Both laptops are OK. However, I'm not a big fan of most consumer laptops as a general rule. I support hundreds of laptops from several companies including Dell, HP, Compaq, and IBM and I wouldn't even consider buying *any* notebook without a 3-year manufacturers warranty. Even if you take very good care of a laptop the parts are prone to failure, especially hard drives. Don't ask me how much the company I work for has spent on sending in dead laptop drives to OnTrack for recovery . I personally like HP Business Notebooks, as they come stock with a 3-year manufacturer warranty, XP Pro, Centrino or Turion CPU's, and a very light build with hardly any applications preinstalled. Check out the nc6230 if you really want a nice system. The graphics are dedicated, unlike most budget PC's and it's lightweight and fast. I use a nc6220 for work and it's great. The main drawback compared to the nc6230 is that my video card is shared, meaning that the system processor and RAM handle the video tasks.