Request for Advice on New Computer (i7; ii9)

[michaelw]

Forgive me, I realize this is a group of mostly engineers and people who are extremely tech savvy; my question is fairly elementary:

I'm looking to buy a new laptop for $1200 or less, but willing to pay more if I get more. I mostly surf the net, watch streaming video, and play games that leech CPU power.

What do you guys thing is the best configuration to look for; should I buy off the shelf or have it custom built? I know I want at least a Quad-Core CPU, DDR3, a great video card with a minimum of 1 GB memory, and a multi-layer DVD RW+/-.

That said, I'd like to learn what else I need to look for - and why. Can anyone help me out with the optimal configuration for what I need...and perhaps share resources so that I can learn abouot clock speeds, over-clocking, the difference between Nehalem, Opteron, Istanbul and Gulftown, etc.? does anyone think that Gulftown is worth waiting on?

Also, what video card is recommended?
What other requirements should I have for this computer?

 

[keytthom]

for $1200 you will struggle to get anything spectacular like that, alienware might possibly have something, but it would have to be one of the base packages for that amount, the only reason you will need a powerful gpu is for gaming, which you moght aswell spend your money on a desktop for.

for $1200 on a desktop you could easily get an i7 930, radeon 5850, and a decent sized ssd.

 

[GhislainG]

keytthom is correct.

Can anyone help me out with the optimal configuration for what I need...and perhaps share resources so that I can learn abouot clock speeds, over-clocking, the difference between Nehalem, Opteron, Istanbul and Gulftown, etc.? does anyone think that Gulftown is worth waiting on?

Laptops normally aren't designed to be overclocked. $1200 definitely won't buy you a Gulftown (i7-980X for now) laptop. You need to increase your budget significantly. Nehalem is an i3, i5 or i7 processor. Laptops are not available with Opteron, Istanbul or Xeon processors.

 

[flaminggerbil]

By the looks of it you're after something for reasonably heavy gaming, get a desktop.

Laptops are ultimately pretty crappy for gaming, wacking high end components into a tiny space has repercussions (extremely high price being one of them).


Is there a specific reason you'd want it to be portable for?