Laptop

I am planning to buy notebook , I am confused which would be better IBM , Toshiba ,Compaq, Acer or Toshiba.
Well these days they have decreased their prices except IBM ,because of brand name well but if I see over all ummmm then under $800 I what I can purchase is 20GB hard disk, less Ram with limited things yeah but I don’t wanna buy above $1000 for now at least .
If I keep my budget upto this and need 40GB hard disk and good RAM .well it should be overall good…....hey help me out to take most of it ….......