I'm only needing a new laptop for this new semester and a couple of years in college starting in august. I am wanting to get a new rig for school, and hopefully my small business with game development starting in august. I'll buy this in august if it's good, and I don't find something better. Inspiron 1501 Everyday Performance AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50 (1.6Ghz but not sure) Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm Size: 60GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) FREE Shipping and Handling. Dell Photo All-In-One Printers Starting at $49! (I'll take this out don't need it) No Interest for 3 Months!5 (i'll buy with cash no reason to have monthly payments) Starting at Final Price $699

I wouldn't try to run Vista with anything less than 2GB of ram. And if you are going to use it for game development, you'll probably need a GPU of some sort... you didn't mention the graphics specs at all.

Sorry, well the GPU is from ATI 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™ and of course I can customize this dell for 2GB of DDR memory. Plus, I should tell you I really don't make anything but 2d games right now. I mostly only make 2d adventure, arcade, and fighting games. But, I do have a couple of 3D books I've been wanting to learn how to use, but I also wanted to wait til I had enough money to buy and build my own really good Dx10 video card PC Work Station.

If that helps,

Vista Home basic has been running fine for me @ 512 mb, but I strip all the norton and other pack ins out, and I keep a very short and clean process list running.