laptop for the girlfriend

[rjk]

hi guys
normally i would avoid a spec me thread but needs must

tbh i know very little about laptops other than the business ones i order for work
so im after some advice for a home/personal solution

basically my girlfriend has had a gateway machine for about 4 years
its been reliable and she hasnt had any problems with it

the power cable is starting to become tempremental and she is looking at a new machine with her 21st round the corner

initially she has been looking at one of the low end XPS models from dell

the machine doesnt need to be super portable as it is only used for her uni work.

budget is in the region of £500 or thereabouts


i have seen a dell studio machine for £500 with a T5750 core 2 duo and 3gb of ram on the dell site

it seems to outspec the low end xps models and would be better VFM in my opinion

would this be the ideal machine for the money or is the xps worth the investment [basically does it offer any features i have overlooked]

or would a sony vaio or other brand offer better bang for buck

any opinions are welcome and would be really helpful

 

[rjk]

yeah i read that

cool

well i dont htink she can justify an xps to be honest
the studio uses an ATI gpu which i thought was alright as i wasnt keen on the idea of one of the 8 series mobile gpus for her
pretty much because my brother has an asus *ahem* "gaming laptop" and his nvidia gpu in that is abysmal

by the looks of it i think this is what she is going for
is it worth looking at sony or other brands before she commits?