Ok well after reading all the posts there isn't much information given tome other then what brand to buy. I was looking basically for the cheapest good running thing I could buy. Almost the cheapest. I ended up buying a laptop like 30 mins after making the post because of how good of a deal I felt it was. I got a toshiba satellite that in my opinion is a REALLY good deal for what I am getting. The total price after tax comes to 705$ and this is the laptop I bought
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...02&coid=-33935
Go ahead and bash Toshiba all you want but probally about half of my dorm building last year had cheap toshiba's and i never heard of one problem with them. I am getting out of hp because their service is HORRIBLE and with toshiba there is a local service center.
I abuse my electronics, a lot. my current laptop has been pretty much thrown across a room from stepping on the power cord, and dropped countless times, and is just starting to die now. after having it a year I feel it has had a good run for me being the owner. Right now it has only half the screen working and should fetch a good 200$ on ebay still so I am pretty happy with the deal.
Also when I receive the new laptop I will be wiping vista from it and loading XP Pro on to it.
-John Gutmann