As always, you'll get what you pay for jkflipflopper. The carnage of laptops I have paid for tell the story. I've had 3 cheapo AMD laptops and liked all 3 of them a lot. They were decent machines... particularly when new. Problem is, they never lasted more than a year or two. I thought this was just the way it is supposed to be until I ponied up for a couple of Intel laptops. Both are still going strong. It is not the processor. It is the components paired with the processor. I had a warranty of one of my AMD laptops which burned out in 22 months. Luckily, it was a 24 month warranty (that I paid US $250 for - arggghh). The $250 warranty got me a new motherboard for my system which was awesome... an $1000 value at the time. Problem is, the so called new motherboard crapped out a year later too. People just attach too many cheap parts to AMD systems. I've decided to add the extra $100-$200 for Intel systems just to avoid buying a new system in a year or two. I don't have time to move all of my old software over or buy new versions,, etc. etc. True story! I know there will be a premium on the Ultrabooks, but if the system lasts, then it is worth it. If you buy a new system every year anyway like some do, then yes, buy AMD based hardware and save some $$$.