I am thinking of replacing my desktop with one of the 17" jobs. Student pricing is about $3850. The portability would be nice but is by no means imperative. I live like 50metres from my office and have a desktop at home. I love my 19'' monitors and dont really want to step down. The main programs that I use are Word, Excel, Access and Microsoft Project. I can get them all for the apple so that is not an issue. I dont do any graphics at all.

What is the backup like on them?