New lappy for a sailorboy!!

[Oresa]

A bit of tech advice required, i'm afraid. I'm joining the merchant navy, moving down to Glasgow to start the college course in January, and my parents have offered to get me a laptop as a sort of joint 21st birthday and christmas present. (Bday 1 week before xmas).
If i was just getting a new desktop then i'd just build it, but when it comes to laptops and all those weird and wonderful mobile chips, i'm a little lost.
Anyways, they've asked me to pick out two or three different options, and then they'll choose the final one. Thing is, i want this system to do a bit more than just writing the odd essay. Ideally, i want to be able to indulge in a bit of CS:S and the like; i'm looking for something as close as i can get to a desktop, but without buying a £2500 alienware.

Three options i've come across so far that seem to be viable:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx...1105,41554&v=1
http://www.rockdirect.com/rockshop/s...mprcd=QT64-T34
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...pecstab#tabtop

Let me know what you think about those three, or if you have any alternatives in mind, i'd really appreciate it. I don't really want to stray too far over the £1055 price tag of that rock laptop, after all, i'm spending someone else's money here.

Thanks

[darrensen]

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...DUCT&KEY=53434

Little bit over your budget but it's a good bit of kit!

Or this one is well under your budget but is also very good

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...DUCT&KEY=54607

Or

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default...DUCT&KEY=53979

and no i dont work for MESH but they have some good deals on lappys!

[Oresa]

Thanks for those. My one concern would be the fact that all of them, even the first one, which mesh class as a 'performance system', ship with 4200rpm HDs. Would this have a significant effect on performance at all?? From where i'm sitting right now, it seems like even going for a 60gig 5400 would be better than an 80gig 4200. Obviously, a pair of 100gig 7200s would be rather sweet, but a little outside my price-range.

[Twigman]

My one concern would be that they are made by mesh.
Stay away.
Tbh as much as people complain, dell do make some good value laptops.
Maybe check out what Acer have to offer as well?

[specofdust]

You don't really need dual 7200's to be honest, 5200's would do ok, and lets face it, its a laptop, the extra heat from 7200's isn't a desirable thing.