personally i like Toshiba laptops but i can't really help you much with choosing one. no offence intended towards macdude but i would not reccomend a mac notebook as it does not seem that it would suit your purposes.
Acer laptops are terrible, I do not recommend them. They are built very cheaply and they have very poor reliability. Trust me, I deal with them more than I'd care to. I would recommend a well-known brand such as HP/Compaq or Toshiba. I'll try and link you one via tigerdirect.
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...resario/V5000_series&storeName=computer_store
Okay, customize this baby and add:
AMD Turion(TM) 64 ML-34 (1.8GHz/1MB L2 Cache)
15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM)
512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)
60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
and a DVD Burner if you want it
This looks like a very nice COmpaq Laptop for under $800, should be great deal for you.