I have to disagree with g on the centrino performance issue.
It is entirely dependant on what you will be using the machine for.
Like I said, I was researching what laptop to buy for approxiamtely 3 months. There were those that said that centrinos were a very worthwhile option - see Martin Walkers comments on the Sound on Sound website.
However, the majority of the opinions I found were that the comparably, pound for pound/dollar for dollar, p4s out perform Centrinos. As for a 2 Ghz Centrino outperforming a 3ghz Pentium, that is debatable. Not neccessarily untrue, but debatable. The main thing for me when comparing these 2 chips was the cost. At the time a 1.7 ghz Centrino system was about £100-£150 more expensive than a P4 3ghz.
And before anyone says any different, I say this from personal experience.

As for Audio specialists,a nd whether you should buy a machine from one, I would say it probably depends on what level of computing aptitude you are at. Most Audio specialists do charge overly inflated prices - see Red Sub etc etc. However you pay most of this extra cash for excellent aftercare. Something which doesn't happen with the likes of Dell etc etc. (This opinion not from my experience but from others on other laptop forums...). Nusystems, the company I mentioned before have significantly lower prices than the likes of Red Sub, but are audio/multimedia specialists - so if you have limited experience at least they should know what they are doing. And, if anything goes wrong regarding sound card problems, etc etc at least you have somone on the end of the phone that has half a clue as to what you are talking about....


Just my expererience...

BombJack