Hi,

Short-term reader - first time poster. I know this question gets asked a lot but I wanted to know what your opinions are. I mostly play Poker on my laptop but I also want to get back into gaming i.e. I still haven’t played Far Cry which I bought years ago. Also my internet connection is wireless and I would like a DVD burner on it but that seems to be standard. Also I want to connect a 21” LCD monitor to it if needed.

Shall I bother getting one with Vista? I read that lots of programs are not compatible with Vista? I see that Dell gives you the option of having either.

To show how ignorant I am, apparently there is a new DirectX version coming and the newer games will be requiring graphics cards which support it? Does that mean anything to me?

Some people recommend the MacbookPro to me with dual OS so I can play my games but that seems to be quite pricey.

My budget is not too big $2.5k max but I do want a laptop that can play games without being useless in a year or so. I am not a heavy gamer at all but I do enjoy them a lot.

Thanks a lot in advance for your help.