A mate is planning on replacing his tower system with a Laptop/Notebook as he is very limited for space in his small house.

What I want to know from people who have used both is, can a Laptop fully replace a tower system and are the screens ok for looking at for long periods compared to a CTR monitor.

I know the cost of laptops can be double that of the equivalent tower system.

His needs are:

Processor of about 1 GHZ?
256 MB
15 GB HD
RW drive
XP

He will be using the Laptop mainly for internet and doing CD copies so he wont need the fastest going

Is it better to have an inbuilt RW drive or have an external one? USB/ Firewire??

He likes the Sony Vaio but the cheapest I have seen with a RW drive is over £1200

Any recommendations in the UK? Under £1000

From what I have seen the Aldi one for £1200 is good but a bit pricey. Has anyone seen cheaper?

http://www.dvd.reviewer.co.uk/forums/thread.asp?Forum=223&Thread=99167

Any info appreciated