Howdy,

HP is the leader in several things including Printers and Scanners.

A drum scanner will give you better results, but the real question is what do you plan on doing with your scanner. If all you ever plan to do is use it for posting pics on the comptuer, then you really don't need one that can do 1600 X 1600. Yes, that high of resolution will act like a magnafiying glass, but you will end up with HUGE scans and they WILL take for ever if you have a slow machine and do anything bigger than a chip.

Keep in mind when comparing scanners that some get their dpi rating from software, so make sure you know how they get their higher resolution. It is like:

Digital cameras and how they capture pictures;
Digital vs. optical zoom; And
Interlaced vs non-interlaced for monitors.

I can't point you to a specific place, but go to zdnet (link below) and look around there. Good site and they should give you some pointers on how to pick out a scanner or anything else you ever want computer related.