Recommend me a laptop?

[blalien]

You'd think, what with me being a professional programmer, that I'd be able to pick out a laptop for myself. But nope, I'm completely at a loss. Here's what I need:
*Willing to spend around $1000
*15" or 17" screen, and preferably not a hulking monster
*I would like to play today's games on high settings and at least be able to play games five years from now. I have no desire to play Crysis 2.
*No freakin' MacBook
*For reasons too complicated to explain, I absolutely must buy this computer before August

Last laptop I bought for myself was an HP Pavilion about five years ago. I was generally happy with it but apparently things have changed recently. Anybody buy a computer in recent history and really like it?

Oh, and can somebody explain to me how an Intel Core Duo or Quad works? Is an Intel Core 2 Quad at 2GHz equivalent to a single core processor at 8GHz? Again, you'd think I would know this.

 

[Blackadder51]

I say get an i5 its basically an intel quad.

A toshiba a500 will do the job well.

If thats aussie dollars good luck finding one for a grand but for american you might be able to.

 

[rabidmidget]

I agree, for that price range a toshiba would probably be pretty good

 

[Spinwhiz]

I really like the ASUS that I bought at Best Buy. It's strong enough where I can play any MMO out atm and has a 17" screen. I purchased it over 2 years ago but I really haven't had any problems. *knock on wood*

I think I spent about $1300, which is a bit over your budget but at least that gives you a top end.

 

[blalien]

The a500 looks pretty nice. And it's on sale until Monday.

I tend not to buy computers from retailers. They're usually overpriced, and you don't get to customize them. Of course you don't have to wait a month either.

 

[Kelbear]

Forget about gaming on it. Gaming laptops are so wildly expensive that you'd spend less money by buying a work computer and a gaming computer.

No, a 2ghz quad core is not equivalent to an 8ghz single core. This is because only 1 "core" can work on a process. If you have 1 heavy process to run, you just want 1 powerful "core" to run it. If you have 4 medium-size processes, then 4 cores can handle all of them at once, while a single core would have to take them one at a time.

Overall, most programs do not make use of quad core, and only moderate use of dual core. Majority of the time, the additional cores sit /idle/. If you do video editing or some other multi-threading intensive activity, then the quad cores will be very useful.

The laptop industry is highly competitive, you pretty much get what you pay for. All of them are cobbled together from chinese manufactured parts. However, there are different tiers of quality that this applies to.

The difference between laptops isn't in the specs, but in the quality of construction. For example, a toughbook is more expensive, but it's way more reliable. IBM thinkpads are highly respected, and is what I'd recommend. Just pick one in your price range and go with it.(Once again, forget about gaming on the laptop because it has a horrible bang-for-buck ratio).