There is even now the DIY route. Dont know how technical minded you or your dad are nug but me and my friend build and sell them if you cant do it.
Prices start from around £550 for a celeron model (Sounds pricey but thats for a high end screen, graphics and system features) If we could get a systemboard that was a little more basic they would be a lot cheaper.
The high end dells cost around £1800, we built a faster and better specced one for £950 and thats including our markup.
And the best bit is that they are fully upgradable if you want to change a part of it later, unlike some laptops now where the cpu is moulded onto the systemboard etc. Only bit that cant be upgraded is the systemboard and in turn the Graphics, though technically even they are upgradable as we can just replace the main unit and swap over the CPU, Memory, Hdd etc.
If your interested I can post a full spec and list of options
Plug over
