Originally Posted by http

At the very least, do NOT get a P4. Get a Pentium-M or Centrino (=Pentium-M with built in Wifi)

Wifi = Wireless Lan. Even if you don't have WLAN at home, you might want to use it in a hotel, airport, somewhere, sometime

Pentium-M means longer battery life (about 2-4 X longer, not just a little longer), less heat (much easier to keep the notebook on your legs for an hour or two), and virtually NO noise (better for your nerves, remember you sit very close to a notebook)

You can do video encoding on a Pentium-M. A Pentium-M 1.6 equals P4 2.4 or better. Don't be fooled by the low Ghz number, it's a whole different CPU

If you are concerned about speed, get a 7200 rpm drive in your notebook.