New Laptop/SC2

I wouldn't recommend AMD processors. More often than not they're (a lot) less reliable than Intel processors from my experience. Same thing with the graphics card. If you could, try to get one with Intel processors and Nvidia graphics cards. The rest looks good though. You might want to get XP instead of Vista if you're going to be gaming a lot. VIsta's still a little iffy when it comes to gaming, but with 3GB RAM it's probably not going to matter too much.

 

Thanks for the reply.
Your thoughts made it click for me that this one (below) is much better. Better processor, graphics card, etc....for $100 more it isn't a bit deal:

Brand Acer
Series Aspire
Model AS5920-6574
Part# LX.AKS0X.114
General
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
CPU Type Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1G
Screen 15.4" WXGA
Memory Size 3GB DDR2
Hard Disk 250GB
Optical Drive DVD Super Multi
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
Video Memory 512MB
Communication Modem, Gigabit LAN and WLAN
Card slot 1 x ExpressCard/54 slot
Dimensions 14.3" x 10.6" x 1.2-1.7"
Weight 6.6 lbs.
CPU
CPU Type Intel Core 2 Duo
CPU Speed T8100(2.10GHz)
CPU FSB 800MHz
CPU L2 Cache 3MB
Chipset
Chipset Intel PM965
Display
Screen Size 15.4"
Wide Screen Support Yes
LCD Features Acer CrystalBrite Technology
Display Type Wide XGA
Resolution 1280 x 800
Operating Systems
Operating System Windows Vista Home Premium
Graphics
GPU/VPU NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
Video Memory up to 1280 MB of TurboCache (512 MB of dedicated GDDR2 VRAM, up to 768 MB of shared system memory)
Graphic Type Dedicated Card
Hard Drive
HDD 250GB
HD RPM 5400rpm
HD Interface SATA
Memory
Memory Slots 2 x DIMM
Memory Speed DDR2 667
Memory 3GB
Optical Drive
Optical Drive Type DVD Super Multi
Optical Drive Interface Integrated
Communications
Modem V.92 56K
LAN 10/100/1000Mbps
WLAN 802.11a/b/g/draft N
Ports
Card Slot 1 x ExpressCard/54 slot
USB 4
IEEE 1394 1
Video Port 1 x VGA, 1 x S-Video TV-out, 1 x HDMI
Other port 1 x CIR (consumer infrared)
Audio Ports Headphones/speakers/line-out with SPDIF support
Microphone-in
Line-in