Mid range laptop

[Felonius_Monk]

Hi guys

I'm in the market for a laptop. My 2.5 year old desktop PC is not only getting a bit old now, but it's starting to die on me (I think), taking 5 or 6 attempts to get it to boot up (i switch it on, nothing happens - keep hitting "reset" again and again until eventually the hard disk seems to catch and boot up - even then it's occasionally frozen once windows is open, usually when messing about with media player or something).

I might consider getting this desktop one seen to and maybe repaired, but not sure it's repairable and don't want to sink any more cash into it if it's a lost cause... any thoughts on this? Could it be something simple and easily repairable or is it worth cutting my losses in a few months and updating to a new unit? If my base PC is OK i'd maybe consider keeping it, has lots of personal documents and stuff I can't be bothered shifting round, though it has picked up its fair share of crap (trojans and crapware and the like) in its time. I could get a new TFT monitor and an updated speaker system (I use it to play most of my music too) if it's alright I guess.

So - here's my requirements for a laptop, which I'll be getting regardless:

As it might be my main computer, I want something relatively future-proofed and that I can run programmes on quickly and without fuss. I'm not a big gamer but now and again I like playing stuff like halflife 2, make play the odd thing online too, so something that can just about handle some games would be nice. I might also use it with a decent speaker system to play music, would that require a decent sound card or is it not important?

Also, I want something portable so I can use it now and again for travelling when i'm away on work or whatever, and I want something with a widescreen 15.4" or a regular 17" monitor for multitabling poker. When i move into my new house I'm going to get broadband in as one of the first jobs and then I can play poker in bed. Terrific!

For future-proofing purposes, I wanted to aim for 512 meg and a decent processor too, not necessarily mobile.

As I had my biggest single session (that I can remember) on thursday, about $1.3k, I was going to spend the proceeds of that; I didn't really want to go much above £600-650 (UK), less would be nice but I can afford it if not.

Anyhow, I'd had my eye on this.... http://www.comet.co.uk/comet/html/cache/572_263397.html
Thoughts?

Cheers, tech dudes!

Monk
xxxxx

[low dough]

That is not a bad setup for a midrange($1000-1200) laptop.
I have my doubts about the graphics chipset(128MB ATi Express) being able to play HL2 adequately, but older games should play fine on it.

If you could find one with a dedicated gaming chipset for 100 more pounds, go for it.

C'mon, pull the trigger.
You know you want it.

[Rhound50]

[Felonius_Monk]