All are great but if gaming is a priority go for Asus, they (from what I've seen anyway) seem to have better selections and more powerful computers for sale...glad to hear you arent looking at an Alienware .

Edit: Forgot to add, I have a friend with an Asus laptop and he loves it in every way, customer service, reliability, etc.  Just realized I forgot to answer the question .

I'm with #1...I think HG_E has one....and is very satisfied.

*edit...it's Lantec. Sorry.

Sony, and Toshiba to a lesser degree, avoid like the plague.  Too much proprietary garbage last time I looked.  Sony in particular absolutely reams their customers on replacement and upgrade costs.

HP...  They're kinda hit or miss.  It really depends on what you're going for.  Just to have a laptop, I'd aim for a thinkpad.  If you want something you can play modern games on, IBM wouldn't be the best place to be looking.  If that list is an actual restriction on your options, definitely go for an Asus.  No real comparison between them, HP is the only one that sane people order from, and they're still half crap.

Two *very* big players missing; Acer & Dell.

What's your price range?

But if you have another 6 to 8 months of patience to spare, i hear there is a HUGE laptop miniaturization revolution comin' -- (just this afternoon from an interesting conversation with an Apple guy!) not that the *i* brands have anything to do with it.

Thanks all, my price range is between 1000 and 1500, i should have said that in my original post, i am not a gamer per se, but i do like my pc's fast, internet, some photo editing (from digital camera) plus sometimes sitting at the desk gets old, I also do databases in MSAccess, as well as Filemaker Pro, so some tend to get large

I am thinking about buy one too.  Hey what should I buy?

I've currently got an ASUS......I highly recommend them. 1300-1500 should buy a nice one.

I've owned several VAIOs, but the high end versions kept frying motherboards so I switched.

Then, RAM & drives is your target. Do compare specs before you buy and check the mfg dates on the sealed boxes. One can never be too new & optimal.

Er, wouldn't you generally want to decide *what* you're getting before you decide *when*?

yes Kryo, but i am making the trip into boston friday to buy a tv for the kitchen b4 that digital deadline comes in, anyway, i figured i am already there at MicroCenter, that is why i said friday, even though boston is only 15 miles away, traffic in this town is not good, plus i want to get it before the Sox open their season, then traffic is even worse that is kinda why i set the deadline for friday

Vas? Someone with logic on the internets?!?!?

Thrawn2787 whips out the ban hammer of the entire INTERNETS

EDIT: I live in Southern New Hampshire and I've never really noticed a difference getting into Boston pending on the Sox (unless a game litterally is starting or ending, even then thats more travelling in the city, not into/out of it). Even then alot of people take the subway home.

In your price range.....good CPU, 1 gb dedicated video, will probably play most any game fairly well. Only drawback is the smaller screen http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220510

Bruins? Could stop you from shopping when you need to?

Gosh-- i love Laval, four five six (just pulled out map, i wasn't sure where i bunk exactly... between Highway 13 & 15 somehow), (and the sixth lucky seventh (that my father yelled for all of his working carreer) is coming within the next two years waaaaayy east to extend Highway 25!) bridges north of Montreal.

Smaller screen? At that price, he can brake the 17" barrier easily.

One of the main reasons about the traffic going into boston from the south, its just crazier and more of it, anyway, i hate to drive, especially in heavy traffic, ( i am the guy in the right lane doing the speed limit) i was involved years ago in a serious accident in heavy rush hour traffic, so the paranoia is still there, on the lighter side, i really do appreciate all your help with this, it always pays dividends asking for opinions, guess this is one of the reasons i renewed my Wincustomize subscription today!!!

Ah, I never come in from the South :3

And if that store doesn't end up having a decent laptop, don't just buy a crappy one then and there because you're there. Go order one from Newegg

what about a cheap gaming laptop Gateway P-7805u FX Edition? Or a more expensive Sager laptop with Nvidia 280M? I own a few laptops/tablets, but never a gaming one...so i don't know about noise or heat issues. Do gamging laptops have more noise/heat when idle?

I bought a sager (compal I90) through xoticpc.com over a year ago from the advice of the nice forum people at notebookreview.com. I highly reccomend asking in notebookreview.com they steered me to the right computer at the right price. And, so far (cross my fingers) the only problem ive run into with my laptop was needing to clear out the vent airway.

You should be getting a MacBook Pro or a MacBook. For the simple reason that with a Mac you get the best of both worlds. Thanks to Apple's Boot Camp, you can run Windows XP or Vista natively on its own partition and it runs incredibly. They look gorgeous, they run incredibly and best of all you also get to run OS X. So you can experience 2 operating systems each on their own partition. Does it get any better than that?

Macbook: http://www.apple.com/macbook/

I configured one for you and came in at $1474.00 USD

13.3" screen, backlit screen

Aluminum unibody construction

4 GB RAM

250 GB Hard Drive

2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

I just ordered a new 15" MacBook Pro which will be here on Friday. I'm typing this on a fairly new iMac which is running Windows vista. I have 3 Macs and all run Windows. I actually use Windows on my Macs about 95% of the time. I love the hardware and I like switching to OS X every now and then.

I will never buy another laptop/notebook from a PC manufacturer. Not when you can have 2 OS's running natively. I will say Dell would be my 2nd choice. My main computer is a Dell XPS 720 HC and its really nice.

if your looking for a gaming machine and don't want to spend the cash for an ASUS the new MSI are looking hot and getting good reviews from those who have bought them. haven't seen any professional reviews yet.I am planning to buy my first laptop soon too, it will probably be the MSI GT627-216US

if just looking for a run of the mill office use I see nothing wrong with the Toshiba have 2 in my family and know a dozen other people who own one. they all love them and have had no problems.

I use a Dell and I love it.  It's my second one too and I've never had a problem.  Even got a part replacement post-warranty once.  You can "build" it exactly to your own specs and make a machine that works well for gaming without even buying into their XPS line.  Whatever you buy, just be sure to Google some coupons so you can save a few hundred bucks. 

Like anything else though, you can Google "Dell sucks!" and find a bunch of angry anti-Dell posts so I suppose it can be a crapshoot either way.