6. 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.