I'm back! E-mails, assignments and housing stuff to cum shortly. If you're wondering about getting a new destop or to go with a laptop, get a laptop. The prices for laptops with more than enough power for typical MS Office applications are nothing (around 1000 euros) and you'll end up using it all the time. I'm also big on centrino (even though I didn't go with it myself due to price, the one regret I have) as the integrated wi-fi is great and the longer battery life cums up more often than I thought it would (even though I purchased an extra battery). I narrowed my choices down to a Dell (based on their EXTREMELY great customer service and reliability that I have enjoyed for the last 7 years for the range of destops I've owned), a multi-media Toshiba (a great deal for this model which I narrowly chose) and the IBM thinkpad which I finally decided upon (a little more costly than the others, so I opted for a cheaper model with less processing power, but the reliability, warrenty and keyboard feel won me over).