It's Got That New Plastic Smell.

Yeah, looking for opinions, suggestions and hopefully what I've been hunting all of today. @_@

I'm a military guy, and heading out on the 29th of this month for specialized whachamacallits. While there, we will have extremely limited access to PC's, if access at all. from there, shipped overseas more than likely. We *are* allowed to bring laptops of our own though, and the one I have...really is ancient, falling apart and hangs by a hinge. Literally.

So I've been looking for a PC that will last me a little while. I really just want three things out of it. One, an intergrated webcam/mic so I can keep in touch with friends and family more often, and more personally. So they don't worry about me being Jihad' and whatnot. xD
Second (which really isn't much) is to be able to play FFXI. But FFXi runs on just about anything, so it's fine. Or should be.
Thirdly, it has to be under $800. That's my budget. D: Not made of money, unfortunately.

So far, what I've found is http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Laptop+with+AMD+Turion%26%23153%3B+II+Ultra+Dual-Core+Mobile+Processor/9556296.p?id=1218123847586&skuId=9556296&st=Pavilion thanks to a friends suggestion. But I'd rather have the opinions of others as well, on if that is worth the money, or if anyone can suggest something decent that is cheaper, or better for about the same price.

Thanks in advance for the input. It'll be much appreciated.

I have a laptop VERY similar to that one it seems. 17.3 inch, dv7 model, etc. It's a faithful, even to a poweruser like me.

That's a pretty nice laptop for the money, and 4 GB of DDR2 is pretty nice and even expandable to 8GB, hard-drive is pretty nice too, 500GB is a nice amount of space, nice big screen, 5 hr batt life is pretty good for a laptop, the reviews seem like people love it.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+Studio+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B2+Duo+Processor+-+Midnight+Blue/9539154.p?skuId=9539154&id=1218120538238

Is a nice one,

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+VAIO+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B2+Duo+Processor+-+White/9528996.p?skuId=9528996&id=1218119763906

Is right at your price limit, the only draw back compared to others is somewhat shorter batt life and smaller screen, and the harddrive RPM is slower.

All have webcams, I like the Vaio for the DDR3, it also happens to be bluetooth enabled, the other 2 have firewire ports, but idk if people really use those lol, it is a lot smaller as well.

You can compare all 3 side by side on Bestbuy.com as well.

I have a little hp laptop that I got from best buy earlier this year, and it's been really good to me, I'd say definately worth the money.

only reason imo to have firewire is if you plan on using an external hdd, as it is significantly faster than usb, i regret getting a usb hdd when the firewire one was the same price D:

Leaving this same comment in the other laptop thread as well, but if you haven't made your purchase yet here are some very nice deals in your price range, along with some accessories on sale as well.

- http://dealzon.com/deals/lenovo-ideapad-y550-15-6-inch-led-laptop-w-windows-7
- http://dealzon.com/deals/creative-labs-live-cam-optia-af-2mp-webcam-with-autofocus-lens
- http://dealzon.com/deals/logitech-cordless-desktop-wave-pro-keyboard-and-mouse

I'd recommend going for the Discete graphics, but otherwise it's a nice buy for the price!