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What is your current budget?:
$500-$1200

What part are you looking for? Why do you need it?:
A laptop. My current one is over 5.5 years old. The hard drive is slow. 512 MB RAM + slow hard drive = pain when stuff starts paging. Having more than 1 core would be nice. I'd like a keyboard that can register at least 3 keys at a time, preferably 4 (important for games). 80 GB hard drive feels kind of cramped, especially with some of that going to a Linux partition.

What parts are in your current computer? Be as specific as possible. Links to Newegg/Tigerdirect are best. If you have a pre-built, include the make and model.
Compaq nw8240

How do you intend to use this new part or new computer? What's the heaviest load it's likely to encounter?
I'd like to be able to run 4 instances of Visual Studio or another big fat IDE while debugging an application that takes another couple hundred MB of RAM and with 20 Firefox tabs open. I'd like to be able to run Linux in a VM. I don't play any really graphics-intensive games. Stepmania is probably the most graphically-intense game I run, but I'd like the option to play games like Elsword. Battery life is not an issue; I'll almost always be plugged in.

I want:

• A keyboard that can register at least 3 keys at once is an absolute must. Preferably 4 keys.
  
• Judging from my requirements above, I think I'll need 4 GB of RAM. Not sure if I'll need more.
  
• At least 2 CPU cores. 4 would be nice, but I'm not sure how much additional cost it would justify.
  
• I'm sure any laptop on the market will have enough hard drive space for me. ~150 GB would be plenty. Hard drive speed is more important to me than hard drive capacity.
  
• S-video output would be nice but not strictly necessary. I play pad stepmania in my basement using S-Video to connect my laptop to the TV. I could still use my current laptop for that.
  
• Hardware should play nice with Linux.
  

Eck, I'm not too sure about laptops. Yet the only thing I can recommend is a Laptop-pro come in here. I'm somewhat busy, but if no one hasn't gotten to you yet before the end of the day, I'll try to help.

Try looking on Newegg, or Dell.

You should look at the XPS 17. But look around Dell and New Eggs laptop area and look at the reviews. I'll be back around 6PM Central U.S.

I could just be being biased, but from my experience if you're getting a laptop do not go with dell. Good ones may exist, but out of the 40 people I know who have had them always the same problems come about. After about a year the adapter and HDD dies. About 6 months later it's so slow you can't really use it. Some people do have better luck with them, but my friend is on his 4th XPS 17. He hasn't switched yet because it's still covered... with the 1 year warranty that is... That's my only input other than I am a fan of Toshiba now, they're not the fastest by any means but reliability so far is a big thing for me with this laptop.

I found this Asus laptop on Newegg which looks like a better deal than an XPS 17. Performance-wise, it looks like it has everything I need. Thoughts?

Quite nice at that price point, graphics card isn't amazing but it'll play anything. Just most new games will only be good at medium and low quality. But that isn't something you're too focused on anyways. I am not a big fan of their current chassis line for cooling but that's a nice computer. I don't know anything about the Linux compatibility though. But just so you know, the battery will last like an hour unplugged at best by the looks of it. My friend has the version of that with the AMD Radeon HD 6370M and i7-740 and it lasts 40 mins on average. Again, not something very important to you. But as far as stats go I'd buy it, never found myself needing more than 4 GB memory but it's an easy and not too costly upgrade if you find yourself needing more. But my final note is that as far as laptop processors go, that thing is a beast.

Thanks, I've ordered that laptop. From Amazon, not Newegg, because of NJ sales tax and because I remembered I have an Amazon gift certificate.

Two questions:
1/ is there a difference between having a comp shipped to you and directly picking it up at the store? I assume the earlier is simply to save time /gas.

2/ is there a big difference among various laptop manufacturer brands? I would go for either Hp or toshiba if I had the budget. The thing is, though, there is currently this one from fujitsu whose specs I think are quite desirable for its given price. I'm mainly concerned about longevity, if that helps.
http://www.frys.com/product/6427142?site...IN_RSLT_PG

I would perhaps feel more comfortable getting this acer http://www.frys.com/product/6509613?site...IN_RSLT_PG
If only it had a better graphics card. :p
I most likely won't want to do a lot of graphics-intensive gaming, and gpu computing is still a while away, so I'm kinda leaning on this one.

What do you think would be a fair price for those specs. Just to be clear, those two items are currently on sale at 600 and 700 dollars respectively.

okay, I just took a look on newegg and the prices were like wtp?

Two questions:
1/ is there a difference between having a comp shipped to you and directly picking it up at the store? I assume the earlier is simply to save time /gas.

2/ is there a big difference among various laptop manufacturer brands? I would go for either Hp or toshiba if I had the budget. The thing is, though, there is currently this one from fujitsu whose specs I think are quite desirable for its given price. I'm mainly concerned about longevity, if that helps.
http://www.frys.com/product/6427142?site...IN_RSLT_PG

I would perhaps feel more comfortable getting this acer http://www.frys.com/product/6509613?site...IN_RSLT_PG
If only it had a better graphics card. :p
I most likely won't want to do a lot of graphics-intensive gaming, and gpu computing is still a while away, so I'm kinda leaning on this one.

What do you think would be a fair price for those specs. Just to be clear, those two items are currently on sale at 600 and 700 dollars respectively.

okay, I just took a look on newegg and the prices were like wtp?

HP is pomegranate, go for Acer

HP is pomegranate, go for Acer

Do explain what they're shitty at.

Well, with their current chassis line all I hear about is overheating problems and comps coming DOA. They get about 1/5 reviews as positive feedback, the rest are complaints about having to RMA it 4 or 5 times because none of them worked. Then when you finally do get one that works they often get to temps of 85 and 86 just doing simple tasks like watching HD video and gaming is unheard without passing 95. But those thousands upon thousands of people could be lying, so I look to people closer at home. Someone at my school had to RMA his Envy 3 times and the current one he has with an i7-740QM and an AMD HD 5870 has peaked at 102 degrees while playing WoW and hovers at 65 -> 73 idle. In essence, I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole. Apparently their keyboards are skippy and often poorly built and their track pads suck. But I am a little biased since I always hated HP, though the reviews do speak for themselves I think. Go look on Newegg or something, not many good reviews.

More temptation from the Acer, it seems. ;s
Any review on that one? It doesn't even exist on Amazon (well, kinda does, branded as "NEW"), and Newegg has no feedbacks on it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...S5750-9668

Double posting cause I need to decide whether or not to buy the Acer before Wednesday (when it still goes for $700 before tax).

I need specs-price reviews, hopefully some anecdotal experience, long term perspectives and what-not.

Also, if you can, refresh my mind what kinds of things I should be looking (out) for in a laptop. Such as:
- From the looks of it, I can easily upgrade the RAM to 8 Gb 1333 MHz and the hard drive to SSD when needs be, which are fine specs by my standard.
- I like the USB 3.0 port just so I won't be outdated in a year or two.
- I don't need a BlueRay player/writer, ever.
- I do expect a strong Wifi antenna (don't even know if this thing varies from machine to machine, my Google G2 can't catch wifi signals where my dad's iPhone4 can).
- I don't care about the speakers. I don't care about the keyboard's vulnerability or the touchpad since I most likely will use a set of wireless keyboard/mouse with it. I don't care about battery life since it almost always will be plugged in.
- I DO care about heating issues. Would a cooling pad help? (Those kinda things smell like gimmicks to me, I'm not really convinced that they actually work.)
Would it be a legitimate concern if I weren't doing any heavy gaming? The upside about not having a video card is not having to worry about it steaming up your laptop, is it not? I remember most of my desktop video cards running constantly at 80+ centigrades, which was intimidating.

What other stuff breaks down often in a laptop? Which ones usually get warranted? Which don't?

What if I were to exchange the i7 for a graphics card? Is it a big performance gap between an i7 (4 cores 8 threads) @ 2.0 GHz and an i5 (2 cores 4 threads) @ 2.66 GHz?

UPDATING TO PUT THIS BABY INTO PICTURE.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6834215004
$150 (or $80 difference if my state doesn't charge me tax for a Newegg purchase) for a video card? Hmmmm....

Double posting cause I need to decide whether or not to buy the Acer before Wednesday (when it still goes for $700 before tax).

I need specs-price reviews, hopefully some anecdotal experience, long term perspectives and what-not.

Also, if you can, refresh my mind what kinds of things I should be looking (out) for in a laptop. Such as:
- From the looks of it, I can easily upgrade the RAM to 8 Gb 1333 MHz and the hard drive to SSD when needs be, which are fine specs by my standard.
- I like the USB 3.0 port just so I won't be outdated in a year or two.
- I don't need a BlueRay player/writer, ever.
- I do expect a strong Wifi antenna (don't even know if this thing varies from machine to machine, my Google G2 can't catch wifi signals where my dad's iPhone4 can).
- I don't care about the speakers. I don't care about the keyboard's vulnerability or the touchpad since I most likely will use a set of wireless keyboard/mouse with it. I don't care about battery life since it almost always will be plugged in.
- I DO care about heating issues. Would a cooling pad help? (Those kinda things smell like gimmicks to me, I'm not really convinced that they actually work.)
Would it be a legitimate concern if I weren't doing any heavy gaming? The upside about not having a video card is not having to worry about it steaming up your laptop, is it not? I remember most of my desktop video cards running constantly at 80+ centigrades, which was intimidating.

What other stuff breaks down often in a laptop? Which ones usually get warranted? Which don't?

What if I were to exchange the i7 for a graphics card? Is it a big performance gap between an i7 (4 cores 8 threads) @ 2.0 GHz and an i5 (2 cores 4 threads) @ 2.66 GHz?

UPDATING TO PUT THIS BABY INTO PICTURE.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6834215004
$150 (or $80 difference if my state doesn't charge me tax for a Newegg purchase) for a video card? Hmmmm....

That last item in your post. Is a good product. Look at the reviews on new egg as well.
I would probably get this if I had the money for it.

Looks the same as the one I ordered (supposed to arrive today) but $40 cheaper and with a 5400 rpm hd instead of 7200 rpm.

I would get the one with the dedicated graphics card personally. It is a massive difference, over twice as powerful. Assuming the drivers are better for that card now everything will run smoother as well, not just games. Judging from the reviews it's safe to say they've fixed the little bugs. Since with how windows 7 works, if you have all the visual effects on, your computer will be able to handle it much better. I'd also stick to the i7, it uses a much better architecture and even though the speed rating in GHz doesn't do it justice, it's got well over double the processing power of the i5 you have for comparison. So if you can afford it the choice is a no brainer, get this one. I am so glad they have redid the Acer chassis, too. I remember how cheap and flexible it used to be. They are much more solid now. I personally was on a very tight budget so my dad and I picked this up for my mother as a gift. I am well aware that its "speaker" sucks so I will just buy her some. But at that price point it's a decent computer and the best we could afford at the moment.

To some of your later questioning, 80 degrees isn't bad at all for a laptop if it's while you're doing heavy gaming. As well, with laptop coolers, don't be so skeptical. They help a lot, if your laptop is well ventilated it does much more. You just need to get the right ones. Some examples of ones I personally find great are these Thermaltake ones:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...CatId=3486
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/...CatId=3486

The second one is all aluminum and if you don't mind losing a usb port it's a nice option. But the first one is obviously much cheaper and just as affective, just not as durable. You also don't lose usb ports with the first one as it has it built in to compensate for what it uses. As well, about the matter of if it works or not, my friend's comp stays about 7 degrees cooler while doing heavy gaming using one of those Massive23 coolers.

I'm in love with those coolers.
And while, yes, I do love the last one, though it's:
1/ $150 more expensive, again. I could buy just about any mid-range video card for $150, and I still need to upgrade my desktop.
2/ lol online shopping. Dad's safekeeping my money and he doesn't feel comfortable doing shopping online.

I would be able to convince him if the one with the video card actually went for $850 (only $80 more than the one without), but I did a little bit reading and learned that I'm required to pay use tax (in place of the usual sales tax) for it, which would bring the difference up to $175.

Not quiteeee comfortable, if you know what I'm talking about.

Also, I know it's normal for video cards to run 90+ degrees, it's just not pleasant to know that my beloved CPU (which is running at 40 degrees lower) is sitting right next to it inside a tightly packed space.

So I've been doing quite a bit of research on obtaining sound from desktop video recording. Generally, to do this, one would enable What U Hear recorder if you have a Sound Blaster hardware, or for most other sound cards, stereo mix. I apparently don't have stereo mix. Or a Sound Blaster sound card.

Option 1: Get a loopback connector. Cheap little bastard, and I heard this is guaranteed to get desktop sound recorded. The downside to this is that I'll be doing stuff deaf while recording whatever I want with sound in the video if I don't have another sound output jack. And I don't have that.

Option 2: Get a sound card with stereo mix. This is the most desirable option, but the problem is I'm not sure how to tell which sound cards have stereo mix, other than Sound Blaster. Apparently the cheapest sound cards with this are $10, but the cheapest Sound Blaster card is $25, courtesy of newegg's sale ending on the 16th. If I should go this route, I will need to do more research on the ins and outs of sound card hardware, such as whether I should be concerned with magnetic interference.

Option 3: Get software to do this shyt for me. They aren't free, I haven't found one that's even close to the prices from option 2 unfortunately. Unless I'm really stupid or something. At any rate, I don't really know how these things do it. Apparently Fraps taps into the audio stream before it reaches the sound chip on the MOBO, which explains how it gets its sound, but sadly it does not record the desktop.

I'm planning on buying a new computer for my birthday next month, and I thought any computer would do. But my friends told me that any card that's integrated isn't good for any type of gaming. I just want it for DFO and maybe some other kinds of games that aren't that graphic intensive. Do you think the integrated would be fine, or should I look for another graphics card? I could replace it too, I guess, the price of the computers I found are pretty cheap, and I'd like to get one of them.

I'm planning on buying a new computer for my birthday next month, and I thought any computer would do. But my friends told me that any card that's integrated isn't good for any type of gaming. I just want it for DFO and maybe some other kinds of games that aren't that graphic intensive. Do you think the integrated would be fine, or should I look for another graphics card? I could replace it too, I guess, the price of the computers I found are pretty cheap, and I'd like to get one of them.

Since you're not playing any graphic intensive games then a Laptop is fine. Other than that a 800$ desktop will do you good.

But the integrated card? Should I replace it if I find one that has it?