Back to School: Bargain laptops for under $750

There's no doubt about it: The computer is now an essential part of the learning process, especially at the college level. If money is tight (it is for most of us), just remember, you don't have to break the bank to get a laptop with decent performance. I've rounded up these 5 laptops that are all good performers and have even better prices.

Dell Vostro 1000: At $399, the Vostro is the lowest priced system in this roundup and is one of the lowest-priced laptop systems available. The most basic system offers an AMD Sempron Processor at 3600+, 15.4-inch screen, a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 512MB DDR2 RAM, 80GB hard drive, Wi-Fi (b/g) and Windows Vista Home Basic. With these specs, don't expect to be very happy with video/photo editing or anything else that requires heavy processing. If you can, make the jump to the $539 Vostro 1000. It has a dual-core Athlon X2 processor, a DVD burner, 2GBs of ram, and a 120GB hard drive—all most definitely worth the $140 price increase.

Acer Aspire 5315: If Dell laptops don't fit your fancy, the Acer Aspire might do the trick. For a reasonable $448, you get an Intel Celeron processor at 1.86GHZ, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, 160GB hard drive, DVD reader/CD writer, 15.4-inch screen, Wi-Fi (b/g), and Windows Vista Home Basic. Again, don't expect this system to be a speed demon, but for basic Internet use/word processing, it's another good choice.

Dell Inspiron 1525: The Inspiron is one of Dell's most popular system, and it's a great notebook that gives good performance at a great price. The base $649 system comes with an Intel Cord 2 Duo running at 2.0GHZ, a 15.4-inch display, 2GB of DDR2, 120GB SATA hard drive, a DVD burner, Wi-Fi (b/g), and Windows Vista Home Premium. The Core 2 Duo adds a huge chunk of processing performance when compared to the first two systems, so for those of you who will be doing video editing, Photoshopping, or other processor intensive work, consider dual core a minimum. 

HP Pavilion dv2910us: The HP Pavilion dv2910us is my personal favorite in this roundup, but at $749 after mail-in rebate, it also carries the highest cost. The notebook comes with a Core 2 Duo processor running at 1.83GHZ, 3GBs of DDR2 RAM, 250GB hard drive, Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n), a built-in webcam (nice), and a DVD burner with LightScribe technology. Also, this unit has a 14.1-inch screen, which makes it the smallest unit in this roundup, so if you're planning on being a road warrior on campus with your laptop, go with the Pavilion.

HP Pavilion dv9910us: This Pavilion doesn't have as much processing punch when compared to the dv2910us, but it has one big advantage. This laptop comes equipped with a large 17-inch display, perfect for watching movies or TV (with TV card) in your dorm room. Other specs include an AMD Turion X2 processor running at 2.0GHZ, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, 250GB hard drive, DVD burner with LightScribe, and a built in webcam. All of this good stuff for only $699. (You can bring the cost down to $649 with a $50 mail-in rebate.) One caveat: With that huge screen, don't expect to be happy lugging this beast around.

See, you don't necessarily need an expensive computer to get good results. Any of you out there have any other bargain laptop suggestions? Let me know in the comments below.