The Niles are you the "pickard" i remember?
My only experience with laptops is from my brother's computer. It is a laptop computer, a Toshiba Satellite M30X. As i know when he bought it ( about a year ago ) he ordered it with some custom parts ( a radeon 9700 instead of the on-board gfx that the system had, and a bigger HD since it had only 40GB ) and so the whole system cost around 1200 euros, i dont remember how much excactly now.
The "goods" is that it is a very good system regarding its performance, it has a very good screen, the quality of manufacture is very good. The bad is that it has a bit short-lived battery.
Thats my only experience with laptops, i thought that since you are looking for one you might wanted to hear it
k: