[brownsfan019]

I'm not the techie here by any means, but what I've learned w/ computers:

1) Get the max ram you can put in the machine (might be better off doing this yourself AFTER you purchase the laptop and get the good stuff).

2) Make sure the video card is top notch (this could be what the above post is referring to).

I underestimated the importance of the video card in a laptop that I bought for casual use. It has more RAM and better processor than my trading laptop, but I would never want to trade off of it as the trading platforms can get the bottleneck where things freeze or take longer to update b/c so much is going over the video card at once.

I would actually suggest making one online at HP or somewhere and that way you can ensure you get what you want inside the machine. My trading laptop is a compaq and I just custom built it online. Very easy and I know it has good stuff inside.