Thanks for the great Dell tutorial! The system I was looking at had 2GB of DRAM rather than 256MB, and also had bluetooth, big battery, and other goodies, all at the 30% discount. But apples and oranges abound in the comparisms, for sure!

Now I've moved upscale: Dell Inspiron 9300, 1920x1200 17" LCD, ATI-128MB, CD/DVD+-RW(8X) dual-layer, 100GB HD, 2GB RAM, 2GHz P-M-760, Bluetooth, Intel Wifi a/b/g, (software: XP-Home+MediaPack and other windows goodies I'll not be using), etc..

Specs attached, cost is CAD$3168.20 + tax, shipping is free.

Cheers