[dd74]

Shuie - I'm going to defer from your desires and say get nothing. If your Wintel machine works for you, use that. My suggestion is, if you haven't done so yet, is download a copy of XP Pro SP2. That will rid you of any and all popups as a popup controller is embedded in the OS - the best I've seen yet, as a matter of fact.

If you're dead set on a new machine, weigh out the costs. Windows laptops are fine, but Macs are about two to three times more powerful. Yes, they cost more, but they are very strong and have an excellent platform.

If you do buy a Windows machine, though, the first thing you need to do is wipe out the hard drive and reinstall ONLY the OS (XP Pro hopefully), and a minimum of needed software. It seems all Wintel machines come with a bunch of OEM garbage in their OEM version of Windows - which ultimately kill machine performance.

Why? Typically, Windows XP runs about 18 to 20 processes every on/off cycle. With the added crap from Dell, IBM and whomever else, the processes jump up to 35, sometimes 40. That's like putting three fat women from the circus in your Porsche and still trying to drive vigorously - if you know what I mean.