I am looking for a new laptop, can you make any suggestions?

yes, depends on what your looking for.

To be portable then go Centrino and make sure you get a Pentium or the newer Celerons which 512 cache, SATA drive and at least 512MB ram.

To get a desktop replacement which will be faster but heavier and have less battery life you go with a P4, 2.6 or higher but watch for the price break at over 2.8.

Brands are another matter, each has a plus and a minus. Dell has great prices and quick turn around if your notebook dies however their support is lacking in my book. 90% of the time their first action for any support call that they cannot figure out in a few minutes is to reload your OS. This does not seem to matter what the problem actually is, a reload will fix it, Not. IBM which sold off to Lenova still makes a top of the line notebook but I have heard some issues surrounding support. You'll still pay more for a Thinkpad but it might be worth it. Gateway still makes some good stuff however everyone is scared they might not hang around much longer, I tend to disagree and they are pricing stuff pretty well.

Of course there are still Acer, Compaq, and dozens of others out there including "whiteboxes" which tend to be just as good as well. Truthfully they are all pretty good but as with most things you get what you pay for. That said for $500 you can get a pretty good machine from Staples during their sale tomorrow and Monday. With a one year warranty on a name brand system for $479 how wrong can you go.

eBay is a great place to check for any brand, screen size, new or used. It will take alittle patience but you can get a great deal. Watch for the shipping costs, some are more, some are less. I've bought about 4 laptops now, I like the Sonys and Toshibas. You can pick and choose the ones you like, ebay has them all...good luck.

Alienware area 51 laptop

I purchased an acer travelmate 4010 series laptop and it is the best computer i've ever owned. It is eal fast, the best battery life, sleek look, and good pricing.Please check out acer, mos people go with DELL b/c they hear everyone else buying them but acer is quality computer...check 'em out!!!!

DELL