I am getting ready to start laying a solid 3/4" oak floor in my house and was curious if the Harbor Freight brand was good enough for my needs. I have no intentions of doing any commercial work, just need something to install about 1200 sq ft in my house and really don't want to spend 500 buck on a Bostich. I'm having trouble finding a place nearby that rents them plus, doing it all by myself, the cost of a rental over weeks (mainly weekends and a couple hours each night during the week) I figured it might be better just to pick up a cheap one. I posted a link below.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/D ... mber=99640

Also, does anyone have any idea how many staples and what type I should by? Is there a general calulation for how many it takes per square foot?

that will be fine to do your one project. # of staples will depend on the floor width but if its 31/4" wide your going to need a box of them bostich have about 7700 to a box.

Ya that machine should survive a 1200 ft install; and definitely be cheaper than renting for the period of time you anticipate.
Figure about 4-5 fasteners per square foot, on average.