need advice for a new laptop and a new computer ??!

[PHiLLeDINGUE]

first sorry for my bad english before it gets point out like usual...

I'm about to buy a new laptop for traveling and a new computer for when I'm home. I play about only online poker with my computers and do also a little data minning. I don't care about games or watching movies or what ever else, but might get into

My actual computer could be used as a server or something... I know my gf friends had something set up like that!! I already got my screens for the computers, but would probably need a traveling 2nd screen for the laptop(multi tabling) but I don't know what kind of set up would work better faster safer for me ??!

I haven't follow much about computer stuff in the last 5 years but I will understand what you're saying, no need to be fancy. Also I'm alot better at reading obv...

What would 5k budget look like ??

10k ??

thanks

[BiPolar_Nut]

Since you already got the screens, 5k should be more than enough for a very nice laptop and desktop. As far as a second screen for the laptop while traveling, do you currently have an LCD for the home machine you could take with you or would you want an additional monitor to carry with and attach to the laptop?

10k is more than you'd need to spend even for a baller laptop + desktop.

As far as specs, any core 2 duo processor based system would be a good starting point. The E6600 and above for the desktop has twice the L2 cache as slower chips and is worth the upgrade IMO. Going beyond the E6600 is kinda a waste at this point.

In the laptop world, the 4MB L2 cache core 2 Duos are the L7200, L7400, T7200, T7400, and T7600. I'd not suggest the T5500 or T5600 since those only have 2MB L2 cache.

RAM: at least 1GB and preferably 2GB

Hard Drive: the faster the spindle speed (RPM) the better. Laptop drives are available up to 7200 RPM. Desktops *can* go up to 15kRPM but only as SCSI and those are quite expensive...even moreso than the 10kRPM SATA drives. SATA will give you more bang for the buck. 7200 RPM SATA drives in the desktop will still give ample performance.

Are you looking to build a desktop yourself or buy a pre-built?

If you really wanted the home computer to act as a server, you probably could spend the whole $10k on just that if you went w/ redundant power supplies, RAID array, tape backup w/ autoloader, multi-processors, etc but that's overkill. If you used your home computer as "a server", what server tasks would you want it to do?

If it's just a desktop that holds backups for the laptop then a simple RAID-1 setup would suffice (RAID-5 would be more cost effective and be slightly more responsive, but slightly more complicated and would likely require a hardware RAID card. Many motherboards have RAID-1 capability on-board)

I'm assuming you are running PT (or PO) since you mentioned datamining.