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I'm planning on getting a pretty basic laptop in for less than $600. I'm gonna use it for some light gaming, web browsing, office stuff, photo/video/music editing etc. Here are some specs :

Processor:
$450 Athlon X2
$450 Pentium D
$500 Turion X2
$550 Core Duo
$600 Core 2 Duo
I don't really know which CPU to get, but I'm favoring the Intels...just because. I'm not sure what the general performance difference is between the Pentium D, Core Duo, and the Core 2 Duo.

Ram:
I plan to get 1GB, I might take out the 2 512MBs later and switch to 2 1GB sticks if I feel the need

HDD:
I'm not so picky here, anything from 80Gigs to 160Gigs is fine. (5400rpm+)

OS:
Vista Home Premium

Optical Drive:
DL DVD/CD Reader/Writer

Screen:
Glossy 14.1" or 15.4"

GPU:
Almost all $600 laptops comes with 256MB of shared graphics, so I don't really have a choice. Question: Is 256MB shared with 1GB ram better than 128MB dedicated? What about 256MB shared with 2GB ram?

Misc:
Memory card slots
S-vid Out
Firewire
At least 3 USB 2.0 ports

Also I'd be happy to take some advice on what brand to get?
Acer, Dell, Toshiba, and Gateway are the brands that I see most common for my price range. I like HP too but its rare to see a $600 laptop from them...

EDIT: Well I decided that I got all the rest of the specs down. I just need more info on processor and brand. AMDs are fine but I'm favoring Intels. According to CNet, Pentium Duos are fast but not nearly as fast as Core Duos and Core 2 Duos. I wanted to know what the general performance difference is between the three Intel dual cores.
And brand too, here's my theory, correct if wrong:
Acer: Low
Dell: High (how are the Vostros?)
Toshiba: High
Gateway: Medium
HP: High
Sony: High
Everex: Low (very)
I'd be happy to get some advice on what brand laptop to get within a $600 budget. Do know that I'm not trying to compile a list of all the notebook manufacturers out there.

I personally have had really good experiences with HP laptops. I'm working on one right now, and it's fantastic. (Core 2 Duo T7300, 2GB RAM and an Nvidia 8600M for basic specs)

For $600, I would get a desktop if I didn't need my computer to be portable. If you don't have much money to spend, I'd get an AMD laptop, which are usually 100-200 dollars cheaper.

As for graphics cards, you're better off with 128MB dedicated vRAM, because of the huge speed advantage. Most graphics cards have dedicated vRAM and optional shared system RAM features.

Acer is a really cheap brand. The parts aren't the highest quality and the support isn't great (for my country, the Netherlands), but for the price, I guess they're good laptops.

Here's a pretty cheap HP, I assembled one for $778 (Core 2 Duo 1.5GHz, 1GB RAM, Nvidia 8400M), which is pretty cheap for a laptop like that. I also have a laptop from this series, and they're really well cooled and pretty silent. They should also have 3 USB ports, FireWire, a universal memory card slot (or multiple), though I don't know about S-Video.

Toungy's right. I too have had experience with HP, I had one for about 6 or 7 years, and not once did it need to be fixed (though I did upgrade it a ton with software, operasting system, ram, and graphics cards as better ones came out). That laptop was really good, though it sort of died when I tried vista on it, so I reverted back to XP, but it continued to run slowly, so I sold it for about $700 or so.

I suggest HP by far. Macbooks are good too, for battery life, all of the i-programs, and garage band, but they are expensive.... maybe $1000 for the cheapest ones....

HP is by far one of the longest lasting brands out there. Ive had experiences with an HP laptop and desktop and they are still running today (Even if I dont use them).

Also, the brand new Macbooks (Ugh Mac..) at my school, batteries only last about 15 minutes from 100% to 0%. You'd think Core 2 Duos or Athlon X2's would be Overkill just for a High school...

@Toungy-Yeah, I've used friends' HPs and they seem pretty nice. I know $600 is a tiny budget for notebooks, but unfortunately that's all I have to spend and I do need portability. You said 128MB dedicated graphics is better than 256MB shared, but what if I upgrade to 2gigs ram?

@Entrility-MacBooks..nah, I've tried Mac OS at the Apple Store and it's okay, but it wouldn't be too great for games and Macs are outta my budget anyways. Also, how do you upgrade laptop graphic cards??? (I'm not too great with computers)

@Allstar31992-Lucky that your HS allows laptops...

Would this be a good one just as an example? It seems fine but I'm not sure whether Gateway is a good brand or not. BTW I saw the same thing at BestBuy for just $499 no rebates!! But obviously it was sold out...

EDIT: Here's some more info on the laptop: http://www.gateway.com/retail/mt6840.phphttp://www.gateway.com/media/products/reta...6840/index.htmlhttp://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?ty...CustomerReviews

The thing about shared memory is that it is slow for the GPU (the graphics card's processor) to access, slowing everything down. Because dedicated is located a lot closer, and is usually of a higher speed, it will boost performance a lot.

As for processors, Intel's dominating the market right now with not too expensive very low power usage processors.