Looking to Buy a New Laptop

[Crashe]

I've been thinking a bit lately and doing a little bit of research. I haven't delved into all the details of computing technology, but I know more than the average, everyday person. Thus, I'm coming here to the Tech Gurus to find out some more information to make an informed purchase.

What am I looking for? I'm looking for a decent, all around computer that excels in gaming. I don't need my computer to run Crysis, because I am running on a budget here. I'm looking to spend no more than $1000, but I may go a little higher if it's truly worth it. I just want to be able to run most games on a decent graphics setting. Things like Spore, Oblivion, Quake IV, Caesar 4, Battlefield games, AoE3, maybe CoD4. I don't need mind blowing graphics; I can settle for having all the graphics settings at medium. I'd also like to turn on AA for once and not have the game slow down to a sluggish single-digit FPS.

Along the same lines, I like to mess around in Photoshop and 3D editing software.. I just can't do all that I want with my current setup because it gets clunky and slow when the tasks start getting more complicated. So something that could handle that would be nice.

Here's what I messed up on with my current computer:
My mother purchased an HP dv9720us for me at the beginning of the summer. I had a different computer, but I mistakingly let her go buy it herself and she went with the cheaper model. Now I'm stuck with this computer.. and the most depressing thing about it is the graphics card- a NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M.. blah.

I was in the mindset of "bigger is better". So I went with the clunky 17" widescreen display. Ugh.. I can settle for a 15.4" now.

I also spilt Dr Pepper on my keyboard, and now it's pretty sticky. It can be cleaned, but hey... why spend $5 on some cleaning wipes when I can pay 200x that for a new computer?!

So what do you recommend? I built this one with Dell on their website:

Tuxedo Black
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB, 3MB Cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium ion SP1
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch LCD (1280x800) & 2.0 MP Camera
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
Size: 250GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
Dell Wireless 1395 802.11g Mini Card
56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
High Definition Audio 2.0
Finger Print Reader XPS M1530 (comes with it)

Any good for what I've described?

Please, any explanations and recommendations would be great!

Thanks for your time!

 

[Spit-wad]

Those specs look good, but how much does that cost?

 

[Crashe]

1300.. a bit much, but it's a general idea of what I think I'm looking for.

 

[KSoD]

For what you are looking for you would be hard pressed to find it for less than $1k.

 

[pctech2]

I think 1300 is ok for that specifications.

 

[Crashe]

I talked about it with my friend, and I think I'm just gonna keep this laptop and clean the keyboard and use it for light gaming. Then I'm gonna custom make a desktop rig with the money I would have spent on the laptop. My reasoning is that I can get a lot more bang for my buck since PC parts are a lot more customizable and varied and they cost less than equivalent mobile version. Would I be correct in this assumption?

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I talked about it with my friend, and I think I'm just gonna keep this laptop and clean the keyboard and use it for light gaming. Then I'm gonna custom make a desktop rig with the money I would have spent on the laptop. My reasoning is that I can get a lot more bang for my buck since PC parts are a lot more customizable and varied and they cost less than equivalent mobile version. Would I be correct in this assumption?

You would be correct.

 

[Spit-wad]

I talked about it with my friend, and I think I'm just gonna keep this laptop and clean the keyboard and use it for light gaming. Then I'm gonna custom make a desktop rig with the money I would have spent on the laptop. My reasoning is that I can get a lot more bang for my buck since PC parts are a lot more customizable and varied and they cost less than equivalent mobile version. Would I be correct in this assumption?

everyone on the tech-forums just got hard from that statement