Ibm may indeed make the finest laptops and p3s are faster then cels BUT at your price range neither of of these things matter as much as other things. Before you buy you need to decide whice features of the laptop are the most important and which you can live without. If you want to spend over $2500.00 you can have it all but around $1000.00 you need to do some trimming. At the $1000.00 price point a cel may be a very good way of saving money without loosing too much performance. On a laptop the screen is a big issue as is weight and number of spindles. Before you worry about p3 vs cel or IBM you should first decide how big a screen you want, how many drives you need and what kind (DVD,CD-R,CD-RW...ect.). If you could get a bigger screen or a combo drive it would be worth going to a cel. I have purchased 3 cels in my day and they have served me well (300a, 400laptop, and 600e). True a p3 is faster but a p3 is not as much faster then the price would indicate. If speed is your number one concern then spending the extra cash on a p3 is a right fine idea so long as you know what you are giving up to get that extra speed.

I have heard good things about almost all notebook brands except winbook. I have a fujitsu which has been great, I have several friends that swear by Toshibas, and our little company sells pro-star notebooks and we have had no trouble what so ever from any pro-star products. <A HREF="http://www.toshiba.com" target="_new">http://www.toshiba.com</A> <A HREF="http://www.pro-star.com" target="_new">http://www.pro-star.com</A>

I just went to the IBM site and did not see any of the systems you mention, are you talking used/referb? Before you go used check this out from Toshiba:ESUP: $999.00
Equipped with a Mobile Intel® Celeron® processor 1.06GHz, 14.1" TFT active matrix display, 256MB SDRAM, DVD-ROM, 15GB Hard drive, V.90/56K modem, and Windows XP Home Edition.

If I read it right it has a $100.00 rebate too. Clock for clock a p3 will out run a cel but this cel is running a lot faster then the p3s you mention and should perform well. Plus it is new.

Remember if you ain't Muslim you ain't Shiite.