New laptop

hello all.

Ill be going to college next year and Im planning to spend my christmas money on a laptop. I have always used a desktop and I've been out of the buying market for a few years so I really don't know what to get, what to look for or even, where to look. Ill tell you a little about myself and whit I know I need and hopefull you guys will be able to help me:

-Wi-Fi
-Something I can run XP on. preferably comes with it installed... no mac OS.
-long battery life would be great
-I don't need a big screen
-no need for a large HDD I will have an external one most of the time.
-capable of running GW and other recent(ish) games at at least mid-level settings
-optical drive
-nothing huge.


Thank you. any help is appreciated.
If i can answer any more questions just ask

Additions:
-price range is probably somewhere around $400-$700
-Is vista that big of a problem on a laptop? i guess you don't need to find drivers.

just be sure to get something with a dedicated graphics card... anything that says "Intel" is crap for 3d applications (ie gaming) - that's the most important thing. Also if you want XP preinstalled then you will need to be willing to shop around for it.

What is your budget? with a price range to work with, I'm sure that someone here can send a few links your way.

ill say get a Dell laptop-XPS or something around that. I could pick one out if i had a budget number.

bumpbumpbump

could really use some help on this

you will be fortunate to get anythign with a dedicated graphics card in that price range...

If you can't post anything helpful please refrain from posting anything at all.

The cheapest Dell that comes with dedicated graphics (15,4" screen) is around 850$


400-700$ price-range is low for what you're expecting, since most recentish games will run pretty shabby on Intel onboard graphics. You don't have to act all insulted when people are pointing that out.

You could check out some Acer Aspire models. Never been a fan of those, but they are cheap ...

what I posted was helpful.... I can't give you any links at that price range, unless you want to buy a used computer. I priced the type of laptop that you are referring to before Christmas and the cheapest with dedicated graphics and half way decent other specs was still over $800, even on sale. Such is the market.

*to show that I'm a nice guy here's the cheapest lappy with dedicated graphics at newegg.... personally I don't care for Acer, but they aren't all bad either.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115506