the nc6000 by HP (14.1" LCD) is a very good notebook and the only thing it does not have that most consumer models have (nc6000 is HP business model) is that it has no firewire port But it has USB 2.0 and that is fine for many if not using video editing.
I saw an instant discount posted recently on HP for that model. Also, you get customer support through the business lines (instead of consumer) and that is supposed to be somewhat better. Also, it is a 1 year international warranty which means you could have it repaired at any HP facility in the world (consumer models are US warranty repair only)
You can read the reviews and user comments for both models looking up both under new reviews at Cnet The nc6000 got an 8.5 recently (anything 8.0 or over is very good) and the Dell D600 rated in the 7's. There are other Dells rated 8 or higher but not that one.
The Pentium M 1.4 will be fine for you (that is what I have on the X1360US I bought) but you will get somewhat faster webpage access with the doubled L2 cache on the 725 1.6 -- anything 715 or higher is a Dothan.
The Dothan CPU will not speed up your hard drive access --to that upgrade from a 4200 hard drive to a 5400 or 7200 rpm hard drive
512mb RAM should be fine for your use
I am about to buy a Dell Latitude D600.
My processor options are
Pentium M 1.40
Pentium 725 1.60
Pentium 745 1.80
I gather the latter 2 options are Dothans.. Will it make a huge difference in speed/performance for my needs, or barely noticeable? What are the disadvantages of the 1.40 ghz?
I am a writer; I plan to use primarily for word processing and web surfing. Occasional downloading photos, DVD watching, CD burning. No gaming.
I need something with a decent keyboard size thus am choosing D600 for its mid-size yet it's not too heavy (5lb) for occasional travel. Mainly will use it plugged in though; I am not anticipating using the battery too much. I assume centrino is still the way to go and not Pentium 4 under these circumstances. please confirm?
I did look at the IBM thinkpad T series but the cost seems high compared to what I can get with the Latitude -- unless I am missing something? Compaqx1000 is too heavy. Would anyone recommend the Compaq nc6000 instead of the Dell?
Thanks for your opinion.

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