PC laptop suggestions or advice

[ThunderFaceWizardHead]

I'm planning on buying a laptop before the years out and would welcome any suggestions on certain models or advice on things to look for and avoid. It will be used primarily for audio with occasional web and movie watching use. I don't see myself ever needing to record more than 8 tracks simultaneously, and I still do most of my tracking on my 388. I'll be using it more for soft synths, samplers, and mixing down. I was trying to keep it under $1000, so I'll have more left over for an interface and external drive. So what do you think? Dell? HP? Toshiba? Core Duo 2? AMDx2? 1gig or 2?

[hammertime]

Avoid Windows Media Center like the plague. It was preinstalled on my HP, and there was a bunch of bundled crap that you couldn't take off. I couldn't even load up my music apps -- Wavelab, Sonar. I got an OEM copy of XP home and it worked fine. I've have a Toshiba (laptop), an HP Desktop, and a Dell desktop from a few years ago. Both the HP, and the Toshiba had bundled crap in the software, whereas Dell comes preinstalled with junk, but gives you a blank copy of Windows to load up yourself. I'd look for one with a Dual core cpu, a intel chipset (I think all centrino's are intel chipsets), a non-integrated display adapter (video card -- if it's "integrated," that means it's sharing the RAM with your computer; If it's separate, it has it's own RAM, which is much cooler for audio, or video for that matter); it should have at least a 5400 rpm drive, and 7200 preferably; I think they all come with firewire, USB 2.0, but I think PCM-Cia (cardbus ) is less common, so it's something you might want to check. I'd probably go with XP professional, because they're less likely to bundle a bunch of shit if they think you're not a typical knucklehead consumer. I'd probably take a look at Dells website, and go from there.

[syrupcore]

If you can, figure out what software you're going to be using and then check that software's support forum to see if there are any reccomendations/warnings.

Will

[Roboburger]

I bought a Dell new for abut 500 bucks and love it. When the CD-RW drive shit the bed because the guy borrowing it put the unit into standby while buring a disk, Dell overnighted me a new CD-RW drive and i swapped it out myself. no cost.

Then, when the unit was dropped and the firewire that was plugged into it wrenched the Firewire socket and broke it, Warranty covered it and they installed a brand new motherboard at no cost. it did have to get sent back, but they picked up that cost.

It has been a flawless operator with a Audiofire8 and Sony Vegas.

And unistall and avoid Windows Media Center like the plague.

[inverseroom]

My HP Pavilion worked pretty well for audio, until it started getting filled up with the rest of my life. Then I bought a dual core lappy from ADC:

www.adcproaudio.com

And so far so good, both live and in the studio.

[ThunderFaceWizardHead]

Thanks for all the advice. I've been looking around, and have found all sorts of options in my price range, but pretty much all come with Media Center as the OS. I've got a copy of XP Pro I can install, I was just wondering what my chances are of encountering issues when doing this? I know that with at least one gateway model I was looking at, people were having lots of trouble installing XP Pro.