see Joe Offer's reply. However, I will also put in a "thunbs up" for DELL. For both my nephew and niece when they went off to college went with Dells. The deciding factor was that the warranty could be extended several years with an ON SITE service agreement for a very low price. FOr both kids that ended up being a free upgrade when they had problems after a couple years. (Colleges are tough on computers. Many have inadaquate power, which puts additional stress on the components)