elanya

I have a Dell Inspiron 700, and I bought it for many of the same reasons as you are looking for one. It is very small and lightweight, so it's nice to travel with. It can handle all the basic stuff, and some older or less technically advanced games (I can run Sims 2 on it, although the graphics ain't so pretty). It has an 80 GB hard drive. I only opted for a DVD player, not a burner, because I didn't think I'b be burning too many DVDs (and I was right), but I remember there was an option for a DVD burner as well, for a little extra.

I bought a separate adapter for using it in GB at Radio Shack, it worked fine when I was visiting Hazel last year.

The sound seems to be pretty good, but it does not have a big screen, because it is such a compact laptop. Still, the screen is good enough for watching movies on long airplane trips. :)

The only complaint I have about Dell so far is all the extra software they load on to their computers. Some of it hard or impossible to uninstall, so it's just taking up space.