I'm looking to purchase a new notebook, to replace my current piece of dell "merchandise"

I want something lighter weight but with the ability to operate in an everyday capacity, i.e. with a docking station.

I've checked out ZDNet and Cnet, and think I've found a suitable replacement:

HP OmniBook 500 Mobile Pentium III 600MHz

Has anyone out there had any experience with HP notebooks? or any alternative recommendations.

I'd recommend a Thinkpad. You might be interested in the A21M: $1599 at eCost.com (http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/detail.asp?DPNo=952911)

800 MHz, 20 GB hard drive, 8x DVD, 14" TFT screen, 8 MB video card. It's a pretty good combo. And Thinkpad reliability is rock solid.

For memory upgrades, try Crucial Technology (http://www.crucial.com/).

I'll second that. I have a Thinkpad T21 and it's just great. Docking capability, the works.

Just to throw in another datapoint, I've been very happy with my ACER 521TE, although I had to increase the RAM from 64MB to 192MB before it was useful for my work (heavy mathematical computations).

The only complaint I have about it is that if the power management kicks in while the screen backlight is turned off (which you can only do manually) then the backlight doesn't come on again until you do a hard reset -- but I think that might be a windows 2000 bug and it is easy to avoid (don't turn off the backlight, just close the top cover).

FWIW, Acer is responsible for manufacturing many of the low-end thinkpads -- IIRC, the entire 1xxx series.

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I have had a Dell, Toshiba, IBM and HP notebook over the last 5 years. I really liked the IBM. Tech Support is great and it is a great machine. Dell was OK.

I currently have an HP Omnibook 6000 800 MHz. It is awesome! You can find them dirt cheap, with a docking station (<$1,300.00). I wish I bought mine for that price :(

Thanks for the help guys,

It looks like I'm going to go for HP. Theyre mopping up with all the awards right now and they fit with my budget.