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Description from the article:
2.8GHz Intel® CoreTM i7 2640M Processor
8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Memory
17.3" LED Backlit Display (1920x1080)
NVIDIA GeForce® GT 555M with NVIDIA® OptimusTM Technology
2GB Dedicated GDDR5 Video Memory
Built-in HD Webcam
Integrated 60Wh Battery
320GB 7200rpm SATA HDD
Wireless Network 802.11 b/g/n Compatible
16.81" (Width) x 10.9" (Depth) x 0.88" (Height); 6.97lbs (Weight)
It will ship in the fourth quarter of 2011 for $2,799.99.

Cost of an actual gaming laptop with a GTX and SSD $2400 http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplorer_X7_Xtreme_S2_Notebook/

While some may or may not like CyberPower, my main points are that you can't sell "gamers" a gaming system without a GTX card, the GT's just don't cut it and while a 320GB 7200 rpm drive is alright, you can get a 128GB SSD for about the same price, maybe around $30-50 more. No one uses anywhere near 320GB on their primary drive. I have Win7 with Office 2k10 Pro, Adobe CS Design Suite 5, LOTRO HR, DDO HR, WoW, Rift, EVE, STO, CO, PotBS, LoL and numerous web/net apps installed on my laptop and I'm using only 140GB of space.

Try comparing with this builder.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

Here's a comparison. Here's a similar system at CyberPowerPC for $3600: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Infinity_SLI_KO/ Same CPU, same motherboard, but twice the memory, twice the video and nearly twice the HD space.

For $4900 you can get the high end machine overclocked to 4GHz running two 1TB drives in a RAID 0. /drool http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Xtreme_XI/

For a simple, cheap desktop to run Office, Dell is fine. For a gaming system - not a chance. Just another way to point out how much Dell sucks.

Here's a comparison. Here's a similar system at CyberPowerPC for $3600: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Infinity_SLI_KO/ Same CPU, same motherboard, but twice the memory, twice the video and nearly twice the HD space.

For $4900 you can get the high end machine overclocked to 4GHz running two 1TB drives in a RAID 0. /drool http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Xtreme_XI/

For a simple, cheap desktop to run Office, Dell is fine. For a gaming system - not a chance. Just another way to point out how much Dell sucks.

I recently used these guys:

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

I "discovered" the brand when shopping on Newegg, but didn't see the exact config I wanted. So I went directly to the vendor's website and found that their gaming systems were EXTREMELY mod friendly with a wide variety of choices for components. So I mixed and matched and had them test it prior to delivery. The end result was a pretty tricked out quad-core core2duo box with lots of RAM and fast video for WELL under US$1K.

Cheers,

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplorer_X5-5850_Notebook/ ... and it comes in 6 colors. How many colors does your macbook pro come in again? That's what I thought...

As has been pointed out by others, I don't think it is the time to make judgments yet.

There are lots of gamers who are simply waiting for some top games to come out to upgrade they're machines.

I'm one of them.

I think many people in the business are making very short time predictions that aren't completely to the point.
There are lots of criticism this days but there are some major things that aren't being taken into count

1 - The fact that Geforce 7 or lower Geforce still kick ass.
2 - The fact that some major games that use Directx 10 haven't come out yet(Crysis)
3 - Connected to the above fact. The fact that many people are waiting for the new game line up and the new graphics cards (that can ACTUALLY run DirectX 10) to come out
4 - The fact that people are waiting for Vista drivers to mature to migrate to Vista.

Personally since my computer is almost technology dead I'm looking to buy a new one.
But fact is I've been evaluating alternative choices like the PS3 and Xbox 360...

The reason I haven't bought them is simple.

For price/quality If I wait for the right time I can get a better experience with a new PC
You can buy a pretty decent PC that can beat the Xbox360 easily just for about $600
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/sp3.asp?v=d

The top xbox360 (the elite edition) costes about $450
with a $600 I get better graphics, I have more disk space. I can run many more applications, to hear music, see videos of whatever type.

In terms of hardware power a Core 2 duo with even on of the less powerfull Geforce 8 can give a better experince than say an xbox 360
Not only graphically, but specially regarding choices.
I can get mods. I get (usually) cheaper games. My PC as a longer longetivity then a console since we can tweak graphics and it's backwards compatible. The PC allows to do more and pay less. I can see trailers, movies, hear music, play online using many kinds of matchmaking services without paying a dime or if I'm willing to pay for quality, I have more choices then being stuck with one service.

This are just some of the things
And this is TODAY'S hardware.

People are just waiting because they want to take full advantage of what DirectX 10 can offer (new graphics card). and are waiting for better vista driver support (a question of time really)

It's too early to make a veridict.
And specially, with new processors coming out soon, christmas and all, and with no new console on the horizon, I think the next year will be pretty much a return to PC gamming.
Remember PS4 is probably going to be released aroung 2010. 3/4 years is a long time. Even if microsoft launches a console before (2009 perhaps). Its still 2 years for the PC market.

While I can appreciate Glenda's (the girlfriend) desire to experience this, I pity the pain she'll feel over the next two years and I hope she blames her boyfriend. Whenever something goes wrong, she'll question herself of whether or not she did something wrong. When she calls him to fix it, he'll likely push it off as "This is your computer; you built it." When it can no longer handle new applications or games since 2GB is the realistic minimum for Vista, she'll wonder why her boyfriend let her install it when she could have been appreciating the speed of this system on Linux or XP.

Good learning experience. Here are the lessons:

1. It is currently no cheaper to build your own system than it is to purchase a pre-built one from a reputable company. http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/cfgpd.asp?v=d (Plus you don't have to cut yourself building it.)
2. One to three year warranties from said reputable company are priceless.
3. When something goes wrong, you don't have to doubt yourself or pester your live-in PC support.
4. Vista currently sucks. We'll see if SP1 fixes it.
5. Inserting your girlfriend's brief experience of building a PC into your component choice opinion article does not make for worthwhile reading.

Congratulations to Glenda for completing this task. Now you'll know better to take the easier, same-price route the next time.

CyberPower PC is a company I've had several good experiences with. They don't sell Linux on their laptops, but you can get them with no OS:

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

No-OS, Computers without Operating System (for those who want to install their own Operating System):

  http://www.abestpc.com/laptop.htm Laptops

  http://www.adamant.com/ Desktops Laptops

  http://www.avadirect.com/ Desktops Laptops
  http://www.com4.nl/ Desktops
  http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/ Desktops Laptops

  http://www.goldenelectronics.co.uk/ Desktops
  http://www.hypersonic-pc.com/ Desktops Laptops

  http://www.ion-technologies.com/ Laptops
  http://store.madtux.org/ Desktops/

  http://www.laptopchoice.com.au/ Laptops
  http://www.mtechlaptops.com/ Laptops

  http://www.mwave.com/ Laptops
  http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/ Desktops Laptops

  http://www.pcsforeveryone.com/ Laptops
  http://www.powernotebooks.com/ Laptops

  http://www.rjtech.com/ Laptops
  http://www.topmicrousa.com/laptops-notebooks.html Laptops

  http://www.unitedmicro.com/ Desktops Laptops
  http://xnbs.com/ Laptops

  http://www.xtremenotebooks.com/ Laptops
  http://www.zepto.com/ Laptops
 
  http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/23168/

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/ntbkx64sli.asp? v=d
Processor
AMD Turion(TM) 64 ML-40 / ML-44 / MT-40
1024KB or 512KB On-die L2 Cache

Core Logic
nVIDIA nForce4 SLI (CK804)

Memory
1024MB expandable to 2048MB DDR400

Bios
4MB Flash ROM BIOS

Disk Storage
- Hard Disk Drive
SATA I / II Interface
Detachable 2.5" 9.5mm SATA150 Hard Disk Drive
- Built-in 4-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MSPRO/SD/MMC)

Display
19" (16:10) WSXGA+ (1680x1050) Glare Type
PCI-Express 16x Video Card
Dual nVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX 256MB GDDR3 (in SLI)
Dual-View Display Capability

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/
http://www.rawpowerpc.com/
http://www.rkcomputers.com/

They may not offer an OS-less laptop, but many of the resellers linked to by http://www.msicomputer.com/NB/index.asp do. I'm actually gonna buy the MS-1039 as soon as they are actually for sale. OS-less, of course.

Ok this might not go well with many of you guys... but just keep an Open mind... if you are serious about meeting all the items in the Original Post....

-set up a network with tiny boxes everywhere you want a camera...

-set up each box with windows 2000 pro minimal config & windows media encoder 7.1

-connect all digital or analog cameras to the configured boxes and configure the encoder to save the media on to a file server of your choice (That Terabyte server would be great here!)

-change the bit rate of the encoded images to something small with 5 frames a sec and no audio (remember it is illegal to record audio kids! only video is legal by the wiretapping laws in this country.)

-although you can encrypt the streams after they are saved through Digital Rights Management, I wouldn't suggest it since it is all in house anyway, you have to get a license through MS, and I presume few people would have access to your terabyte server. So if you have crappy security on your file server... you might as well not even do any of this. (file server can be an OS other than MS if your paranoid.. you know...)

-set up your encoders to record the "live event" to your file server(s)... you can also broadcast them out at the same time to specific computers... for live monitoring, it's up to you all if you want to just record, or monitor and record.

-Ok, now start all the suckers, and you are off and running.

- There IS a major drawback... the video can be delayed between 10-20 secs.

Hope this helps!

-Please no flames... just my 2 cents.

Mabidex

...and save your stereo slot.

My stereo slot is very very important to me since I like really really loud music. But I also wanted a computer in my car so that I can have mp3's piped through my stereo. I have the World's Smallest PC with it's audio output going into my car stereo. As a screen I am using a 5" LCD screen very sloppily mounted in the passenger side sun visor. With a happy hacker keyboard and a wireless trackball... I don't need to leave my car.