You'd be better to look for a desktop for under $400. You'd get A LOT more.

Here's the best laptop though:
http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=ca&CS=cadhs1&l=en&OC=NI9X_FS_CHM9FS9

It's more of a "netbook" but will run office, outlook, the internet, etc. Don't expect to play any new games (like call of duty) but it's super portable and is as much as 80% of folks need these days.
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Check out the Acer Aspire One, being sold for just under $400 at walmart.com:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10575202&povid=cat4070-env201974-module202898-rLink8

It's got:

160 GB HDD
1 GB RAM
1.6 GHz CPU (Intel Atom N270)
8.9" display (1024x600)

It's got pretty solid review ratings, too: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10575202&povid=cat4070-env201974-module202898-rLink8#ShortReviewTitleBar

Price: $398
Source(s):
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10575202&povid=cat...
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10575202&povid=cat...

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IMO, the Dell Vostro is the best really cheap laptop. The biggest nicety they offer over comparably priced Acers and such is that they are built significantly better. My kid brother (well, not so much a kid at 19, but a kid to me) has one of them, and it's a nice little system and is far better built than my Inspiron (which I dislike the build of but have gotten 3+ years out of by treating it very carefully).

IMO the build of a laptop is more important than a minor difference in specs - a lot of the cheap plasticky laptops will tend to get loose and floppy in short order, and it'll become a far greater pain to use them, whereas RAM is cheap to upgrade, and a slower CPU is barely noticeable by comparison.

The main trick with Dell is to stay off of the "home" area of the site. Go to the small business section, notebooks, and Vostro. Put your own name in as the name of the business at checkout.

They start at $400.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/RBIredirect.aspx?rbi=GKiitGAbBa2SB+6V9bxpRyvwm4g6Tn36wTwLVrus+1Yk1iSYlI8tpShc0L6a76U+YJlAnHgjKiq9x9btRBLmWiMzRmqahI9qxonCYvJjv7V9e5LDNpaB3OWvvCWsy6KQztAgAMmaSh7YlJynzCz9EjHuuND96/SzGrump3a5ru0=

This is about as good as it will get for $400. You're going to find the specs on most of these cheap laptops are almost all the same. The main differences to look for are ones with a dual core CPU versus the Celeron, and ones with more RAM. If you don't mind opening the PC up after you get it, you can add 1-2GB more RAM to the laptop for $10-30 or so. I can help you do that if you would like, it's extremely easy to do.

For $30 more in the Vostro, $430, you get a dual core CPU, which is a big improvement, and, well, that's it. No RAM upgrade, but it's a lot cheaper to do it yourself.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/RBIredirect.aspx?rbi=GKiitGAbBa2SB+6V9bxpRyvwm4g6Tn36wTwLVrus+1Yk1iSYlI8tpShc0L6a76U+N29b/gGvmhnAQimWSk8Hqxu+Zp+jgAtavHDOyWmOqpEvPWNJ8qowdKFrOjQKkeG26q9C9sL9pnbsilG+dCvVwP/8vLHy5BMKsUgzofRbVVA=

These two Dells are my recommendations, but I also recommend that you add some more memory in to them after you get them. It's ridiculously easy, and 2GB is $18.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820208407

This might not be the exact kind of memory you need, if you want to go this route, I can tell you what RAM you will need for the laptop you get, and find instructional photos on how to put it in - it usually involves unscrewing one panel and sticking the stick of ram in the slot when the machine is off.


If you'd rather go for the best specs possible and can wait, check out:
http://techbargains.com
http://techdeals.net
http://slickdeals.net
http://fatwallet.com

these sites have new deals every day, and bargains on laptops aren't uncommon.

Also consider signing up with Fatwallet or MS Live Cashback for a little extra money back after you purchase the computer.

http://search.live.com/cashback

If you need further assistance, I can help here or feel free to ask a private question, I would be happy to flesh this stuff out in EVEN MORE detail :D


The recommendations for netbooks here aren't bad. Netbooks are great if you need some portability, but they are very limited power wise. The 1.6Ghz Atom is probably about 1/2 to 1/3 the performance of the common 1.8-2.2Ghz Celerons found in modern full sized inexpensive notebooks, so if you'll be doing anything with media, you will probably find the netbooks kind of sluggish. If you're just looking for a web browser/word processor, though, they are rgeat little systems. I've got the original 7" EEE PC, and it comes in handy from time to time, but I do run in to its limitations quite frequently.
Source(s):
I build PCs as a hobby, have been doing it for years and am currently up to date. I'm also a deal hawk.

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I know you said you prefer not to use ebay so i'll let the ebay rant be brief.

/Ebay rant on.
For under 400$ I would def. try and peace together something from ebay.

Look around right now there are tons and tons of deals on ebay.

/Ebay rant off.





Allot of people need money right now to cover costs from christmas so they are selling laptops at rock bottom prices.

Get something that you can upgrade as you go along.
You don't need the top of the line processor just the top of the line platform to slowly jump off of.

(Something that will support a 64bit processor)
(Something with excellent audio hardware)
(Something with a excellent chipset/motherboard)


IMPORTANT NOTE!
It should be over 2.2 ghz as that is the bottleneck for 1080p HD video to run smoothly enough to watch without any issues.

http://www.google.com/products?q=HP+Pavilion+HDX&oe=utf-8&scoring=p&price1=500.00&price2=1,300.00&lnk=prsugg



Check the top lowest price result it's got a integrated triple bass sub. and blueray.

The extra 100 bucks could probably be shaved off in a haggle.

Good Luck!



XDS |Done.
Source(s):
My Brain.

Ebay Product search ((Froogle))

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Some general advice from someone who used to work in IT support:

Stay away from Asus, Acer and Dell IMHO. Reliability issues and build quality issues. Toshibas generally have flaky hinges on the screens, and the trackpads can be a bit sticky to move fingers over. Lenovo are good but pricey and uuuugly. HP and Compaq are probably the best choices for your price range.

Check out Compaq and see what you can find.
Source(s):
2 years of working in IT support.

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Asus netbooks are great computers (under $400). I just gave one as a Christmas gift. They are small (9 inch screen) but still very usable. They are every bit as powerful as the Dell and HP options but cheaper.
Source(s):
http://www.asus.com/news_show.aspx?id=12905

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My source: CNet, this is the highest-rated portable PC that is under $400 (the Asus EEE PC 901)
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/asus-eee-pc-901/4505-3121_7-33108990.html?tag=mncol;lst

As with any *new* portable under $400, this is a "netbook".

It *is* out of stock here at the low price
http://www.directron.com/epc901w003x.html

But "in stock" here at $20 more (still under $400 - use the buydig link on pricegrabber to get the low price)
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/laptop/m/81261640/search=asus%20pc%20901/st=product/sv=title/

Specs
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=164&l3=0&l4=0&model=2283&modelmenu=2


Next, we have a real laptop - refurbished, though! Lenovo has had a top name in laptops since they were IBM. Notice it has only 512 MB - excellent under Win XP (provided), but insufficient for Vista. 1.5 GHz, 266 MHz RAM and hard drive (rather than RAM drive) make this a slightly slower - but more flexible and (importantly) larger - alternative to the Asus, with 40 GB of drive space instead of 12. Max RAM here, like with the Asus, is 2 GB - enough for Vista should you choose to upgrade, and enough drive space as well (though things might be tight...) A *2nd* hard drive can be added, and the first can be upgraded to 80 GB, providing up to 160 GB - plenty of room for Vista in the future (though there is still the RAM problem)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4197148&CatId=17

specs
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-58185


I hope this helps. Although I am leery of refurbished, in this instance I think the Lenovo is head and shoulders above the Asus.

Jim
Source(s):
CNet
TigerDirect
Asus
Lenovo

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Check out the Specs for this Notebook,that goes for between $200-$300.

Model M501S

CPU Intel Mobile Merom Pentium Core Duo T2390 (1.86G)

Mainboard Chip Intel GL960+ICH8-M

Memory 2GB DDR2

Hard Disk 160GB

CD-ROM Built-in Combo

Panel 14.1 inch/WXGA

Displaying Chip Integrated Displaying Card

Displaying Memory Max 384M

Built-in Camera 1.3M pixel

WIFI Network Card Built-in 10-100-1000M

It ships from China within 20 days of ordering and since you seem to have an
aversion for E-bay, you can buy these baby through Alibaba dot com straight from the manufacturer, you can have the specs customized according to your needs. Furthermore Alibaba is the largest B2B website in the world and they are very reliable, So far they haven't disappointed me. They sell them from single units going upwards.If you follow the link below it wil take you to their site where you will find a whole lot more Notebooks at these amazing prices. Good luck and I hope this Information was helpful.
Source(s):
http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/215520028/laptop.html
http://ktc.en.alibaba.com/

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Acer Asire One - $300/$400 with 3g (kind of toyish build but cheap)

Lenovo S10 - $350 with 80gb HDD and 512mb RAM (amazing build quality with a 10" screen)(easy to upgrade I've added 2gigs of RAM and a 500gig HDD very nice pretty much rip some DVDs, a couple of CDs, several podcast and you have your self a nice portable media solution.) It even has an express slot which I use for my sprint mobile broadband giving me internet everywhere I can get a cell signal. Or a TV turner the atom processor is not that good for recording but as for as watching its pretty good. I'm currently running vista on it in it runs fine.

Lenovo S10 - $400 with 160gb HDD and 1gig RAM (amazing build quality 10" screen) (If your going to upgrade just get the cheaper model)

HP 1000 - $400/$500 with 10" screen (my brother loves it for the keyboard he does a lot of typing and occasionally video watching) (RAM was easy to upgrade but the HDD is a little more difficult not including it uses a 1.8" pata drive which is hard to find a size worth upgrading)

If you need more of a full size notebook I'd look at something with an AMD processor they generally run cheaper then the Intel notebooks.
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