Acer from Tesco

Got about £400 to spend, and the RAM looks good and plentiful, same with processor speed.

Only going to be used for college work, home finances, standard internet usage, and a tiny bit of gaming (but not really high drain games, just simulation type games)

Looks okay but its only going to recognize 3GB of the 4GB memory as I believe it is 32bit. The AMD Turion 64 X2 may slow down a bit over time but with what you intend to do it should be okay.

cliquey

cheap – bit less reassuring if it goes tits-up ?

(we have one from here – they did fix it when an early fault appeared but has only 3 month warranty IIRC)

This Toshiba from Stables is a better deal. Bit more expensive at £420 but comparatively more bang for your buck. Biggest difference is the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, which thrashes the AMD and you get Vista Home Premium as opposed to Basic. Also, the speakers on the Toshiba are excellent – good enough for listening to music and watching a film.

http://www.staples.co.uk/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?Description=UK_CL_Laptops+-+Toshiba&CatIds=21797,35750,90634&webid=398034&affixedcode=WW+