I just buy whatever is cheapest that has enough CPU and memory, and ideally as large a screen as possible. This is usually no more than $50 above the bottom of the barrel (last one was $320 Canadian I think). It's worked out well so far, always had good luck with laptops not giving me much grief over the last 15 years. For some reason my last few computers seem to be from Gateway, I guess they give the best bang for the buck around here. The loyalty was not intentional though.
