I agree with Pesto, stay away from Vista. Looks pretty but has many problems. I tend to always be an operating system behind as it takes MS that long to work the bugs out. Well, not all of them. They never work them all out.

Get the best you can afford, the most memory, the best video card, etc. I have a Dell laptop and have never had a problem. Never used their tech support either. But then, computers are my son's job so I have my own personal tech support. My desk top at one time was a Dell but there is nothing Dell left on it. It is now one entirely built by my son.

Again, I'm with Pesto, don't like anything HP and I'm also not a fan of Sony. Also, as Ernie said, check out the refurbished at Dell. My son bought one a few years ago and never had a problem. Price was very good and he still uses it as a backup laptop.

Keep in mind, unless things have changed, laptop monitors are not true to color the way a desk top monitor is. You can't/couldn't calibrate them properly. I always use my desk top computer for processing photos. But then, my laptop is many years old. Perhaps they have improved.

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~Rae

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