If you're gonna be doing a lot of Excel, I recommend something that can do 1400x1050 res. 1600x1200 is too small for most data entry stuff and 1024x768 seems a waste. I worked on a Dell Inspiron 8000 with a 1400x1050 native res. for a while and got hooked on 1400x1050 res. even for my dual 19" monitors at home. I've had good luck with Dell Inspiron laptops. I have 8 of them that I manage at my civilian employer and in almost 5 years of desktop replacement use (ie.-They use them in docking stations in place of a standard desktop PC) I've only had one that was sent back because of a hot spot the developed on the display housing and I think one other one had a hard drive go bad, but that was only after the user dropped it and admitted to it then a few months later it went bad. Other than that, I recommend the Dells. I've managed Toshibas (crap), IBM Thinkpads (both of them had many small problems with them, but nothing major) and Compaq Presarios (good teenager laptop, otherwise, crap).
