Q: It would be used to instant messaging, gaming, downloading and just daily activities? I was looking at Dells and Compaqs. Are either of those a good choice? If not, what brand would be the best?
A: Instead of looking at brand, look at style/price/features. While some brands are better than others, most manufatures produce a wide range of laptops from extremely budget-oriented piles of crap to awesome computers with more features than you know how to use. Personally, i follow these few rules: Acer is crap. Compaq is HP's budget brand, so it tends to suck. HP, Dell, Sony are good. Toshiba is ok.