need laptop

[catastrophy]

I need to get a laptop (I've gone far too long without a dedicated pc...).
If you have advice or recommendations on brand/model, let's hear 'em.

My Specs:
Must run Windows 7 (No Vista!)
Have internal optical drive (I can live with out)
Portable (I favor battery life and lightweight over display)
Decent battery life (3 cell with low energy use, or maybe 6 cell)
Price under $500 pretty please?

EDIT
Current front runner: $500 Toshiba Satellite T115D (AMD Athlon™ Neo X2 Dual-Core, Windows 7, 2GB memory, 320GB hard drive)

Any opinions on the HP Mini or Dell Mini 10 / Inspirion 11z?

Comments

[illuminatedwax.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about what I would suggest, but I have about zero good experiences with Dell computers, and HP is better but not much higher up the list.