I'm thinking about buying a laptop to use in France (and maybe in a wireless network at home in US). I want to run Windows XP, Word, Excel, Photoshop and, possibly, some other graphics software, and, of course to access the internet, e-mail, etc. I'll need to be able to connect to a scanner, printer and speakers in both places, probably NOT wireless in France.

I want lots of RAM and hard-drive memory as I know from experience that I'll add more memory-eating software as time passes.

Weight is not a primary consideration, although I'm not trying to see how much I can lug.

I do need pretty good screen resolution and a decent size keyboard. I'm not into gaming.

Any advice you can give this non-techie old lady will be received with gratitude.

Also, if you care to throw in some advice on firewalls and anti-virus software, I'm trying to wean myself off of Norton (speaking of memory hogs).

Your are options are many. Is there a particular price range that you are looking at?

For an easy to use non memory hogging piece of AV Software, I've been very happy with the latest offering from Panda Software , and according to the reviews it's gotten, so are other folk.

I'm pretty clueless, actually. My home PC is a Dell, and I understand they tend to be a bit pricey. I'd certainly like to do this for less than $2000; does that sound reasonable?

My copy of Panda AV ended up on the shelf--nothing but trouble.

We first, get a mac.... seriously, do it. Ok ok ok... I know, now Outlook... games suck, corporate VPN... I guess I'm in the same boat (I keep an XP desktop running Remote Desktop just for outlook, orb and TiVoToGo).

On o your question:
Look at Alienware and maybe Falcon Northwest.
You are going to pay a slight premium, but no more than an good Powerbook or equally speced dell.

Besides 1gb of RAM, you'll want the fastest FSB (front side bus) available.

Everything else should be standard- USB ports, bluetooth, wireless (does anyone have pre-N? if so, get it).

Stay clear of dell. I know many have them and are happy, but honestly they are so mass produced these days that components rarely last more than 2 years and are flimsy at best. Compaq's (HP now) business was good quality for a while, but has take an recent dip by using some of HPs lesser priced costs. I used to love Toshiba but haven't had any recent expirence. I still hear good things.

Get a mac, if you have to use windows try alienware first.

EDIT:
just saw your sub $2000.00 note...
I think that is doable.
First thing, scale back the processor... the difference b/t 2.0 and 2.3 and 2.5 is almost negligible compared to FSB and RAM (which is also cheep as a commodity).

In France I always had better luck ordering from US companies and having a friend/family ship to me... then again, mon Francaise est pouvre

You mentioned that a high resolution was necessary. What resolution are you looking to get, and what are you currently using.

My recommendation would be to go for an IBM/Lenovo T42 or T43 model with: 14.1 inch sxga+ display resolution, 60 gig 7200 rpm hard drive, 512 MB ram (can always add more cheap aftermarket ram later), CDRW/DVDR drive, built in wireless + bluetooth. Also, if battery life is important you can get them with an "extended" 9 cell battery (vs. the regular 6 cell) that sticks out the back a little but is worth it, imo. All that can be had for considerably less than $2,000 and most T series come with a 3 year international warranty (but you have to check about that to be sure as some "express" models only have a one year warranty.

The Thinkpad "T" series are a real pleasure to use and they are relatively rugged and reliable and come with great support from IBM/Lenovo.

If you buy direct from Lenovo, you also get 30 days to return it for any reason (or no reason) at all and sometimes they have very good deals but you will usually have to pay sales tax, so they can often be found cheaper from other online retailers.

Finally, if you know anyone that works at IBM, they can get you the employee family and friends discount which gets you an extra 20% or more off the IBM/Lenovo web price.

if you arent planning on playing any sort of games on the laptop, my answer will always be the same: IBM Thinkpad T42/43.

You can get a fully loaded one for < $2k...I would suggest the 14.1" SXGA+ 1400x1050 resolution. I personally think that is the perfect size. If you get the 9cell battery, it shoudl last you 6+ hours between recharges.

Regardless of who you purchase the laptop from though, always get the smallest amount of memory possible and do the upgrade yourself. It will be a lot cheaper if you do this than just have IBM/Dell/whoever else put it in for you. Seems there is almost a 100% premium when you go this route.

EDIT: lol..someone beat me to it by a few minutes. I agree with everything he says above...IBM laptops cannot be beat, even if they have been purchased by Lenovo. I second the employee discount, the manager specials are always a great deal.

EDIT2: the warranty is amazing. I've called in on Monday to report a problem, Tuesday morning I had a prepaid box on my doorstep. I had the laptop back on Thursday, with the LCD replaced.

One more thing to note. It is not necessary to get the fastest CPU currently available. The very slight extra performance gain is not worth extra cost. I believe right now the sweet spot in terms of cost/performance is the Pentium M with 1.8 to 2.0 Ghz speed.

Hi Tennisbum - I noticed in the Wal-Mart circular that came in my paper today that they have an HP Pavilion ze2308wm notebook for $632 for sale starting on Friday. It's AMD Mobile Sempron 2800+ processor (1.6 GHz - it'd be a tiny bit slow), 256 SDRAM, 40GB HD and wireless - not sure if this sounds like what you want, but for $632, it might be worth braving the Black Friday crowds (eek!) - you could blow the rest on shoes! Well, I would, anyway. (No, not Wal-Mart shoes. ) 40 GB is what I have on my Dell (don't buy one of those. Really.) and I haven't had problems with the HD capacity in over a year. I think you should be able to find it on the store website on Friday?

In my local WalMart the same laptop will be going for $378.

However, it was mentioned that a high resolution was required. The low-end laptops will have nothing but low resolution (1024x768 or 1280x800).

A few questions:

How often do you plan to use the laptop?
Will you travel often with it?
How hard are you on your equipment?
WHERE will you use the laptop (meaning at a desk, in bed at home with the notebook on your lap, etc)?
How comfortable are you with ordering a computer sight unseen over the 'net?

Pending answers to these questions, my recommendation will be Fujitsu. IMO, they're the last bastion of quality in the notebook space. Everyone else (including Lenovo) has cheapened up their notebooks quite noticably. Fujitsu has done some of this as well but they've maintained quality in design and construction. They have good support, quick turnaround for repairs and excellent reliability. You can buy one at HTTP://www.fujitsupc.com. For your needs, I recommend the Fujitsu S7020D. Do avoid ANY notebook with the Intel 2915 internal WiFi card. It's nothing but trouble!

1. A little hard to answer: I expect to use it occasionally when at home (mainly to update files, security patches, etc.)- about 7-9 months of the year. When away (a total of 3-5 months in two trips), I'll use it a lot, will boot up at least once a day.
2. I expect to make 2 round-trips a year with it.
3. I generally take very good care of my stuff, although I have been known to wear out a mouse (but that was for a PC we used for more than 10 years).
4. Mostly at a desk unless I set up some kind of wireless system.
5. Whatever I choose, I'll probably have to order it online (that's how we got our latest PC).