The Dell Inspiron 600m is a cool, feature-rich notebook, but it's also the most expensive in our roundup. Though you're getting top technologies that will last you for four years, you can find less expensive systems that are just as good for writing papers, watching DVDs, or playing games.

Powerful components like the 1.6-GHz Pentium M and ATI Radeon 9000 chipset help give this notebook the juice to perform at or near the top of our benchmark tests. So whether it's CAD design, video creation, or 3-D games, the 600m won't disappoint.

While it's light enough to carry and its wireless range is long (160 feet), you'll need a second battery if you want to use it all day. At 3:30, its BatteryMark score isn't bad, but it was the lowest among the Pentium M–based systems.

The 600m is also a good, though not perfect, multimedia system. It comes with Roxio Easy CD Creator 5, Dell Jukebox by MusicMatch, and Image Expert 2000. But surprisingly the Dell unit lacks a FireWire port. The added bonus (and expense) of a DVD+RW drive lets you burn movies, but you'll have to buy a FireWire adapter to get your video from your camcorder to your notebook.

The price is a little steep, but you get a lot. Just be ready to make the payments at the same time those tuition bills start rolling in.