This isn't quite general chat, but...

I'm a student looking for a laptop that'll run the adobe suite, play music well, and play games at least semi-well. I'm looking at the IBM T60 and the Alienware Sentia m3450, because I want something thin and light, while still hovering around $1,000. I was wondering if anyone knows how far the C2D 1.66 GHz processor would take me with photoshop and the others.

I want this thing to last me as long as possible. I'm trying not to get to $1500, and that means keeping the processing speed down somewhat. I'm also going with 1GB RAM and at least 80GB hard drive. The IBM comes with a discrete video card, but the Alienware comes with the integrated Intel GMA 950.

Someone else has recommended the ASUS A8Js, which looks great, but seems a bit too thick for me. If there are any other recommendations, I would love to hear them.

Thanks!

You could probably get away with an HP or Dell for around $750-800 with comparable stats an Alenware would sell you for $1500. Though HPs and Dells aren't necessarily the prettiest/trendiest computers and wont get much talk from others, they get the job done and actually are quality. I do all my software development on a Dell and I haven't had issues at all. Photoshop especially not. In fact, I commonly run all my development tools while running photoshop and haven't suffered a whole lot.

Do the words "alienware laptop" and "something light" belong in the same sentence?

granted I haven't checked out the new alienware machines... but the last time I did... you practicly needed a wheel barrow to carry the thing around.