wrong, dont buy integrated if you can, if the integrated graphics chip goes kaboom, you have pay a lot of money to fix it or have to buy a new mother board if it is bad. If you can't avoid an intergrated chip make sure its a good chips, and have a long warranty on it.

A couple of other things to keep in mind:

Try to find out the battery life of the laptop you're looking at. If you plan to keep it plugged in most of the time, and just want a laptop so you can play in front of the TV or something, battery life doesn't matter much. But if you intend to take it on the airplane, etc or other place where you don't have an outlet, battery life is very important. It should also be noted that thing like games drains battery a lot faster than surfing the web or word processing. And the "made-for-gaming" laptops (like Alienware) tend to have the worst battery life of just about anything you can buy, because many of them are pretty much desktops crammed into a laptop case.

Also, once you buy it, do not look at any other sites, computer stores, etc (this goes for most computer buying, really). If you buy it online, by the time it arrives at your door, the same model computer will probably be at least $100 cheaper, and a new, better model will be available. As soon as you click "Buy" do not go near anything selling computers. It will just depress you.

Good luck on your computer hunt.

NEVER TAKE MAC!!!!

Next to no games support mac (certainly not windows games)!

MAC is if your a music lover, windows is EVERYTHING ELSE!!!

  I wasnt sure, but wanted to ask, thank you for the help, i like music, but im not just into music by itself. And school uses windows i just thought the new macs ran windows too, but, like i said i have no experience with them. Thank you for the feedback, it helps to understand the why of things. Which i dont know.  Take care,

-Teal

Two things.

1. There is a Mountain View HS where I live too. Not that its important, just thought I would mention it.

2. The newest Macs can in fact run windows. The local HS near me just got 100+ new macs, and they all have the ability to run either Moc OS or Windows

In my experience, however, OS's tend to work best on computers that were made for it. While the Macs can run Windows, they don't do it very well...

Thank you!!!  

-Teal

p.s Went "window shopping" this weekend, (looking but not buying)    And my friend said they overheat like crazy!!

They all look nice, the price tags are well.. some good, some not.  But the overheat thing really really started bothering me and i started looking at desktops instead. Now i dont know what to think.  The desktops are more for the money, but are big and no way to get them like moveable, you know?  Anyway... i really would like a laptop, but what about this overheat thing?  I know some ppl said put them on books and like wirestrainers and stuff, but do i always do that? I mean how do you play a game and be comfortable with a wirestrainer sitting on your lap?  Especially for an hour or two?

Anyway, any advice or guidance on this overheat thing, true or false, or half true.

-Teal

Laptop heat depends on what you are using it for, and what kind it is. Games will heat it up more than pretty much anything, but surfing the web, etc, doesn't get very hot. Also, from what I've heard, the uber-gaming ones (like Alienware, etc) get a lot hotter than a regular laptop. Mine, which is HP, doesn't get too bad, unless I've been playing a game for a couple hours. On the other hand, my friend, who has a couple year old Dell, actually had his get hot enough to melt his hard drive. Keeping it on flat, even surfaces, like a desk or table, also helps quite a bit, something my friend learned the hard way (I think his was on his bed at the time, not a good idea). If you're really worried, you can always buy an external cooling fan, although that lessens the portability a little.

At some places you can buy these things that are almost like tables for your lap. One side (the side you put on your lap) is cushioned like a pillow or couch, and the other is a little table-like thing. They work really well for taking your laptop somewhere and still being able to keep it on a flat surface. They also make laptop docks, although they aren't great for mobility. They raise your laptop at an angle, most come with a keyboard, and they allow to have more USB ports. Just look up "laptop dock" on amazon.com or something, and you should find what I'm talking about.

I have a Sony Viao VGN FE660G. 1.6GHz Centrino Core Duo. Bought it back in 2006. Graphics are the built in 945 intel chipset. I've been running it on default settings except I've turned off the "show planet elevators" because the frame rate will drop and get clunkly zoomed in a moderately busy gravity well. I had 1Gig of memory but just upgraded to 2. Load times have greatly improved since. I've been very happy. I loaded the game on an old P4 2.8GHz, 1 Gig memory, and an ATI 9800 pro. I saw no difference between the two PCs. So I'm on my laptop permanently. Nice thing is I have no heat issues or fans roaring.

I'm happy with the game performance on mine. I'd imagine you could buy any laptop today and it would look great. You might want more memory if you get it with Vista. Load up on memory if you can.