The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes

'My daughter has been using this tired old machine that my ex-husband bought almost a decade ago and it's just not suiting her needs anymore.'
....is what she told me.

Mother: 'I just want to get her something she can use for when she gets into college.'
Me: 'How much do you want to spend?'
Mother: 'No more than about $500 bucks.'
Me: 'I'm on it.'

This would be relatively simple I thought. A new PC for an older teenager to use. I figured a notebook/laptop would be perfect.

Then she called her daughter downstairs. She was a skinny kid that looked all of 12 years old with big ol' tennis shoes and a big ol' Jay-Z tee.
Daughter: 'Hello!'
Me: 'Hi!. One question. Anything special that you want for this PC? A webcam? A pretty color? Pink maybe?? '(My mistake in assuming that this was just some 'girl')
Daughter: 'No. Color doesn't matter. However, I want to make sure that it has an Intel Core Duo or any equivalent processor, a 802.11g wireless, at LEAST 1GB of RAM, and at least 100GB of hard drive space..

Me:

'Ummm.' (Gulp) !!

Daughter: 'Oh yea. OS doesn't matter. A Mac would be nice!'
Me: You know a lot for a.. what 14.. 15 year old?
Daughter: She gave me a Dr. Spock eyebrow and clearly advised.. 'I'm 18!'
Oops. :'(

Wow. I assumed that this was a kid who wanted a computer to spend her hours on mySpace and Facebook and Orkut.. Downloading mp3's, instant messaging her friends and that she wouldn't know the first thing about computers. In that respect I was very wrong. She knew what she was talking about and what she wanted. And from our conversation, she seemed to be a really, really bright kid.

Okay. So I had a good idea of where I wanted to look. I knew she couldn't afford a Mac for under $500 clams, but I could get her close.

Again. I don't mind refurbished stuff. They come with warranties. They look and perform as good as new. And you're lible to get a good deal.

One of the first places I look for steals is TigerDirect.com.
I've been purchasing items from them for years. Not everything is a steal, but you can work it out.

I just specified my price range.. And below is the best of what I found.

The Gateway MT6452 $849 Retail

TigerDirect's price? $499.99 plus Shipping $0 Tax
Per the specifications below, it is greater than what she expects.

It has an AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-501.6 GHz 128 KB X2 L2 cache HyperTransport™ technology up to 1600 MHz (Pretty fast)
a 15.4-inch WXGA (1280 × 800) (Good size)
1024 MB 533 MHz of DDR2 SDRAM (That means 1 Gigabyte like she asked.. With room for more)
802.11g Wireless LAN (Good, good..)
a 4 in 1 media reader, a bunch of USB ports, a DVD±RW (8X Dual Layer) optical drive
AND.. Windows Vista Home Premium.

All 22 reviewers on TigerDirects site loved this computer (rating it a 5 out of 5), especially when compared to a very comparible model that I had also been looking at.. The Acer Aspire 5050 5430 a featured product which only received a 2 out of 5.

I order.
It ships.
It arrives 7 days later.

She's happy.
Her mom's happy.
And I've learned my lesson.
Don't ever judge a notebook by it's cover. Get it!? HA!
Ba dump, dump!
Thank you, thank you.. I'll be here all week... ;')