Buying a New Laptop - Not Aware of Latest Hardware

I am currently in the process of being transferred by my company across the country. I built my last desktop from parts and have loved it for the last 5 years. I would like to have a laptop that is at least as capable as it is for general use as well as gaming. I am open to either XP or Vista. I will also probably dual-boot Ubuntu.
Here is what I currently have:
AMD Barton 2500 (OCed to 3200)
1.5 gig of pc3200 ram
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
5200 rpm hard drive

1_What is your budget? 650-850

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? No real preference. I am not looking for a full desktop replacement, but I do not need a tablet PC either. Standard size.

3_What screen resolution do you want? Whatever is best for gaming.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Probably more on the desktop replacement side.

5_How much battery life do you need? 4-6 hours would be fine, but a more important thing for me is that the battery does not degrade unusually quickly.

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)?

Warcraft III - High
Oblivion / Fallout - at least medium




7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.) I want to be able to surf the web, watch movies and dual boot Ubuntu(I like playing with Linux even though I do my main computing on Windows)

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? at least 200gb, preferable more than 300gb

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them. I am not married to any site, but I was considering this at Costco. I have used Newegg before too and have a good opinion of them.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?

I want it to be able to surf the web and do light gaming for 3-4 years, I will probably buy a beefier desktop in 1-2 years.


11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.

I would like a warranty of some form. Also I would like a decent wireless speed, I believe this means I need "n". I may also use the laptop to do internet sharing with my 360.

This may be more applicable for Desktop pc's, but I am more interested in maximizing my performance per dollar than in just maximizing my performance. If my price range does not achieve that and I would be substantially better off in say the 850-1000 range then I am open to looking at those too.


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.

I do not have any real preference on brands. I loved the performance per unit of price that I had with my old AMD chip, but I understand that things have changed. I do not plan on overclocking the laptop.


13_What country do you live in?
USA. Moving from Cali to Boston, MA if that matters.