Well it's tax time again and I like to spoil myself with something nice once a year. This year I'm looking to buy a new laptop since I've never owned one of my own. Not really sure where to look. I don't need the top of the line but would like to get the best for my money. I'll be looking at about the $700-$800 price range. I'd like something i can play and burn dvds on with a good size screen. Wireless internet is a must also. I guess I'm just looking for some advice. I'm kind of a fan of AMD but wouldn't mind going with Intel if the price was right. Thanks a lot. 

I was thinking about doing the same thing.
What about this one?:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147359

It has Vista Home Premium and the DVD burner, a 120GB HD and 1 GB memory.

I would have to disagree with you there,  in performance benchmarks my Turion64 beats the Pentium Ms

Ive benched mine at places like PCpitstop and well what do you know mines rated in the top 10 percent of equally configured hardware as mine.

Acers are really good brands, you can get a decent one for around 700

That is true.. the newer AMDs would out perform a Pentium M..  However, at the same time their battery management is still not as advanced as Intel's.  However,  just about no manufactures are offering Pentium Ms any more.. They have all moved to the newer core platform.  If you take a look at the performance of an Turion64 X2, AMDs top offering, vs the Core Duo..  The Core Duo smokes it every single time.. The main reason..  AMD has never been a mobile chip maker..  AMD does make nice processors for the mobile environment..  But you will get better battery life from and Intel and better performance when you are plugged in.

So... I would recommend a Dell or HP Pavilion dv2000t series... A bunch of my buddies are moving off their Dell, which are 3 years old now, and moving to the Pavilions..  I dont know why.. but that is what they are doing and the are actually pretty nice computers..

I get around 3 1/2 hours on my hp dv8000 AMD

http://www.gateway.com/systems/series/529498113.php

Check it out, i found one for 799 at Gateway.  even comes with Vista Premium and your 17" that you wanted.


Gateway® NX860S Gateway® NX860X Gateway® NX860XL
· Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2060
(1.60GHz, 533MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache)
· Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium (32-bit)
· 1024MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-512MB modules)
· 60GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
· 17.0" WXGA TFT Active Matrix (1440 x 900 max. resolution)
· 24x/10x/24x CD-RW / 8x DVD Combo Drive
· Integrated Intel® 3945 802.11a/b/g wireless networking


Doesnt come with a DVD burner i think you will come out better getting a 14.1 or 15.4 inch screen It will be alot cheaper

damn that is a pretty decent deal..

sweet, i bet that can run all the newest apps