Hi, guys.
I bought an Acer from Wal-mart two or three years ago and replaced everything in it but the motherboard (give or take). This was a mistake, in retrospect; the computer seems to finally be giving up the ghost and doing all kinds of weird stuff.
I want to buy a laptop eventually, and I really need some advice on what to get. I'm looking for something that will run games as well as my old desktop, preferably better. But, rather than listing my desktop specs, I'll tell you what improved specs I'm looking for in a laptop.
Dual-core or Quad-core processor (probably Intel)
260M or similar nVidia graphics
6GB RAM
Windows 7
600GB HDD @7200 RPM or better
Wireless N
Card reader
8-cell battery or better (but not necessary, I'll be plugged in most of the time)
Webcam would be nice (but not necessary)
DVD R/W (don't need/want Blu-ray)
Costs less than $1400
No sales tax/shipping
Must be reliable!!! No more money down the toilet
I don't need a big display (1440x900 is fine, smaller might even be okay).
Right now I'm kind of hoping that my desktop holds out, but it's also just plain big and bulky. As far as the price, Best Buy had an ASUS G72Gx with similar specs to the above for $1299. I almost ordered it, but I hated to pay sales tax ($100) and shipping ($15). I also worried that a quad core processor might generate too much heat, but I really don't know. (You'd think ASUS would test it out and verify that it would not over heat, so maybe it's silly of me to worry about that.)
I feel a little overwhelmed and discouraged. I don't like spending so much money, but what can I do? I want the power (or better) of my junky old desktop, but I don't want to deal with my ailing unit, or any bulky desktop at all.
Sometimes I think I should just be satisfied with my little netbook for computing and do my gaming on my consoles instead, but I want to play this pile of games I already have and other PC-exclusive weird stuff that comes out in the future. I also want to be able to record my music on something, and my 2005 laptop doesn't really cut it.
That Best Buy one for $1299 would be great if not for sales tax.
Ugh... But I hate spending this much money unless it's on a guitar.
Can you guys help me? Please please please?
Also, what's an eSATA port, and how do I hook an external HDD to it? My external HDD just uses USB. (I'm asking because this computer I was looking at has an eSATA.)
