Some good posts ITT so far.
I used to be really good with computers but no longer am, so Doggz I'm looking for your advice please sir!

I builty my own computer maybe 18months ago, heres the spec:

AMD Phenom II X4 965
M4A88TD-M EVO Mobo (http://uk.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_...88TDM_EVOUSB3/)
8GB DDR3 memory
Nvidea GeForce GT220


Now with all this talk of SSD its got me wanting one. Reason being my HEM is pretty slow at times and making it faster and software occasionally lags when I'm 26tabling & got skype/itunes/browser/HEM/Tableninja/CustomTitleBar open and I don't want that to happen.

Sooo a couple of questions, number 1, on the site for the mobo it doesn't list SSD does this mean its unsuported? Googling if its supported brings up this site: http://www.crucial.com/store/mpartsp...BE00D2A5CA7304 which suggests to me it does support SSD? So how come that isn't listed under the storage spec on the asus site. Confused.

2.is how easy is it to transfer my OS & HEM to the new ssd when it comes?

3. Would you advise upgrading any other part of my settup?

http://informationweek.com/news/stor...tems/232200278
seems fitting.

IMO a 512GB SSD is too big for poker+win7+hem

save some $$ and get a 240GB Corsair with better specs(read faster speeds):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3067296&SID=

also check this out for a SSD better understanding:
http://www.hardware-revolution.com/b...november-2011/
http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738

For your operating system alone, 80GB is enough; as long as you're not datamining or buying HHs, 120GB will almost certainly be enough for OS + HEM. If you're playing games on there as well go for 160GB. If you want to be luxurious about it, go for more, but pricing on SSDs is the bottleneck at the moment so you should be conservative. Remember that you get what you pay for as well, so if you go with a cheap brand, you're getting less speed (whatever they report, component speed-reporting is similar to the cosmetics industry in the amount of BS they're allowed to claim) and less reliability.

chilin, SSDs transfer data using sata, so basically all motherboards will be compatible with all SSDs; bear in mind that the newest standard of SSD 'saturates' (uses full capacity of) sata 2 which has been overtaken by sata 3, but according to that spec sheet all it's sata slots are 3, so you'll be fine with even the latest generation of SSDs.

i'm not sure about how easy it is to transfer an OS - i think you'd be best off just reinstalling - transferring HEM is relatively easy, there are various walkthroughs on the HEM FAQs.

make sure you do all the clean/vacuuming that you're supposed to do with HEM databases, btw, that'll make it quicker.

like doggz already mentioned, your requirements vs price are going to be very tough. beyond resolution, supporting a 30" monitor is also going to be an issue at that price range. not sure which 30" you have, but if you need dual-link dvi that is almost always going to be a big video card upgrade for a laptop. if you have display port it opens up more options, but very few are <$1k right now.

every cheap laptop thats on the market is 1366*768 and has no ports that will support a 30" unfortunately.

The cheapest laptop I found that had a display port which i understand u can run a 30" had that ****tie resolution and was well over 1k. I was looking hard since I plan on moving and I'll have to fly. Having a laptop would be really nice, but to find one I'd want I'd have to spend close to 2x what I just bought my new pc for.

Thanks a lot for the detailed reply, that makes sense now that ssd is done via sata hence why i couldnt see it on the spec sheet! And thanks, 80gb should be enough, my HEM database is only about 35gb i dont datamine or anything like that.
Hmmm a new operating system install, guess I can do that, it'll just be a pain getting all my settings for software back the same!
Thanks though gonna order an ssd now

Going for this one:
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Pr...id-State-Drive

i've been looking for >3 months on and off, found a couple options <1k over the weekend with everything i wanted in a 15". there were some 17" deals that looked even better but i didnt want to lug one of those around (plus i love the bag i have for my current 15"!)

I actually just have a 27" monitor. I didn't even realize that made a difference. So does that give me any more options?

Also, I don't mind scrapping the monitor altogether if I can get 1080p resolution. If I get 1366*768, I want the option to hook up my 27" monitor.

what is the max resolution on the monitor? if it is 1920x1200 you will be able to run it from any laptop you can find, if its 2560x1600 you are going to end up with something higher priced.

I don't know anything specific about that SSD but from what I've heard it seems fine, people I deem 'in-the-know' have been touting it as a potential option.

Are you sure that's how big your HEM db is? My postgresql folder is 38GB, is that what you're referring to? FYI my 120GB intel (reported as 111 by my OS, standard!) has 26GB free after W7 HP 64bit and 38GB of postgresql and 5gb of HMArchive and ~ 3 months of usage, with all my media on my 1TB samsung F3 spinpoint (highly recommended btw), so you should be fine.

1920x1200.

My current laptop screen is 1440x900. Can you tell a difference between that and 1366x768? I don't want any worse resolution than this....

Then it all comes down to if you can stand 1366x768 in the laptop resolution. If you decide you can, just find the best deal on any i3 or i5 system with at least 4 gb of ram. if your 30 tables are over a few sites i would def get an i5 and more ram if possible, but ram is generally a cheap upgrade, so dont overspend for that. 7200 speed hard drive will help also. A good idea would be looking through that cth thread for past recommendations, as I'm fairly sure a few people have bought similar set ups recently.

That was the cheapest deal i could find after a quick check of amazon/ebuyer & couple other sites so decided to go for it.
Thats how big my Postgres folder is which the database is in. Got a 1TB sata2 hd connected i currently have all my media & windows etc on I'll just use that for media in the future
Excited to have a faster settup, plus starting a new windows is always great without all the random clutter you've built up.

Where'd you look? I'm willing to spend a 1kish if I could get a laptop that can run a 30" even if I can't get an ssd.

ended up buying dell, they had a number of options for 1920x1080 + mini display port for <1k, but the black friday/cyber monday sales might be over. I saw one other option on slickdeals, but it was sold out super fast.

i'm sure that keeping an eye on dell's coupons will net you something <1k again soon though.

I notice that ppl are having problems w/a min displayport to dua link dvi adapters. my dell 3007 only has a dual link dvi connection. I priced out an xps 17 at 899.99 that pretty much has everything I want except it has a hdd when I'd like a ssd. The ssd upgrade is $500 :0

I concur

just use the SSD for win/hem/some nice games, F3 for anything else ,job done

Ya that is a downer but like most serious poker players I will be connecting another monitor for my tables so the display won't be a downfall.. Plus with that good of a rig you have to give a little somewhere.. I found probably 3 laptops with i7 that cheap and that one had the best stats by far (including the one you linked ITT).

Alright here is the laptop I am considering buying. Def more high end than I had in mind but it looks like sick value. Please confirm:

XPS 17 XPS 17
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64-Bit, English
Processor 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.10 GHz
Memory 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard - English
LCD 17.3" FHD (1080p) with 2.0MP HD Webcam
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus
Hard Drive 1.0TB 500GB 7.2k HDD x 2
Color Elemental Silver Aluminum
Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Sound JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
Wireless Plus Bluetooth Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
Battery 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Hardware Support Services 1 Year Basic Support
Peace of Mind DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Mobile Broadband No Mobile Broad Band Selected

Total: $930. Also probably gunna throw in a Dell backpack for $80 on top.

$150 off coupon expires tomorrow, so I will probably pull the trigger today unless someone convinces me not to.

I am such a sucker for anything that says "Initially $2k, recently reduced to $899!" such a good marketing tactic, everything should be sold like that

They have laws against making stuff up in those regards - i.e. claiming it was originally priced at $250k, but now it's $500, whooo! Watch sellers are the worst at that, but w/e. I'm a massive sucker for it in supermarkets, I actively feel really happy with myself when I buy stuff that's on offer and see on the receipt at the end that I'm saving £x, but I'm starting to examine the offers themselves and see that I'm being pretty damn irrational about it. Good sales indeed, but clearly the laws don't go far enough if even non-idiots like me fall for it.

Anyway. I would not go with online backup or any AV software if you have to pay for it. Microsoft office is sorta w/e, you should consider going with open-office, which is freeware and better. Unless the lappy doesn't actually come with speakers, I wouldn't bother buying the speakers you've picked, don't know anything about them but can't imagine they're great, and you might consider getting an actual sound system, but I can see that you might just want that basic option. Can't comment on the GPU nor the value as prices are massively different here in the UK but XPS are well-regarded.

The only thing I paid extra for was the backlit keyboard for $40. Everything else like the online backup and speakers came with the base price.

yea, ssd upgrades on laptops are obscenely priced still :-/

i've also heard the issues with those adapters, but luckily i have a 3008, so i'm going mini-dp to dp hopefully that actually works

cabrera - looks like a really solid deal, nice find.

Just buy your own ssd for a laptop, but make sure it's 2.5" or smaller. i think with mbps you can remove the dvd and put in a secondary hdd, but you can't with windows.