Welcome to Gaia! ::

I have a Dell. I love it. We got it summer '09 and I haven't had any problems with it; originally it had XP installed and that had a few minor problems, but ever since I upgraded to 7 I've been fine. Also I don't see why you'd need more than 4GB of ram; I have 3 and it's plenty, and it seems like you'd be doing the same things on your laptop as I do on mine.

The only thing I don't like is that since the case is plastic, it can get scratched pretty easily if you're not carrying it around in a laptop sleeve. Also, I feel like my laptop is kind of bulky...but if you're not carrying it around that often, it shouldn't be a big deal.

I concur...that really isn't bad.

- You won't need more than 4GB right now. Only time you would need that much is if you were doing some heavy photo editing in Photoshop and Lightroom...and I mean...HEAVY.
or
You are trying to do stuff in Maya, 3D Studio Max, ColdFusion, Poser...or in layman's terms...serious 3d animation and modeling.

The new 2nd generation Intel Cores (or Sandy Bridge to most geeks) are pretty damn awesome when it comes to gaming.

The graphics module is about mid/mid-high class. It's a redesigned 435M with a higher clock tick. Sits between the Radeon HD 5650 and 5730 in comparable mobile graphics chipsets.

If I had money to toss around for any upgrade...I'd probably do the mid range processor upgrade. Personally, I just like being able to at least hit 3ghz even if it's just turbo boost.
Not really necessary...just ...nice, would probably be the word I am looking for.

Comparable Apple MacBook Pro
And..of course, the other side of the fence option.

Felin...not sure if Newegg does deliver to the UK.

I got my laptop on the weekend.

THIS THING IS A BEAUT.