(laptop knowledgable people only) In your experience, are dell laptops made of good hardware?

I plan to wipe the laptop and install Linux and Vista without all the dell software, so would dell hardware do well for light gaming, 3D graphics and word processing?

I mean, is there an advantage getting a Sony Vaio or a Toshiba over a Dell? From what i see they're including the same processors and graphic cards, and the RAM shouldn't really matter, right? Is there any clear reason why I should put a couple extra hundred dollars into a same speced laptop other than fashion?

If the system specs are equal, then don't spend the extra money. I like the Acer products and am impressed with the new Gateway we just got. Not at all happy with Toshiba. Dell is the most asked about system on this forum with problems. Even if processor, ram, etc are the same, the motherboard may be a different brand as well as the screen drivers. You will need the companies drivers from the component maker or system maker for the drivers in the MS operating system. There is no need to wipe Vista if on there because you can use it to make partitions and it comes with a dual boot loader. Will just need to load linux.

I work for the DOD and all we use is dell product. Most of the machines i deal with are user errors not the machines.

As for dell being better. The warranty on a dell is quite good but everything else seems to look better than a dell. I currently work with a lot of M90 series laptops and i dont mind them one bit. As for 3d gaming well,,, that depends on what kind of games your trying to jump into.

you should check out this site where you can get a sony vaio laptop for free