Buying a New Laptop

[phoenixstar]

My company is in the process of transferring me across the country so I figured that this would be a good time to get rid of my 5 year old PC and get a laptop. I want a laptop that will perform at least as well as my current PC for both general use and gaming.
My current PC is a:
AMD Barton 2500 (O/C to 3200)
1.5 gig of pc3200 ram
ATI Radeon 9800 pro
it has XP and dual boots Ubuntu

I hope that you all can help me because when I built the above computer processors were measured in easy to read numbers and ATI cards were pretty linear, I am losing touch with what all the things mean now.

The laptop will primarily be in my house, but it is nice to be able to take a computer to bed, the couch or a coffee shop.

I am looking to spend about 600-800 dollars. I do not need a tiny one, but I do not want a huge one either. Also I would like fast wireless so that I can share internet with an xbox 360. Any ideas that you have are appreciated.

Here is one that I am looking at:
Costco - $699.99 after $100 OFF HP dv7-1243cl AMD Turion X2 RM-72 2.10GHz ATI Radeon HD3200


p.s. The range that I gave is a rough estimate. I can go up to 800 to 1000 if it will get me a lot more bang for my buck.

 

[Jorsoft]

Newegg.com - TOSHIBA Satellite A305D-S6914 NoteBook AMD Turion X2 Ultra ZM-82(2.20GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 3GB Memory DDR2 800 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650 - Laptops / Notebooks

I would recommend this if you are trying to do some gaming on it. It had a pretty good video card for a notebook and you'll get good performance for the price. It won't be on sale forever, though, these seem to have a habit of going back up in price quickly.

 

[snowsurfer]

You could also look into the Dell XPS 1530 series, they might be a bit out of your budget, but well worth it. Oh, and haggle with the rep on the phone, you can always get some further discounts and / or goodies with Dell. At least I always do.