36. *** Toshiba Tecra A8-EZ8311

I'm a long time Toshiba notebook user. From my first Toshiba, the Satellite 4080XCDT that my wife is still using to my Portege M200 Tablet PC, I've never had a problem with a Toshiba mobile product and I don't expect to in the future.

This one's a heck of a good deal. Only a couple of the vendors in our referral listing are selling the Tecra for under $700 at this writing, one of them being Toshiba itself. The Tecra comes with a 1.6 GHz Celeron M CPU, 512 MB of memory, an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M graphics processor, a 60 GB hard disk drive, a DVD/CD RW optical drive, Windows XP Pro and a 15.4" display. Though the Radeon Xpress graphics processor isn't a top of class component, it's far better than the processors that usually come with Celeron chips.

*** Dell Inspiron 6400 Dual Core

Like Toshiba, Dell is coming on strong in the lots-for-little-dough category. The company recently instituted a campaign to reduce prices and accelerate its sales. You can take advantage of this move and pick up a great notebook for a very good price. The recent Dell battery fire recall has unsettled just about everyone. I wouldn't let that event color my view of the company, which has delivered very good products in a wide variety of areas in the past.

In many ways, Dell's Inspiron 6400 is a better buy than Toshiba's Tecra A8-EZ8311. It comes with a 1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo CPU, 512 MB of memory, Intel's 950 graphics processor (an ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 graphics processor is available for $49 more!), a 60 GB hard drive, a CD RW-DVD R optical drive and Windows XP Home.