Have seen too many threads in the technical area dedicated to ask if your pc will run ETW, have decided to create this thread to answer those questions

Warning! If you want to buy a laptop, you might want to wait for the revamp in the line up for almost every major manufacturer! They should be presented at the CES (occurring in 01/10/10)

-The CPU

This is the heart of your PC, he commands! And as such we have to choose a good one.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
*If you're buying a laptop don't buy in any case a AMD chipset! if you're buying a desktop choose at will

What to choose'

In pc we always try for a one size fits all, but most of you know that doesn't come anywhere near true, since we have such a huge numbers of pcs and as such we have to have some knowledge for us to grab the one we want it.

The letter/type of chip (order of the list is higher to lower) :
- i7= holy mother! best processor you can get in laptops, *Strengths: Great performance Weakness: not the most power conscious chip.
- Q= means that it's a quad core *Strengths: Great processing power Weakness: Gulp a lot of power
- T= means a normal core duo *Strengths: Good Performance Weakness: Could be more power conscious
- P= means a smaller voltage core duo *Strengths: Good performance, sips little power Weakness: not as powerful as the the T line
- SL/SP/ULV= means ultra low voltage processors *Strengths: People on the go that need more processing power that your netbook can give Weakness: Has a low processing power compared to the others, although it gives double the performance of an Atom




-Graphics card

Always buy a pc with DEDICATED graphics, it means a chip dedicated only to do the graphics work, there are two providers of this thing, ATI and NVIDIA. Intel graphics (GMA 4500hd, GMA X3100, GMA 965, or lower are INTEGRATED, FOR PLAYING ANYTHING ELSE THAN YOUTUBE THEY'RE CRAP)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
Power of the graphics:

As of any products we have series, versions, etc.. here are some of they (order newer to older):

Nvidia G 200 = newest of the bunch
ATI HD 4000 = newest of the bunch
Nvidia G 100 = rebranding of the 9000 series
Nvidia 9000 = the most common series of Nvidia
Nvidia 8000 = old series don't buy at all costs
ATI HD 3000 = old series don't buy at all costs

Graphics card have a lot of digits/letters! We can get confused, and as such I have thought a way that might minimize the distress caused by that huge amount of choices.

1- Let's pay attention to the power of the card!
2- Let's see what resolution that your monitor have (most notebooks come with a 1280x1024, 1366x768, 1680x1050,1920x1080).

take a look at this picture (click to expand)


* Those are the most common graphics are out there, if you don't find it here, don't worry use the common sense, the higher the number the better, and you can also check at :

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Compari...rds.130.0.html

* in the Nvidia world there's lots of flavors, and they are showed to us in letters, and now they're here with a ranking order, the usual higher to lower:
GTX > GTS > GT > GS

So basically here if you want to play empire I would recommend something higher than the HD 4330 from ATI, you can play but with the lowest settings, something along the lines of the HD 4650 should do you fine playing on medium or high even, above that you get great performance


-Memmory

It's the courier that your pc uses to fetch some data at high speeds.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
The higher the merrier, as of now most of the notebooks are comming with 2gb, 3gb, 4gb, go for the higher way 4gb, but remember to look at OS (operational system) that you're using!

32-bit = use only 3gb even if you have more
64-bit = use up to 128gb

So, when buying your pc it will probably come with windows, choose, please, the 64-bit version of it, example: windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Future proof your system!

You can upgrade your memory, it's easy, but remember 4g for now is the best for the price.


-Hard Drive

He remembers all those movies and photos that you put in your pc!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
The most common ones are the 320gb or the 250gb go for the higher number there are available up to 640gb.
The speed of the hd is defined by the size of it and the rpm, the higher the better, altough it will consume more power, common speeds 5400rpm and 7200rpm

SSDs:

They're the most novelty of the market, they work like the thumb drive that you and I commonly use, they don't have moveable parts and they're FAST AND EXPENSIVE! if you have the money go get one if not do as I do, wait....


Other important Stuff!

Here are some other important stuff that are very worth mentioning!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

-Screen

The higher the resolution the better, 1366X768 is becoming common, for me it's great some people would go all the way HD in here, but for some people like me that don't have a 20/20 vision in my case more of a 0/0 the "lower the better". Remember 1366X768 is 16:9 format, you have seen this format in your TV, but the most usual format for now for pcs is 16:10, which is falling down the guts...

There are some types there, the LCD, the LED, the RGB-LED!??! Simply put the RGB-LED are the best, now they are only available at dell, seconded by the LED.

Matte screen or glossy? personal taste, I do prefer matte.

-The Chassis

The notebook is something that you carry around, or should, and so always verify if it is rugged enough for you, if it isn't most chances are that you end up breaking the plastic of some part of it.

-The weight

Go for the one that seens light, seriously go for that one, notebooks are portable things, and altough you think yourself to have some strength, you will add some 2,5kg to 5kg to your backpack which already, if your like me its filled with things, so we are travelling light let's hunt some orcs!


-Notebooks that I don't recommend

HP Pavillion line - they're expensive (in my country Brazil), they have serious heat issues, and don't pack power.
Dell Inspiron line - they're cheap and that's it, your not going to game anything in here

Here are some good machines at reasonable prices:

16" to 18"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114706
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834101203
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220622
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114785
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834117947

15"to 14"
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220605
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834146613
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220634
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834117908

If I were you I would look at some MSI notebook specially the gt640 which is portable and has some good guts

Not advertising but from this list I would personally go for the lenovo, good graphics chip, and processor, if the company is not know to you, they bought the pc part of IBM, there's quality and price in there

=Online Stores per Country=

I want to add a new section to both guides so people can make more conscious choices and get better prices, along as well better machines.
This is a part that is going to be constantly update since I'm asking the contribution of all of you people out there!
This section don't have any intention to advertise, just to make you make better choices, to handle better your precious hard worked money! Here we have some, they're going to be divided by country so take a look around!

-US-

Retailers

www.newegg.com
www.tigerdirect.com
www.zipzoomfly.com
www.microcenter.com

Manufacturers

http://www.falcon-nw.com/
http://www.ibuypower.com/lobby.aspx
www.cyberpowerpc.com

-UK-

http://www.ebuyer.com/

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/produc...hp?groupid=701

http://www.scan.co.uk/