Unless your son is going to need a powerful PC for college work (highly unlikely), you could purchase a used laptop, over 2-3 years old, for dirt-cheap prices.
Laptops will see rough use in college anyway, so why waste money on a new one?
18 posted on 05/31/2009 3:28:58 PM PDT by MyTwoCopperCoins
(I don't have a license to kill; I have a learner's permit.)
There are some resellers of used gear out there like epcusa and they have an Ebay store of stuff.
51 posted on 05/31/2009 4:11:30 PM PDT by wally_bert
(My doctor says that I have a malformed public-duty gland and a natural deficiency in moral fibre)