Well recently my laptop was totaled. Yes, it would cost more to repair it then it would to replace it... Soo I'm on the market for a new one. Under $1k. But up to it.

I'm looking for something that can run games like WoW and CS:S with no problem. Also would be nice if it could do basic editing software (e.g. Photoshop, Fireworks, Dreamweaver)

Yah... I've already browsed around Newegg and Tigerdirect but I'm indecisive.

EDIT: It would be NICE if it could run a small 8 man counter strike server, not required though. XD

A few basic things you want to make sure your laptop has before choosing. Yes i was a salesrep and no i did not like it XD. I did however learn what is needed and what is just overdoing it. At the very least you will want 1GB of ram as vista requires this just to run that is if and when you want to make the transition to that OS. Always check the graphics card as you know all games such as WOW have minimal requirements and with all the awesome spells you will want something decent to render those graphics i would suggest something in the upper 5000s with media accelerator as it comes in handy. Ofcourse it is all based on personal opinion and i would aslo consider style XD hps are usually Nice to look at as well as use.

The high end Dell, High End HP.
Replaceable video graphics card with its own memory... so memory is not stolen by the graphics from the main system.
4 GB of memory, highest speed you can afford.
Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, or Fujitsu hard drive... Avoid Samsung, Hitachi, Trigem, Maxtor.
Check out the cooling channels to assure it has the capacity to move a lot of air quickly.
Three year warranty is a great indicator of the reliability of the unit...
Lots of USB Slots
Firewire slots
PCMCIA Slot
Three year warranty on the screen.
Avoid Compaq, Gateway, eMachines, Asus, Acer, and especially Alienware if reliability is of concern to you.
Intel over AMD.
Thinkpads are great computers, but do not make good gaming machines.

I recommend this if you can afford it. Otherwise, look at the Dell XPS M1330.

But Gateway is in bankruptcy proceedings, so may not be around for support of this excellent machine.

What kind of warranty does the gateway offer? I heard that Acer purchased Gateway?

I check this site daily and it always has good deals.. They dont sell it themselves but search other sites for you (like dell).. http://dealnews.com

ACER pruchased the eMachines part of GAteway... as near as I can tell from what is online, the Gateway sale has not yet been approved by their creditors... ACER has made an offer...
But then ACER is not a company that provides good support or service or followup... and most of the Gateway people are in the US and not moving to Korea.

Any information on warranties?

I ordered the laptop, and got it via Fedex yesterday. It was DOA. =/

Let's assume it is fixable... Keep us informed....
Check memory channels... power adapter... See if hard drive became disconnected in shipment... or other cables become disconnected... but do not change anything that would affect any warranty.

Bad LCD. =/

I talked to Gateway tech support and everything already.]

EDIT: To be exact. It wasn't totally DOA, the LCD had multiple dark spots though. And I don't want a computer with that. =/ I tried reinstalling drivers, but it didn't fix anything.

Well Acer now owns Gateway... so this will be a good test of their attitude toward good customer service and support... But we have never liked the Acer monitors... And we were very partial to Gateway machines.
Please keep us informed as to how it goes.

I thought Acer only owned the e-machines division? Did they recently buy out the entire Gateway division?

Gateway owns e-Machines, so Acer basically owns both companies.

Not final yet, but Gateway is in bankruptcy, and ACER is the company with its money finger in the pie. The Wall Street Journal says Gateway "belongs" to ACER. ACER wanted a strong US presence.
ACER must have some Cash Cows somewhere as they are buying up a great number of computer-related companies.

Vader, you didn't say anything to me about that. Well, my grandmother has an Acer Desktop, and her monitor is great, but on Vista it has an odd shadowing issue to the right of it. Everything shoots over a bit, but so dim that you can barely see it. On my computer with that monitor, it has no problems. Could that be her computer itself?

Back on topic, hows the support coming?

IMO Gateway Laptops and Desktops have always been junk.. Acer branded is better, HP and Dell better than that, Lenovo (Formerly IBM) even better. Again this is just my opinion. I dont know your needs Dr. Vader but heres a hell of a deal on a Lenovo laptop http://www.compusa.com/applications...m_re=Homepage-_-Spot 01b-_-Notebook_T71-15404 It is only a Celeron but there are similar deals all over the net on Core 2 Duo's and such

link to laptop and information
That seller basically says that if you buy it and it has a problem, and the company doesn't help you, you just paid $1000 for parts. It also has a way to 'buy a warranty' at the bottom, but I dont' know if it's legit, cause it comes to $150... I dunno dude, I hope Acer works with you.

I didn't ask for your opinion. Thanks though.

And it states in the original post what I was looking for. I hope that gateway/acer will cover the warranty. If not, I will be getting a refund from the seller.