[#permalink]
09 Jul 2007, 14:11
Don't do it. Avaratec laptops are often severely discounted at the big retailers - the kind of thing that you can find for discounted price + instant rebate + mail in rebate.
I believe you'll find the difference in durability and reliability is not worth the cost savings. You can get a very capable Lenovo for about $1200; I couldn't imagine how much you'd need to save to make the Avaratec a reasonable alternative - maybe 1/2 off.
That said, I want to give a warning about current Lenovo notebooks. I ordered, one, but sent it back last Friday. The new models (T61, X61, R61) are having issues. I've been frequenting the notebookreview.com web page, and we've more or less narrowed it down to problems with turbo memory, Windows Vista, Lenovo loaded drivers & protection software and running on the battery. Check out the forum there if you want more details, but the bottom line is that the new models lock up and blue-screen, and Lenovo doesn't really have a solution right now.
If you do go with a Lenovo, get Windows XP Pro and do not select turbo memory. You shouldn't have any problems with that.