HP notebook deal

If you're in the market for a new computer, Costco's got a terrific notebook on a $100 off coupon through the end of May. It's the HP dv4 1283CL. This is a 14-inch notebook that weights about five pounds. That's not super lightweight, but it's much more manageable than the the beast-like 17-inch displays, which in my opinion are just too big to put in your lap. These really aren't notebooks, but desktop replacements.

I was actually quite taken by the 13-inch HP dv2, but some of the reviews noted that it gets hot and the demo unit at Costco definitely was hot. But the real clincher was the $100 coupon. That takes the overall price of the dv4 down to $699 and you just aren't going to be able to beat that. I found the AMD version of the dv4 at Office Max for the same price, but this one has an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 2.0GHz processor and a massive 500GB hard drive. That's half a terabyte! The other specs include Webcam, SuperMulti 8x DVD+/-R/RW,5-in-1 Card Reader,802.11a/b/g/n WLAN.

I've been looking around for a new notebook to replace the 17-inch HP beast and this one is looking pretty sweet. Was considering a Macbook, but maybe I'm being influenced by the Microsoft TV ads. At $700 the dv2 is about half the price of the Macbook. Ya, I know, it's not nearly as cool and it's not a Mac. But, I'm a big believer that with Windows 7, the PC is on the way back. Besides, down deep, I'm really a PC guy.