On Thu, 17 Mar 2011, Woogie wrote: > Component mismatch. A quad-core processor without a Solid State Disk > is a waste (in the context of an interactive desktop) in my opinion. > The nigh-miraculous decreases in loading times from an SSD do more > for the everyday usability of a PC than a beefy video card, extra > CPU cores or a boatload of RAM. I would strongly advise looking at a > machine with a less beefy video card, and use the cost savings to > purchase and install an SSD as an upgrade. Unless, of course, you > just want to pony up the ~$200 to upgrade that monster as it is and > run screaming through your typical workday. just to explain, i've been wanting to upgrade my current laptop for a while, given the crunching i use it for like compiling kernels. i pop by tigerdirect every so often and see what's there, and i have a wish list i check off mentally every time: * i7 cpu * high-res display (at least 1600x900, ideally 1920x1080) * 7200 rpm drive, minimum 500GB (if not SSD) * HDMI output * at least one USB 3.0 port * at least 4GB DDR3 RAM there might be a few others i'm forgetting but, typically, every system i look at is missing at least one of those features and, even then, the price is at least $1500. this is the first time i've seen a system that has *everything* i'm after and, bonus, it's a 1920x1080 in a 15.6" display, which suits me just fine. i don't care about screen size, i care about pixels so having a full HD display fit in a smaller-than-normal screen is ideal. if it comes to it, i can always drop in that SSD but, other than that, i haven't seen anything compare to this. rday