Basically my laptop at the moment is a 6 year old dell, with a wireless card that can hardly get a signal, and a 32gb harddrive.... which is now full. Joy. I need a new one, needs a pretty big Harddrive since I store my music on it (thinking of getting an external HD though.) Now I THINK it needs to be quick (processor or whatever (Im a computer n00b)) Im going to college next year and will be needing to run 2 different CAD programs and one of those programs that shows the stress' on objects etc. Now Im assuming they require a reasonable amount of power or whatever it is to run? This is the bad bit. £500 VERY VERY maximum budget, anything under that is great, Being 17 in full time education running a car with a saturday job, I need to keep my hands on as much of the money Iv earnt this summer as I possibly can really I was looking at the cheaper Sonys and HP/compaqus. Im not really too sure what Im looking for to be honest. Needs to be fairly well built as Im sure itl be lugged to college and back atleast twice a week... Anyone got any advice etc.?