The Official "Help me!" Thread

[Buffalobiian]

According to my observations something that costs 1500 dollars in the USA, costs 1500 euros over here (despite the big difference in the values of the currencies) and 1500 euros would buy a nice laptop over here already, considering most advertised laptops (excluding netbooks) range from 500 to 900 euros. It shouldn't be impossible at all to get at least 320GB HD (which is really starting to be the minimum Bill should have been referring to), a decent CPU, a decent video card, and a blu-ray drive.

I did a currency conversion, then looked at the Australian market. I guess, along with Kraco's observations, there seems to be a great international variance in what money can buy. (The Australian market can hardly be said to be the international leader in early technology introduction).

For anything less than 2500AUD, I have not seen a single BluRay drive.

[David75]

Considering the price range, I would opt for a dual HDD bay laptop
Why?
So that I can upgrade to a SSD for the system and a fat HDD for storage.
I'm talking big money here, since SSDs are awfully expensive... and it's not their only problem. This is a rather new market and buying the wrong one is a high risk.
But when you have the right one, you really wonder why they had to torture us for years with processor MHz when it was obvious the limiting factor was the harddrive.
OCZ vertex and clones is a first choice, Intel Postville too when they solve their firmware troubles.
There's hope with SandForce controller SSDs coming in the first semester, they should really start the reliable SSD era.

For all other options, there's not much to say, except you'll probably choose Windows 7, either the 32 or 64bit flavor... the latter being the right choice for ram hungry uses like you seek since you can go over the 3.2GB limitation of a 32bits system.

Regarding blu-ray, be sure there's a HDMI out, more convenient.
Regarding blu-ray software for blu-ray playback, it's not always bundled... so be careful, or even try it with a low price br (Home is very inexpensive I think)

[Kraco]

For anything less than 2500AUD, I have not seen a single BluRay drive.

It's true you don't usually see them. Even great many of the so called gaming laptops that cost ~2000 euros (/dollars) don't have them. However, you occasionally see a decently speced laptop with a blu-ray drive for a sensible price. Might take a little bit of browsing and ad hunting to get it, but they are there.