Shopping for a new netbook or laptop...

I wasn't suggesting that he buy a SquareTrade warrenty. I was only quoting and analysis of the failure rate of laptops that are insured by squaretrade.

He's only going to use this to listen to internet radio, pandora and do some lite surfing. So, there's no need for a lot of processing power and audio quality because less important when listening to compressed streams. Any Netbook will work, just make sure to get one with at least 2GB of RAM. If your going to be listening to streams, then a large and fast hard drive is unimportant and the standard 160GB 5400 RPM drive is more than adequate. I've owned netbooks from HP, MSI and ASUS. I've stuck with the ASUS. Also, I have a fiend that's owned netbooks from HP, Lenovo and Sumsung and ultra-portables from Fujitsu and Sony. The ultra-portables are way over priced for what you use them for. All of the netbooks pretty much use the same hardware so it just comes down to who's name you want on yours.

One thing you might want to consider is getting one with a 11.x" or 12.x" screen; surfing on an 8" or 10" can be a little hard on the eyes. Finally, if you want something with a little more kick, look at the units based on the Ion chipset or the CULV standard. The CULV standard also allows for up to 4GB of RAM.

Yeah, we Mac bigots are obnoxious about it, right?

As Prpixel says, the hard drive size isn't important if you're really not going to download or rip much music. RAM is important, though, so that you can increase the streaming buffer size as high as necessary to avoid stops and starts. It's generally very easy to install RAM yourself and you can often save quite a bit of money by starting with the basic laptop configuration and buying the RAM separately. More RAM is always better.

Here's what looks like a decent guide to setting up a laptop for listening to streaming audio and it's PC specific. http://www.cajunradio.org/faq.html

FWIW, I have Windows-based laptops made by Sager and by Asus, and I previously owned another Sager. All of them have been very reliable (the first Sager failed after 6 years of heavy use), and I've been very pleased with their performance (running Windows XP; you'll want to go with Windows 7 if you choose a Windows-based pc).

Most of the Sager models are overkill for your purposes, but you might want to check out some of their less expensive models (around $700 plus options). All of them provide a SPDIF output, which might result in better sound quality through your DAC than using USB would (particularly if you might ever want to play back uncompressed music files, as opposed to internet radio).

Powernotebooks.com is probably the leading Sager dealer, and is exceptionally good to deal with, as you can see by checking out their ratings at Resellerratings.com.

I have insufficient experience with Macs to be able to comment on them.

Regards,
-- Al

Apple clearly makes beautiful hardware, but for those of us who have jobs which are not in graphic design, post production, or advertising, Windows still dominates the market.

Are any Apple users above running Windows? I would consider an Apple for Windows, particularly after recently having my third Sony VAIO break.

In the meantime, I have had great success with Lenovo S10 netbooks.

Although slow with a small chip, they are dirt cheap, very well made, with a clear screen, decent keyboard and never miss a beat.

I've spent a lot of time with HP's (3 in the office/house). They have been amazingly reliable. Personally, I like Media Player over the overly restrictive itunes. I get tons of flexibility to do things that Apple would have ethical issues with...