Compy died, which new one should I get?

[Thaddeus Grey]

Alright, so my good old compy that I do all of my covers on has thrown in the towel. I'm tired of jacking with it so I'm just gonna part it out and buy a powerful notebook. I can get about $1000 for the parts and I will be able to spare about $500 more, so my max budget is about $1500. (BTW, I'm typing this on an iPod Touch. It sucks.) I've been looking at Toshiba Qosmios and Qosmias, but I find the good ones to be at the top of my price range. Alienwares are way too damn expensive. I know Asus makes some good cheap ones. What I am looking for is:

1) Core i7 (or maybe i5)
2) a GOOD GPU. Top end. Need it for not just gaming you know.
3) 4+ Gigs of DDR3 RAM.
4) a big hard drive (to store all the covers   )
5) I would like Bluray, but it's not too important.
6) size doesn't matter really, I'll have it hooked to my monitor while it's at ma house.
7) I would like eSATA and/or USB 3.0 if possible so I can take my media drives and make them external.

Hard to find these things on this tiny-ass screen. Any good deals? With financing I can go higher, but not much. No $3000 alienwares, please.

[Vt102]

Herd bad things about the i5. Your better off with the i7 or i3.

Watch out for ram, remember that 32bit software will only use up to 3.5gigs. So wile Windows 7 64bit might use 4+ gigs, most of the software out there will only use up to 3.5 (cuz they are mostly 32 bit apps).

Also... Unless your gonna use an external monitor; get a 17" comp... It's a bitch to edit covers on anything smaller.

[Doom]

I know you want to replace it with a Lappy 386, but I would just replace it with a better desktop (the Compy Compé).

I can't imagine why you'd want to edit covers on a laptop. Maybe if you're in college a laptop is a better idea, otherwise it seems like a waste to me.

[Zelimpdna]

I know you want to replace it with a Lappy 386, but I would just replace it with a better desktop (the Compy Compé).

I can't imagine why you'd want to edit covers on a laptop. Maybe if you're in college a laptop is a better idea, otherwise it seems like a waste to me.

I agree. Especially if you're going for a powerful notebook like the one you've described, you're unlikely to get a battery life of more than 3-4 hours.

Plus, if you've got a good, cheap PC store near you, and can build it yourself, you'll be paying 25-50% as much for a PC of the same or better specs.

If you a nice, mobile notebook, for use on public transport or at college etc, you're better off getting a less powerful one with a 6+ hour battery life, in addition to your powerful desktop PC.

[Thaddeus Grey]

But the Lappy 486 has a whopping 5 minutes of battery life! My main deal I'd that my current one IS a custom build, an the one before that, and the one before that. ALL of my custom builds have had something horribly wrong with them. This on had been having problems for a while before it decided to crap out. I really don't have the time or patience anymore to find out what exactly is wrong, back up, re-re-re-reformat, and the a new problem pop up. My Compy is good, what whith it's revolutionary email capabilities, but the parts are technically obsolete (to some, it wasn't 3 years ago that's for sure).I was thinking a good, powerful laptop as I could and the whole thing off with ease if I had too and that I spend my weekends away from home and remote desktop only kinda works for me. While it would be at home it would be hooked up to a keyboard, mouse, surround sound, and a 24" monitor. So size doens't really matter, but I was thinking 17+. the Qosmio that I was originally looking at is a whopping 18.4 inches.

Update: I got it to boot! Yay is me! I still can't really use it ATM as it will only connect to an "unidentified network" with no net access. I reformatted, installed known network drivers, jacked with teaming, and nada. Any ideas ad to what the hell is up? It's a 780i if that helps.