Homebuilt versus HP Firebird 802

I need to replace my 5 1/2 year old laptop. I'm trying to decide between building my own system or buying a HP Firebird 802 for $999. Please give me some ideas what I could build for under $1000. I'm looking for a system that is small, quiet, stylish, and decent performance. I use my current system for a little bit of everything (Web Browsing, Hulu, A Few Games, Documents Writing, etc).

Thanks!

Hi Charliebird, VoodooDan here from HP. You’ve got a big decision on your hands, that’s for sure.

From our perspective at HP, the Firebird 802 is a great system for the needs you laid out. By using liquid cooling it’s extremely quiet (about 30 decibels at full load and 25 when idle). It’s also super small (about 19 inches high and 24 lbs).

In terms of performance, the Firebird is very capable with quad-core Intel Core 2 processors, 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, and dual Nvidia Geforce 9800S video cards with 1GB of memory.

Check out this recent review:
http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/r [...] 802-review

Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m happy to help

Cheers,
VoodooDan