Rose just got an Acer 5100 3357 laptop last night - it's got decent specs, and is on sale at Circuit City right now.

Laptop Advice
 

Like CM said i just got my first laptop last nite at Circuit City and it's an Acer 5100/3357 it has a DVD and DVD burner and it has what i love about it a 5 in 1 media card reader so all i have to do is put in my SD cards etc from my digital cameras and i'm all set. It was in the price range we got it at the lowest price range there was (did an internet search for it) I wouldn't recommend a Dell after a certain person i know basically had trouble with his and smashed it to pieces but hey...i've had friends not have good things to say about Dells so.... you can get more memory if i need it as well but others the specs it has is wonderful i don't know the actual specs but CM does...good luck with finding one...i basically use mine for email, internet (certain websites), photo stuff (printing etc) so basic stuff...oh and i think my name for mine is "The Smirk Machine"

I'm very happy with my Toshiba. As powerful as VAIO models, but less expensive :)

The difficult thing about laptop shopping is that the retailers and manufacturers purposely make it hard to compare apples to apples. The model names often change (ever so slightly). I know with Toshiba... my model is A105-s4334. The second half of that number changes depending on which store you're looking at, so if you, for example, want to do a search on newegg, search by the first part of the model number.

Watch that Acer closely while it is on warranty and/or returnable. Every one I've been near has had big problems.

But its been a few years so maybe they've straightened out.

Laptop Advice
 

I have an extended 2 year warranty with my laptop that includes the battery and monitor that the manufacturer doesn't cover. So ya i got additional coverage waranty. I'll keep that in mind and you stay away from "The Smirk Machine" lmao my dad has a Toshiba and it is a literally a piece of crap. His runs so damn slow. He got it a couple years ago maybe 3 years if i remember correctly and he didn't even do any research he just went online and bought it. CM looked up reviews of my model and so far alot of positive ones. So we'll see.

Thanks for all the good info. I'm still deciding but leaning toward an HP through Costco that's $100 off currently.

I'm currently surfing LoT from this HP Pavillion

So far so good. Getting used to vista now.

Thanks again for all your input.