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I will not be playing the newest games with it and that's fine.  I usually play games that are a few years old (games like LOTR:BFME 1 & 2, NWN, City Of Heroes, Portal (would love to get Portal 2 after I get my laptop), etc.)  I don't mind if the games aren't on the top uber settings

For the most part, the games I will be playing are:

City Of Heroes
Lord Of The Rings: Battle For Middle Earth (mostly 1 but sometimes 2)
Heroes Of Might And Magic 5 (might get six if my laptop can handle it).
NWN 2 (won't miss it that much if I can't play it)
The Star Wars first person shooter (can't remember the name)
Minesweeper

I will probably never play Elder Scroll (or the latest top graphics game out there)

OK, I was just looking back at this stuff from early in the thread, and I think I'm convinced that your best bet is to buy the Lenovo that we've been talking about.  I really think it will meet all the needs that you are talking about here.  I also think that it will save you a TON of money, and that by the time games have advanced to the point that you won't be able to really play them anymore (ie. 5 yrs) that you'll be able to buy a new laptop at that point for another $800 which will be way better than the Asus you are looking at now.  Another thing to think about is how bad it will be if one of your 3 kids breaks the thing while you're playing games around them in the living room

for some reason Asus laptops seem to have a relatively high rate of USB port failure.

Speaking of Asus, here's another reason to go with the Lenovo

i'm still EXTREMELY satisfied with it, and mine was one of the lower end gaming models.

The fact that you're "extremely satisfied" with one of the lower end gaming models reinforces the idea that I think he will be too.  I still think the Lenovo is the way to go.

I have to vouch for lp here, he really does know what he's talking about.

It really isn't almost as good but that's not the point. Now I don't evaluate people's priorities very often but it seems to me if someone is looking to drop 2k on something it's a fairly high priority to them....