The more memory the better, beyond that, I would get a  Laptop with a BD drive. My wife used to be an IT Director for a company and they used Dells they seldom had a problem with them.

Skip

Quoting Devion27:

Quote:
what features should i look for when choosing to buy a laptop?

I would recommmend:

- Do NOT get a "Netbook" for your stated purposes
- minimum 12" screen
- minimum 2 GB memory
- minimum 120 GB hard drive
- Windows 7 Home Premium
- mimimum 4 - 6 hours battery life
- minimum 802.11b/g Wi-Fi card, optional plus: 802.11 b/g/n
- optional plus: built-in webcam
- very nice plus: built-n "Bluetooth"
- all moden laptops will have USB ports, ethernet port, external display port and possibly built-in memory card/stick reader
- trial copy of Microsoft Office - Student Edition. Check Microsoft web site for special deals for students. Much cheaper purchase of Office and other software
- trail copy of anti-virus software (A MUST!)

- Super thin laptop may not have a DVD drive, but you can attach one via USB, otherwise make sure you have DVD/RW drive for the standard, somewhat thicker laptops.

- Total package should cost no more than $500 - $600. If you want Blu-Ray, you will need more of everything stated above, and the total cost will at least double.

I second the motion for Dell. I have also used Gateway and Lenovo with good results. I am not a big fan of Toshiba.

I have recently been impressed with Acer products. HP makes very robust products.

If you can afford it, buy additional "on-site" warranty coverage if your laptop comes with less than 3 year warranty. You will not regret it.

Quoting Prof. Kingsfield:

Quote:
Agree with above, except for the cost. I'll spec one out for you.

Skip

Good idea, but of course the cost is highly variable depending on brand and options. I keep close watch on sales - a local vendor such as Best Buy and Office Depot will often have unadvertised "manager specials." Having a machine spec'd out will be a good reference point for shopping around.

Nowadays, the cost of laptops has decreased enormously.

Some features which will enhance your experience:

Large screen: 17" - this will also give you a larger keyboard including a numeric pad
Memory: Try to go for 4GB, all laptops are now sold with Windows 7, which will benefit from the  additional memory (if you run Win7 32bit - you will only use 3.3GB  -  Win7 64bit will use all memory, but the 32bit will surely be sufficient)

As mediadogg stated, a student license of Microsoft Office isn't that expensive.
For Antivirus, you can get the freeware AGVFree, at 0 cost.
Should you require photo-editing software, Corel Paintshop Photo Pro X3 is a low cost alternative for Adobe Photoshop (99$ if I'm correct)

As for brands, I wouldn't recommend HP Pavillion, but I do believe the HP Presario's are better. The HP Business Notebooks are of excellent quality, but a little more expensive and not available through standard retail chains like Best Buy.
Acer has some nice looking configurations, and it's cheaper as HP.
You can also look at Packbard Bell.

I have no experience with Toshiba and Dell, so can't comment on those.

I don't think that any currently available Note- (NOT Net-) book will have difficulties with DVDProfiler

My personal recommendation for a low-budget are either:
HP-Compaq 615 series (comes with very varying chipsets (AMD/Intel) but is almost always very reasonably priced). The only disadvantage I know of, is that these "only" have three USB connectors.

or

Acer Extensa series
(even though Acer traditionally has a terrible support, the machines as such are excellent)

Now matter what you actually pick:
- Make sure to have an actual mobile processor on board.
- Avoid Sempron or Celeron CPUs
- Frequency beats RAM (if in doubt, pick the faster machine, it's easier to put in new RAM-modules than to exchange the CPU)

Quoting cvermeylen:

Quote:
I have the same sentiments for DELL 

Thanks!
Sometimes I think I am the only one

Quoting goblinsdoitall:

Quote:
Quoting cvermeylen:

Quote:
I have the same sentiments for DELL 

Thanks!
Sometimes I think I am the only one

I never owned or worked with a DELL, but the look of their equipment makes me think it's a cheap toy 

Quoting goblinsdoitall:

Quote:
I don't think that any currently available Note- (NOT Net-) book will have difficulties with DVDProfiler

I remember seeing issues about screen resolution on a Netbook. Also, you have to assume that as a person's use of the computer increases, the demands for memory, hard drive and CPU will increase. That's why I would not recommend one as a person's only machine. It will run out as gas - almost by definition. No disrespect, you are mostly right IMHO for the short term, but for the long term, I disagree.

(Edit: turns out I misread gob's post: we were actually in total agreement!  )