OK I just spoke to the computer expert here at home. His side business is computer repair (his main business is finishing school) and he's planning on majoring in computers next year in college. He was the youngest member on the geek squad at Best Buy this summer and they begged him not to quit (He managed to get rid of a backlog of computers needing to be fixed singlehandedly in two days). He's got A+ computer certification plus several more which escape me. (can you tell I'm a proud Mama? LOL)

He said that with the Sony's you're paying extra for the name.

His choice would be either a Gateway (My son has a Gateway and talked Gil into getting one, and both are happy with theirs) or a Toshiba.

He did say whatever you choose to get Centrino M, and a minimum of 512 RAM (see if you can get DDR II RAM). Otherwise he said the rest is just personal.