Jeez, I have to post faster, or at least refresh before posting.
I recently was toying with the idea of getting a new dining table and chairs for my eat-in kitchen, to replace the rickety 50s style set I had inherited from a friend. I saw that there was a sale at a furniture store in town and stopped in just to look. I fell in love with and bought a set that is my biggest purchase ever in one act–$1200 (original price $1700+). It’s gorgeous and it’s real furniture (everything else I have was put together from KMart kits). Cherry, with cherry-colored top and black sturdy farmhouse legs, bar-height so it feels like you’re in a pub. It goes from seating six to seating four via a fold-up-and-hide-inside leaf–very cool!
It was worth it but I am still reeling that I spent that much at one time on something I was just supposed to look at.
If it makes you feel better, last April, my car broke down and I had to pay about $2,700 just to get it back to where I thought it was the day before it broke. So I spent all that money and it didn’t feel like I got squat. At least now you spend the money and get a sweet ass computer.
I’m a Mac person, so I would only spend that much on a computer if I got this and this.
One day, I will have that. If my photojounalism major ends up being something.
But I’d want the bigger monitor, of course. 
[channeling Monty Python]
" Your wife. Does she game?
Excuse me??
Your wife. You know. Does she game? Is she a gamer? Does she like to game, know what I mean?
How dare you !!
Does she game? Quite a gamer, is she? Does she have…'obbies? Does she like Photography? Eh? Eh? Know what I mean then, eh?
[/channeling Monty Python]
I knew a woman once whose last name was Gamer. Rough life, it musta been…
Would this be a bad time to post a link for Open Office. You want a very quick way to knock $300+ off of a computer price thats one of my favorites.
I likes me some Age of Empires. Lemme know if you need a game.
Actually, not the same CPU (not even close), and the B130 defaults to Windows XP Home, so not the same Windows either. 
The only real concern that I have with Bear_Nenno’s notebook (other than the fact that it’s not coming to me) is that I’d imagine a 12" notebook is gonna have a smaller than average keyboard (even by notebook standards). Am I wrong, or is this something you’ve already considered, Bear?
I just bought a !2" widescreen notebook (this one) - sadly, not for myself, but for a colleague. It’s a fantastic little machine and the keyboard is not noticeably smaller than any other laptop; it’s quite flat so the key travel is short (but that’s par for the course with notebooks).
Measuring the diagonal size of the main keyboard area of a standard desktop PC keyboard (from the top left of the <esc> key to the bottom right of the right-hand <ctrl> key, it’s about 12 inches - so not much compromise is necessary to fit a laptop keyboard into the same area. In fact, the keys are not quite so square as those on a desktop keyboard - they’re just as wide, but smaller in height (from front to back) - this is necessary to accomodate the small touchpad, but I didn’t find this affected my typing significantly.
I didn’t consider it before the purchase. But I lucked out. The notebook review site says
Not at all, I use it at home. But I’m also a power Office user at work, and I miss the keyboard shortcuts and some of the bloat features found in Office. It’s not always easy to switch from one to the other for advanced users.
On the other hand, my widescreen notebook doesn’t seem to have a larger than normal keyboard. A friend who has a wider-screened notebook than mine appears to have the same keyboard too.
Heh, very nice. I’m just gonna go back to being jealous then, if it’s all the same to you. 
Okay… Omni’s giving me a complex…
How slow is my harddrive? Would I notice the difference if I got the faster 7200 (or was it 7400)rpm HDD??? I think it’s too late to call Dell back. But how much is that going to bog down my machine?
Funny!
I always ask because it’s my dream to have the ultimate gaming computer.
No idea what your creative bent is, but I can tell you that Final Cut Pro, at least going back to FCP III ( new releases are FCP V and FCP-HD ) cannot work with media stored on a 5400 rpm hard drive. The hard drive does not spin/sample fast enough for the edit system to make use of it. If you do not have 7200rpm, you cannot import/export/exit video media.
While I have not used it, I suspect that this is also the case for those vidiots who are PC-based and make use of Avid Xpress HD.
Cartooniverse
So unless I am asked to make the next Star Wars or A Bug’s Life, I should be fine???
Would storing a DVD movie on my hard drive be a problem??
What about my external hard drive? If it’s over 7200rpm, then I wont have a problem as long as I am using that Hard Drive to do my video importing, exporting and editing. Right?
… assuming of course I will ever need to do that in the first place.
Only with the MPAA and/or RIAA.
For most purposes, excluding video editing and ub3r-l33t gaming, you should be fine.