Compal help

Hows it going. I'm going to be honest, i didn't have the time to do THAT much research into laptops, i'm more familiar with desktops, but this is a forum and i would appreciate any help. I'm going to univ. in september and i'm buying a new laptop. I was looking at a few:

Asus c90, but i dont have the time to buy and piece together a barebones. approx $1k.

Asus G1S, seemed a little pricey for what i was getting. approx, $1900

Thinkpad T61, was going to buy through visaperks for a discount, but its a 6-8 week wait due to some problem with the lcd manufacturer, i cant wait that long. ($1500-1800 depending on what i put in it)

Compal IFL90 - S is what it has come down to. costs $1,756 which i dont mind paying, im looking for quality to last me through my schooling. specs are:

* 1. Display : 15.4 inch WXGA (1280x800) Glossy LCD w/ 2.0MP Webcam
* 2. Processor : 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo-T7300 w/4MB L2 Cache-800FSB
* 3. CPU Thermal Paste : None
* 4. Graphics Card : nVIDIA GEFORCE 8600M GT PCIe 16X with 512MB DDR2 VRAM
* 5. Memory : 4.0GB DDR2-667 Corsair Memory (2x2GB-Dual Channel) - 64bits Vista required (+$275.00)
* 6. Intel Turbo Memory (Robson) : 1.0GB Intel Turbo Memory (Robson - Vista Only) (+$40.00)
* 7. Hard Drive : 160GB 5,400 rpm SATA/150 HDD (+$45.00)
* 8. DVDRW Drive : 8X DVD±R/RW / 4X +DL Super Multi / CDRW Drive (+$15.00)
* 9. Floppy Drive : None.
* A. Wireless : Built-in Intel Pro/Wireless 4965 802.11AGN LAN w/ internal Bluetooth2.0 (+$85.00)
* B. TV Tuner : None.
* C. MS Windows OS : MS Windows 64bit Vista Home Premium (+$120.00)
* D. MS Office Software : None.
* E. Flash Memory Drive : None.
* F. Main Battery : Smart Li-ion Battery - 9 Cell
* G. AC Adapter : Auto Switch 110/220V AC Adapter - 90W
* H. Auto/Air Adapter : None.
* I. Mouse : None
* J. Carrying Case : Standard Carrying Bag
* K. Warranty : 3-Year Labor/1-Year Parts Warranty, Lifetime Phone Technical Support

Is this a decent deal?
any suggestions on the specs?
haha is thermal paste worth it? its an extra 15$ i think.
any suggestions or advice is welcome.

ill throw in some incentive for those experienced forum trolls; its not much, but ill send yu 5$ through paypal if your advice is extensive. I really dont have the time to do my own research sorry, working 60 hour weeks.

thanks again for any help

appreciate the response.
I went with 4gb of RAM because i thought down the road it will be useful, but maybe not. i did want to game sometimes on this computer so that will help. i will probably trash the intel turbo memory since it only helps boot times etc. and as for the hard drive i thought the 5400 rpm would give me some extra battery life.
thought or opinions? also do you know of the quality of compal computers?
and do you have a paypal registered account and if so whats the email? thanks again.

I have a Compal from powernotebooks.com and it has held up very well. We purchased several of them with mine about 3 yrs ago and the only thing we have had trouble with was the DVD drive in mine went bad after 2 yrs. I am also looking at the IFL90. I agree with all the advice lostandwandering has offered. The 7200rpm drive will be much better performance and the 5 minutes of battery life it costs you won't be noticed.

The Dell 1520 is a nice laptop but it weighs more than the Compal and is thicker than the Compal and Asus models you are looking at. But it has better driver support (probably).

The only thing that troubled me when i was choosing the option i wanted with the laptop was that the 4gb of ram i chose said in brackets 'requires vista 64 bit '. Anyone know why this would be? Not really a big issue but would be nice to run a different OS on it if i had to.