I'm looking for a new laptop and was wondering if anyone had any brand recommendations. The ones available to me include: Acer, Asus, HP, Toshiba and Dell.

My first desktop was an HP and the current one a Dell and I've been pleased with both of those. My current laptop is also a Dell, but looking at the ones they have in stock now, they're all a bit more expensive than all the other brands that are around at the moment.

As I have no idea how those other brands perform, I was wondering if you can tell me which brands are worth looking into, and which brands to steer clear of.

I'd like 640-750GB hard drive and 6-8GB RAM. There's a Toshiba available with those features, but I don't know what Toshiba are like as far as laptops go. If I have to, I'll buy Dell again and get them to build those features in.

My best suggestion is to look at well known web sites that do reviews & ratings-

many of them have a help you choose section you fill in what you are looking for.

http://computers.toptenreviews.com/laptops/
http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life...dict-2011.aspx
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/
http://www.laptop-2012.com/2012-best...-201220135263/