advice on laptop

im starting college soon and i want a goood laptop, but i am not paying 2500 bucks ...
i want something that can handle movies as well as games...i want lots o games.

anyhoot, im curious about the new santa rosa platform that just came out....hp laptops are using them. ...would the jump from 667mhz to 800 mhz make much of a difference? im asking this because the current and only choice for hp laptops is the onboard chip, x3100. is it even any good?...i definitley want to get a discrete video card.

what do you all think?
should i stick to dell laptops and get a nice screen as well as that x1400 or go with the hp santa rosa and stick to the x3100...or get a cheap half assed alienware with a 7600gs i believe

lol i don't go round looking at laptops a lot but for vids and games you want a mainly ram and graphics and alien ware rock

whats up with the x3100, is it any good?

i have no idea mate you should look on google for reviews on the laptops you listed and see which one is the best

Laptops don't lend themselves to gaming. The heat generated by the hardware that is necessary to play modern games is too much for your average laptop. If you expect to do any gaming, get an Alienware. If you don't have $100,000 for one, drop the notion of gaming.

You can get some pretty decent laptops for fair prices lately, but keep in mind you're going to have all of the manufacturers crap loaded on it bogging it down so you might want to have a clean OEM disc handy when you buy it.