I'm looking to purchase a laptop for home and limited business use. It will need ms office software and will primarily be used for itunes, browsing, and office stuff. Currently, I like the Dell inspiron 15" notebook which runs mid $500 range new. Is there a better alternative than this if I go used/refurbished, or am I better off just going new?

JohnR posted this site a while back and you might want to check here:
Slickdeals: The Best Deals, Coupons & Discounts on Laptops, Computers, LCDs, TVs, Dell, HP, Apple, Amazon (http://slickdeals.net/)

Go to Dell outlet store and get a refurbished. I have had about 6 Refurbished Dells from their outlet store and each one lasted many years.

From their outlet store the refurbished ones may have been out of their hands 24 hours or some other return. The refurbished get 100% QC check vs the statistical check on new ones so in fact a refurb has better QC than a new. They usually cost about $100 less so maybe the $499 laptop is $399. I have gotten them (15 inch Inspiron with intel cpu ) as low as $299 in the past. I doubt you'll find one with full version Office included. Usually now they put in a very stripdown version free but you need to upgrade to have typical features you will use at work a lot.

I went with Open Office. Free, Works well. Saves to MSOffice formats.

Do look for coupons on Fatwallet , Slickdeals and Techbargains. They usually have something for Dell outlet models.

Dell Outlet 20% off coupon: Dell 20% off any Outlet Laptop - Slickdeals.net (http://slickdeals.net/f/3807636-Dell-20-off-any-Outlet-Laptop)

I have gotten from there in the past.

That's a good deal. Puts you in the $325 range !!

I just looked. You can get a Core i5 with 4 gig RAM and 320 HD and 8X DVD writer And Win 7 for $410 after the 20 % coupon.

Thats a lot of computer for $410!!

There are Pentium dual cores in the $310 range after coupon.

always refurbished

Get the i5 - skip the regular dual cores

Get the i5 - skip the regular dual cores


+1 I think they are coming down in price a little too.

Get the i5 - skip the regular dual cores

No doubt I would get the i5.