Suggestions of a laptop

[Olddog01]

I have been thinking about getting a laptop for years, but could never bring myself to spend that much money for that much less power. But its likely I will be doing more traveling soon, and a basic laptop should do most of what I want. As much as I would like a desktop replacement that isn't in the budget. So I am looking for suggestions on what to get. Looking to keep the price under $800

Main uses:

Older games Diablo 2, Heroes of Might and Magic
Office - Word and Excel Mostly
Internet - WiFi required
Playing DVDs
Playing Music

I really want it to have Windows Vista Premium, so I need at least 1GB of Ram.

How important is it to me to have the dual-core vs dual-core x2? For my main system it mattered, but for a secondary does it?

There is a Dell Inspiron E1405 Dual Core T2080 (1MB/1.73/533), 14.1 XGA, 2GB DDR2, Integrated Video (Blah, but budget doesn't leave many choices), 8X CD/DVD Burner, Integrated SB Audigy, WiFi b/g, 85 WHr/9cell, 1 yr mail in warranty with Vista Home Premium for 800.



My main system

Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13Ghz
Biostar P965 LGA 775
OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU
4GB OCZ PC2 5400
Geforce GTS 8800 640MB PCI-E
320GB 7200 RPM SATA HDD
(2) 18X SATA DL DVD Burners
(2) 1905FP 19" LCD Monitors
G15 Logitech Keyboard
G5 Logitech Laser Mouse
Z-5300 Logitech Surround Sound
Coolmaster Centurion
Vista Home Premium

 

[TheStu]

For the gaming that you are doing, you are better off getting an older used laptop off of ebay or the FS/T forum since last time I tried installing Diablo II on Vista Business, it disabled my screen.

 

[Olddog01]

I run Vista Home Premium without any problems with Diablo 2:LOD, Heroes Crashes occasionally, but since it autosaves after every turn, this is nothing more than an annoyance.

When I built the system my thought was this, today I would prefer WinXP, but in a year it is likely everything will be Vista, and I would want to convert, so why buy 2 OS, I just adapted early and deal with the bugs. So far setting compatibility has corrected all but one issue, and honestly I don't care if my scanner works that much

I find a lot of my older games have more of an issue with me running dual monitors, than with me running Vista. I chose those games because they are easy to play on the road, in short sittings. On my primary system I run CNC3 and EQ, and the only issues I have encountered was CNC doesn't like dual monitors, so you have to make sure the game solely recognizes the primary display, and EQ has to be run in windowed mode and has DirectX 9 installed. I would have liked the laptop to be able to run everything I do, but that isn't necessarily feasible with my current budget.