Laptop Laptop I need a laptop!

[BarTopDancer]

I know I've posted about this before. It seems I need one sooner than later. I'm not to brand picky (though I've had excellent luck with my Dell desktop and I'm eyeballing the Dell 700m for the size...). And I'm... ERICA SIT DOWN! not objecting to getting a Mac, though I think that I'd be better off all around with a PC.

I need it for school but I also need it to:

record dvds from my TiVO
record records from my parents record player

I've read that Win XP Pro is the must have for students and networking but I'm not sure how unbiased the source is...

I can buy an awesome desktop with no problem but laptops are a whole different ball game to me.

I also want to spend less than $900 (waitin on a decent Dell sale). I don't need it until late August.