Expert: Bobbert - 10/26/2011

Question
I would like to buy a G74SX-RH71 ?? Currently comes with 750 gb hard drive.  I'd like 1 TB.

I'd like:
17.3" screen
1920 x 1080 HD
8 MB Ram
Best rated audio system

The system above can be had for about $12-$1400

I am not a gamer but want speed, capacity, video movies, photos, music

Can the above be built with an up to date i5 dual core processor?
I know it will be slower than an i7, but could save much money if i could use an i5.

ASUS has similar specs.

What would you advise?  I want a gaming laptop in a businessman's suit.

Answer
I'm going to assume you meant "8 GB of RAM" (8MB was top of the line in the 1980s). I'm very skeptical of this requirement for modern systems (for various technical reasons, 8GB of memory makes no sense for normal users and is generally only applicable in the DCC and engineering fields). The rest of the components are somewhat haphazardly assigned as well - 1920x1080 refers to the physical resolution of the display; having the "HD" tag means nothing with respect to performance or features (its marketing speak). The screen size requirement is where I'd like to take pause:

At the 16" or larger range, you're really looking at what is known as a DTR (Desktop-Replacement), these kinds of systems are not portable so much as they are transportable; they have very short battery life, weigh quite a bit, and are generally not well suited to mobile use (for example riding on a train). They rely on being plugged into the wall, based on their high power demands. Given the fairly sedentary nature of these systems, the best option is to buy an actual desktop computer (which will offer better performance for less money), and if a mobile computing solution is required, purchase something better suited for that application (a true laptop, netbook, tablet, or perhaps even a smartphone or other web-enabled device would be suitable).

You can entirely customize systems from Dell, HP, Alienware, and similar, and I'm certain you can find what you'd like through their online stores. However, before we get ahead of ourselves, what are you actual requirements of this system? That is, what is prompting the spec-out requirements you've listed? Is this for use in school? Work? For play? What kinds of applications are you running?

The list "video movies, photos, and music" is very easily handled by essentially any computer on the market - you do not need to spend anything approaching $1400 to satisfy those tasks. The "capacity" requirement is somewhat variable; how much data do you actually need to store? The "speed" requirement is equally variable - define that requirement more clearly (in other words, you may be trying to solve one problem by acting upon an unrelated variable - wasting money in the process).

-bob