Hi Talldude - thanks for the info, I also looked at the Toshiba Satellite Pro L20 Intel Celeron M 1.5 Ghz - it has 3 usb ports instead of the HP's 2, but it has no Firewire connection port. Now I'm not too sure what a Firewire port is, but I think it's so that other bits and pieces can be attached to the computer - whether or not it's important I just don't know - also I thought that the battery life on the Toshibas was only about 1.5 hours as opposed to the HP 4hrs, but I might be wrong there. I use a Playstation 2 for any gaming I do so it's not important for the computer to be able to handle games. By the way my 800Mhz computer is a desk top but I also have a 1.5 Ghz desk top running XP although the wife uses that one mostly so I suppose it's really hers. Anyway I'll just have to make up my mind which laptop to get, but it's nice to hear that you think the HP I mentioned is OK. It's a bit of a minefield when you want to change computers isn't it - technology moves along so fast nowadays.
Thanks again Mate,
Ian