The answer's simple... (Score 2, Informative)

Buy a refurbished machine from Dell's outlet store :-) Seriously, the most important thing I've always found when buying a laptop (or any machine) is not to skimp on memory. Unless you're buying a portable gaming rig, processor power isn't really that critical and your typical bundled graphics device is sufficient to handle any kind of desktop (okay, maybe not Aero...) Came across these guys recently: http://minipc.aopen.com/Global/spec.htm Nice looking device. My main reservation about the Asus eee PCs is the screensize - my days of squinting at tiny screens are long gone.