Gateway P-7811FX

Pros: Screen, graphics power, HD Speed, stability, 64 bit OS, Mobile Powerhouse!

Cons: Yep... it does make some heat. Comes bundled with "Crapware".

Summary: I am thoroughly impressed with this machine. Granted, it's been a few years since I put my desktop machines together but I was NOT expecting the kind of performace revelation that I got from this laptop once I got it home. The picture and graphics smoothness are absolutely amazing. It easily out performs my desktop. For you World of Warcraft fans: How about 1900x1440, with ALL video options maxed and still getting 60 frames/sec during a 25 man raid?!? Sure WoW is not as graphics intensive as some of the newer games out there but I'll tell ya... it's like playing a new game with how awesome everything looks! Load times are about 1/4 to 1/5 of what they are on my desktop (desktop is IDE Raid 0 with 2 7200 rpm drives). I had no idea that games should run this way.

The down side: It's already been mentioned... it does make some heat when gaming. I knew this going in and purchased a cooling pad along with the machine. So far this has been a "feature". I set my coffee cup next to the outflow port and it stays hot for hours! :D Other cons include the Nobodywantsme-ware included and pre-installed. This is where home schooled mouse button pushers should stay away. A complete dump and reinstall of operating system is drivers is a great recommendation but I did not find it necessary in my case. I had Best Buy fire the thing up and update all the drivers. Once I got it home, I updated the ones they missed then uninstalled all of the Crapware except for Norton 360 (which I find very useful). I think that so long as you preform this action prior to installing ANYTHING else, you won't have to do a complete reformat (at least, I didn't).

Other subtle annoyances are a lack of cabling. It's hard to gripe about this considering the cost of this laptop. I mean... for less than $1500 and considering what you already get... what does one expect? I find myself purchasing both and external SATA (for my backup drive) and Firewire cable equipped with the tiny connector on the computer end. I've also purchased a Bluetooth dongle that fits inside of one of the USB port (I love this thing by the way. Very handy to have).

About the only other thing on my current wish list is a backpack to house this monster for transport and possibly a USB hub that affixes itself to the laptop. Curretnly, I have my trackball hookes to the port on the right, the Bluetooth dongle and cooling pad plugged into the left (my kingdom for a Bluetooth version of my Trackball). I can't think of a thing at the monent though, of what else I might need to plug into a USB port. The cam is built in (and does a fantastic job btw), and the internal microphone does well for most things (my Bluetooth device does the rest).

My bottom line: I've built a boat load of machines and purchased a number of laptops over the years. With every build and every purchase there's always some aspect of the final product that elaves you thinking, "Hmmm... I thought that would be better" --or-- "I expected this to be faster" --or-- "The display isn't as sweet as I'd expected" or whatever... This is the first time that I've just been hands down impressed. It may not outperform all the computers that your buddy says he has but I'd bet a dollar it will outperform the one he REALLY has. In other words: Sure, there are some bleeding edge builds out there that are stacked but to get this kind of performace from a a self-build... I guarantee that you'll be spending considerably more.

Updated on Oct 6, 2008

Pardon my typos, A larger editing screen would be a nice addition.

Best Buy's price is 1449.99 no the 1249.99 listed here.