The laptops are damn powerful now, but they don't have a lot of drive space and externals aren't convenient. You can get a powerhouse HP laptop for about $1000. The desktops are even more powerful and handle "permanent" externals better because they don't tend to get up and walk around a lot. You'll spend more money, but it really depends on why you want it. Unless you're a hardcore developer, a laptop is probably sufficient (but go for a 17" if you don't mind the extra weight).

or a ton of storage.

I do almost all of my computer shopping at newegg.com but I buy parts and build mine. However, they also have many PCs already put together.

I prefer Asus components so that's what I usually buy to build mine however they are a bit more expensive than some others that are also reliable.

I despise Intel GMA graphics - I would avoid anything that only has that even if you never plan to play a game in your life. (You can get both ATI Radeon and Nvidia GeForce cards for under $100 that will do just fine unless you are a serious hardcore gamer that plays bleeding edge games on the highest resolution settings - then you might have to spend a bit more on graphics)

I prefer Intel CPUs and I love the i5 and i7 chips HOWEVER there is a very good case to be made for the latest ATI chips as far as cost/performance goes. We just bought our daughter a Toshiba laptop for under 500 bucks that runs the ATI A6 with Radeon graphics and so far it has been excellent - she plays stuff like the Sims so it's nothing too demanding but that laptop isn;t meant to handle demanding. It's still better than mine lol (Mine is 2 years old now). THe desktop I built her last year runs an i5 and geforce graphics and can still handle anything she wants that her laptop can't do.

THere's no sense getting less than 500gig hard drive. 1 Terabyte is even better. SSD drives are faster but a lot more expensive so a big Western Digital 7200rpm drive is just fine. Hybrids are cool too but again, add to the cost.

I recommend 64bit Windows7 and a minimum of 4gigs of DDR3 ram (newegg has 8 gigs for 42 bucks right now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820139075)

Newegg has a generous return policy and they have always jumped at the chance to fix any mistakes (though their mistakes are rare in my experience)

The only time I do not use Newegg is when it's easy to find locally and I just have to have it today.

My preferences are from habit and experience - I am in no way saying these are the only good things out there (except for intel gma graphics - eff that ess) lol.

good luck and have fun! (new computer talk always gets me excited. )

good advice