1_What is your budget? $1000 - $1250
2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15" seems perfect
3_What screen resolution do you want? 1600 or 1900
4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Desktop replacement, as this will travel from NYC to PA and also back and forth to school.
5_How much battery life do you need? Will usually be plugged in, so not important.
6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? I don't generally play games, but I do some graphics programming, mostly in OpenGL.
7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) Ripping/encoding video, programming (multitreaded apps and graphics programming)
8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 320GB - 500GB seems good
9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them. Dell, HP, etc...
10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? 3-4 years.
11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD burner for now, Blu-ray later, but not important, I have a 42" HDTV with a Blu-ray player already.
12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. Any brand, I am not bias, just looking for the fastest machine with the most processor cores for the cheapest price, with good graphics capabilities.
13_What country do you live in? USA
14_Please tell us any additional information if needed. I do NOT want a dual core machine, please do not even suggest it.