; I was looking at some of the Averatec models that they have for sale at MCCS, but they don't come with much software when you compaire them to brands like Toshiba or Sony.

Your information about the MacBook fitting in an in-room safe is helpful, but I have never used a Mac.

RG.

I had this discussion with someone a while back. If you live with family, have a girlfriend or a wife, its best just to get a small cheap laptop just exclusively for mongering. Emailing the women, surfing through clubhombre, etc.

If I were ever to get married at this point, I believe I would have to physically destroy my current hard-drive in order to feel safe that my past history would not be discovered.

I'm new to the MacWorld, not a convert yet, but I would say they are easier to use than a PC-type computer...in other words, if you live near an Apple Store, I would highly recommend checking it out. They even offer FREE classes on how to 'use' the cool programs that come with it. The bottom line Macbook is $1099 out of the box and the thing comes with a built in webcam.

Blumpy, you may be able to answer this...can the webcam be used to film?

Ticasonar, you sure can! If you have iMovie 6.0 installed, you can use it to import video from the built-in iSight and then export the video as a QuickTime movie. QuickTime works on PC's as well, so if you e-mail the movie to a PC user, they can view in in QT, REALPlayer, etc.

The use of, and transition to Mac is very easy!