I had the M1730 from dell and it decided to die after a year and 4 months, right after the warranty went up. So it would cost more to fix it than to buy a new laptop. I was looking at some, and all I really want is to play Fallout 3 and CS:S smoothly. The resolution and graphics don't necessarily have to be to the max. I was looking at a Asus G51Vx-X3A, it costs about 1,250. I've bought at least 5 motherboard from them and I have never had a problem at all. Do they make decent laptops? And are there better ones for the price? I'm willing to spend from 1000 - 1500 dollars.
Asus can't make a good mainboard, screen, keyboard, or trackpad...the AD forums are filled with threads cursing freshly-dead asus hardware. However, if you have gotten lucky in the past, and you can wait for Asus to ship it back to you from the RMAs, then they are not bad for the money. You should know that WoW brings that laptop to it's knees...but only in certain areas. Also, the screen is tiny! The laptop is bigger than some 17" screen units, but is just a 15.6" screen.
For about the same money, you can get a HP with similar specs, better build quality, and a larger screen (dv7t series).
An even better option would be the dell studio 17 series...you can get an I7 and a 17.3" screen for $1100.
