Keys for a good laptop:
- Check the resolution for the screen, a lot skimp out and make it 1366x768. You'll probably want something with at least (something)x900 at least, but it can depend on the actual screen size you get.
- Dedicated graphics card is a must for any video work, gaming, and/or media center
- Obviously you'll want an HDMI output for an HTPC (most come with it now adays)
- USB 3.0 will make your life much easier (I second other people's suggestion of using external hard drives or an NAS to store all your stuff)
- SSD for sure if you want good boot speeds. There's no issues (that I'm aware of) with maintenance, but for most SSD's, they are limited to something like 10million writes per memory block before they "wear out" so they'll last probably 3-5 years and then need to be replaced
- XBMC is by far your best software if doing any HTPC stuff
- If you go the route of an HTPC, get a nice router that has USB ports built in so you can access your content from anywhere on the network (or just get a nice NAS that allows local and remote access!)
- Minimum of 4GB of RAM, preferably 6 or 8
- If Intel, get an i5 processor minimum, i7 if you want great experience and make sure they're the newest generation (usually have 4-digit numbers instead of the older 3-digit ones), for AMD, try to get a quad-core Phenom or something similar, I'd stay away from the FX- or A- series (all-in-one chips)
Some suggested laptops:
12" range (netbook): ASUS 1215B
15.4" range: There's WAAY too many to name since this is the standard size
17" range: Not sure why people want these, but go with a good SCREEN manufacturer since you'll be staring at a huge one
Generic brand overiew:
- ASUS (highly recommend)
- Dell (hit or miss)
- HP (geared towards families and media consumption)
- Toshiba (rugged, built for business)
- Acer (low end, but slowly getting better, cheap)
- Samsung (look great, but have heard of a lot of reliability issues, but they are fairly new to the PC market)
- Vizio (coming in the next few weeks actually, low-priced Ultrabooks is the market they're trying to hit, kinda of like MacBook clones, might be worth the wait)
- Lenovo (formerly IBM, great business-oriented laptops)
- Sony (media-oriented and usually a little overpriced)
- MSI (fairly cheap but decent quality, I actually have one myself, the FX420-050US)
That's all I can think of for now. If you have any specific questions, just ask and I'll do my best to answer!
