Help choosing laptop

[pat4]

Well my parents want to get me a laptop for christmas i've been browsing for a while and i've narrowed it dow to three laptops.

HP G60-100EM - 464 euro

TOSHIBA Satellite L300-11V - 434

Dell Inspiron 1525 - 479 (this is the cheap one with the Intel Celero Dual-Core Processor T1500 (1.86GHz, 512K, 533MHz)

Dell Inspiron 1525 - 599 ( More expensive one Intel Cor 2 Duo Processor T5800 (2.0 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2 cache)

My Budget is ideally under 550 but i could stretch up to 600 if i thought the gains were big. If anyone has any other suggestions i'd be more then glad to hear them I live in Ireland Btw.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

What do you want to use it for? Gaming? (I'd assume so.)

 

[pat4]

Well gaming would be nice but i know im not in the market for a serious gaming machine. I'd be using it for surfing the net, doing word(or open office) projects and writing simple java and c++ programmes (i'm studying computer systems in college).

 

[illram]

Then you won't need anything that powerful. Just get something that is reliable and best bang for your buck compared to others.

FWIW I have a Toshiba satellite that has not given me any problems for the past 3 years... not sure how representative that is of the brand as a whole though. A lot of my friends with cheap dell laptops have had problems related to the casing, i.e. keys falling off, casing cracking, hinges breaking, etc. etc.

It is also nice to go to a store and actually handle them, pick them up, etc. etc.