S-Y,

The Dell refurbished are decent laptops. These are usually models that are not sold as new anymore. The military makes large purchases of the discontinued/refurbished models and they last quite a while and do the job. Make sure that you purchase the 'next day service' warranty. It is well worth the price. 1 needed repair (monitor for example) and it just paid for itself. Refurbished or new - electronic components will break unexpectedly.

What you buy will be determined by what your intended purpose for the laptop is. If you plan on using it for gaming and such, it will cost you a great deal of money. For everyday use (email, internet, word processing, etc), you won't need many bells and whitsles. Thus it will cost you less.