[LibertyGirl77]

Dells are horrible.

I recommend you go to overstock.com. I got my notebook there--it's an IBM ThinkPad, open box (used only in the showroom, but cannot be sold as "new") from a year or two ago. Perfect condition, $700. It has all the bells and whistles except a DVD-ROM. The CD player is lightning fast, though.

[Illbay]

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. I hunted around a bit. There is a Compaq Outlet Store (soon to be HP Outlet) here in Houston (surprise) and I went by there. They had a nice Compaq Presario for $1,149, and I was tempted, but walked across the way to Fry's.

There, I found a Sony VAIO PCG-NVR23. It was $1,499. I bought it. Reasons:

1. Someone here said "Have a VAIO and love it." My dad also bought a VAIO for an employee (he is completely computer illiterate) and said the employee loved it.

2. Someone here said "Get XGA." It has XGA.

3. It has a 15 inch screen, while the Compaq (and others in this same price range) had 14.1".

4. Came with Corel WordPerfect Office which will do instead of MS Office, I think.

5. Came with a neat feature where you can "hot swap" a "Ten-Key Bay Unit" (giving you a numeric keypad--the lack of which I've always hated about notebook computers); or a "Compact Subwoofer Bay Unit" for playing games or DVDs. Gives a REALLY COOL SOUND; or a Floppy (don't NEED a floppy, really, but it's nice to know I have one. I actually have a couple of programs that still install from floppies).

6. Was fastest processor at the price-point, with an Athlon XP 1800+ 1.533 MHz (equivalent to a Pentium 4, rather than the Pentium IIIs that other computers had).

7. Has a GeFORCE 4 graphics processor--nice.

Anyway, thanks again. I'll let you all know how it works out.