I personally will never buy another Toshiba product ever. I had a Toshiba A70 that crapped out 1 month before the warranty was up. I took it in for repair and most of the major components were replaced motherboard etc. If I were to replace the motherboard on my own it would have made more sense to just buy a new laptop.
just over 1 year later I was experiencing the same problem now the warranty is up, so I decided to look online to see if anyone else had similar problems, and what I found out was that it looked as if at least 95% of this model and several other Toshiba's have had the exact same problem. The problem being that they put the cooling vents right beside where the ac adapter plugs in so over time it loosens the sauder and eventually the laptop battery will be unable to be charged and basically becomes a big expensive paperweight.
This problem was so prevalent that there was a class action lawsuit in the US because of it that Toshiba lost and the warranty on the models affected was extended till Nov. of this year. The only problem is that they only honored the warranty extension if you bought the laptop in the US, I bought mine in Canada.
They are the exact same product the only difference being the location of purchase. I called their tech support to see if they would honor the warranty up here...I even offered to pay for the labour myself if they just sent me the parts, which they have reinforced since they became aware of the problem. They said no unless I bought my computer in the US they would do nothing.
I then told the guy that even though they acknowledge their product is faulty they will not in good faith fix the problem. He just kept spewing the same crap "Unless you bought the computer in the US they will do nothing" The tech support guy was no help at all and rude on top of it, he eventually hung up on me.
I ended up doing some minor sauder repairs to the ac adapter and the motherboard myself and the comp lasted for a few more months before it died for good.
Anyone that I have known has had problems with their Toshiba laptops. When they are working the performance is ok but my advice if going for Toshiba is to get the most warranty coverage that you can because there is no doubt that you will need it.
The laptop I got to replace the Toshiba is a Dell. I ordered it online to my specs. The price was very reasonable and I called tech support to see if they could install XP instead of the Vista that it comes with as I was not sure if all my programs will run on Vista, and have heard a lot of people aren't all that happy with Vista. The tech support lady said that all parts etc. had already been sent to the build floor and if I had contacted them right away after ordering they could've done it but I had waited a week or so. I was told that when I received the computer if I called them they would hook me up with a downgrade to XP, but I have had no problems with Vista.
I hope that helps you out in making your decision, good luck.
