Notebook for General Computing and Sims 3

1_What is your budget?
Preferably under $400US, but willing to go up to $450

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Anything over 10"

3_What screen resolution do you want?
At least 1024 x 768

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Doesn't matter. It's for my younger sister for use around the house.

5_How much battery life do you need?
2 hours is fine

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Sims 3, Medium should be ok, I think (I don't play it, so I'm not sure)

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Has to run MS Office 2007. I'd like for it to be able to use Photoshop Elements 6 or Photoshop CS4 for photo editting, but not a strict requirement.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
Doesn't matter

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
none

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3 years

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I'd prefer Toshiba, but that's only because I've never had bad luck with them at all.

I do not want a Dell. No one I know who has had a Dell laptop has ever had good luck with them - either in lasting long (over a year) or in the support area.

I'm wishywashy on HP/Compaq... back in 2001/2002, I had a HP laptop that I ended up returning for service over 3 times in a 2 month span and the tech support wasn't the greatest, imo. If the products and support have gotten a lot better, I'm not opposed to looking into them.

13_What country do you live in?
USA

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'm pretty flexible in what I need. I'd just really like it to be able to play the SIMS 3, but know at my budget, it might not be an option. Baring that, I'm open to suggestions of laptops that might not run Sims 3 and ones that are out of my budget that I could keep an eye on until they come down in price.

Thanks