I own a Dell laptop and have for the past 14 months or so. It\'s been nice really, but there are a couple of things I should have considered before buying it. If you\'re going to be moving around with it a lot, you want something light. Being in the marine corps, I\'m sure you\'re used to carrying all kinds of heavy ass shit everywhere you go, but hey, who wants to put up with that at home? If you can, try to get something six pounds or less.
The second thing to consider is a warranty. Unlike PC\'s, you simply can\'t go out and build a custom laptop and find replacement parts like there\'s no tomorrow. However, if one of those LCD screens break on one of those laptops and you have to pay to replace it, prepare to pay through the nose. The replacement plan is just a smarter idea as a whole.
Finally, consider what the laptop is going to be used for. If it\'s going to serve as your desktop replacement, then obviously the weight of it won\'t matter, but things like screensize, processor power, and the videocard will all become very important very quickly and along with those will go the price. However, price flows both ways as the lighter and more portable the laptop, the more expensive it will get as well.
Of them all though, I would reccomend against Compact, HP, and Alienware. I don\'t know too much about the Gateway laptops, but I know Sony has the lightest and smallest laptops (as well as some of the most expensive), while Dell\'s are fairly balanced for price\\weight. You might also want to consider an IMB Thinkpad as some of the newer ones are really well made. I can reccomend specific models, but really a price range would make things easier. A Sony laptop that weighs less then 3 pounds can cost you over 2000 dollars but is really weak in terms of power while a desktop replacement upwards of eight pounds can offer massive quality, but is also well in excess of 2000 dollars. I assume you\'re looking for something that\'s a balance between the two...?