OK, I'll toss in my two cents

I'm not a big person on brands as much as I am the actual configuration of the machine (I build and upgrade my own desktop machines).

Your post got me thinking and so I took a look at the Dell and Gateway sites... then I took a look at what Ebay had to offer.

Ebay like always has some pretty nice buys along with some really bad ones. Folks paying $300 for a 233 mhz Pentium II (which is basically junk) will really be sorry.

A modern laptop computer should have at least 1Ghz of processing power, 256-512 of memory, a 20+ gig harddrive, and full dvd and wireless support.

(If it were a choice of increasing memory or adding more processing power (or a different processor for that matter), you would do well to choose more memory if you are running windows applications and don't need a serious "gamer" machine).

Now, you can buy the above described machine from Dell or Gateway for around $700-$1000. The surprise was that I was able to find Dell's and IBM's on ebay for around $400 that met the above minimum configuration requirements. Of course, these are likely re-conditioned and you will have no warranty etc.

Since looking into this because of your post, I have decided to add a wireless access point to my network and snag a laptop off ebay. My primary use of this laptop will be so that I can continue chipping while out by the pool rather than serious work but I just wanted to dump some thoughts on you....

Have a good one....