Need help choosing a laptop

[CleanChucks]

Would love to get some help from you guys if you don't mind.

I play online poker for a living and am looking to get a laptop for mobility reasons. The cheaper the better, but I need it to perform well. I'll be using it for the poker as well as browsing and minor media.

To give you an idea of what I run while playing:



The main program I use is a tracker (holdemmanager.net) which records my winnings and losses as well as a ton of other stuff. It runs on a postgres database which admittedly I know nothing about, but I think it's a little cpu intensive?

I'm running an intel e6600 C2D with 2G of ram and a solid video card and everything runs near flawlessly. So basically I'm wondering how low I can go before I start risking performance for cost, any help would be appreciated.

[glc]

I'm thinking a basic dual core would be fine, what you need is a ton of ram - at least 2gb. If you look at that pic, your CPU usage is essentially zero but those processes are eating ram. Go to the Dell small business site and look at the cheaper Vostros. I'd recommend one with the XP downgrade.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...~vostronb_1510

Basic config with the XP downgrade is $738. That's a T5670 dual core and 2gb ram, DVD burner and a 250gb hard drive, 802.11g wireless. You can downgrade to a DVD/CDRW combo and a smaller hard drive to cut that price down.

[CleanChucks]

Wow, that's dirt cheap, way less than I expected. Thanks glc.

One issue I forgot to mention is resolution. I could probably deal with 1280x600 or whatever that was, but I'd much prefer 1900x1200 or at least something close to it. I'm not sure if that's a huge price uppage or not...

[glc]

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...~vostronb_1710

Vostro 1710 with the same specs and the optional hi-res screen: $1058