No it isn't true, a computer lasts as long you properly maintain it; my laptop is working on its second year this summer, although I think I aged it by 10 years because of all the work I have done on it. Yeah you can replace parts as easily as you can with a PC, but if you keep it dust free, give it proper ventilation, and maintain the computer through software, these laptops can last until your motherboard blows up.

try going for a 9Cell battery instead of a regular 6cell.. Those last longer

Or you could buy a Macbook Pro. They're not giving them away, but they come with the latest and greatest hardware specs usually and you can always install XP on a partition so you can have the best of both worlds. That's what I'm using. This laptop is 17", 18 months old, and still has a 2.33 Mhz Dual Core Intel inside. I've replaced the Hard drive with one that's more up to par (298.09 true GB) compared with the one it came with (160), but otherwise it's stock with 2MB RAM running on a 667 Mhz motherboard, and the ATI Radeon X1600 GCPU with 256 MB of VRAM is probably a little dated by now too, but I'm still loving the experience. With XP on the other partition, it's true what my friend told me when I went to install it. He said, "This will be the most stable version of Windows you've ever seen!" It's absolutely true. Windows doesn't crash when it's on a Mac. It's kinda creepy, really... My point is, the extra money I spent on this laptop has already proven itself worthwhile because I'm still using hardware 18 months later that beats the machine you're thinking of buying in many respects. I can always max my RAM to 4 GB if I want, too. I'm not seeing the need, though. Stay away from Vista, though. That's one POS OS. Just my $.02...

It looks nice. I would only change its battery (6 cell) for a longer-lasting one (8 cells). Sometimes Dell gives you the option to change the default battery included in their laptops for an extra charge (or even give you the choice of buying a second --and better-- battery at a preferential price).

Memory looks well, too. Especially if you are planning to keep Windows Vista. I recommend a 64 bits edition, if they give you the opportunity to choose.

Go for it.

Best regards,

-L.

sounds pretty heavy. then again i have an eee which is lighter than a piece of toast