Looking at investing in one soon but really don't know too much about them or how much I'd need to spend. Would be mainly for gaming and just general mucking around on.
How does this one sound...
HP Pavillion DV6-2016AX Laptop. AMD Athlon ll Dual Core 2.1GHz, 4 GB RAM, 320 GB HDD, DVD Burner 1GB Graphics, 15.6" LED Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium.
That should be more than enough for what youve said you want it for, you could probaly do everything you mentioned and plenty more with a lot less than that.
The spec on my laptop is a lot less but handles everything i want.
Just make sure it has a 15 pin vga port (it will with that spec) so you can hook an extra monitor if needs be.
That looks vn, Bill. Few extras than the one I'm looking at,, 1000GB HDD, Blu-ray ROM/DVD burner combo,Blutooth, 17.3" screen and a couple other things and $1069 extra(if that's the one).