What is out there that will run FS2004 well. It will also be used for work and will need Office apps, but the horsepower requirements will be driven by flight sims.Any suggestions on brands or retail outlets for the best pricing and service ?

Sure. The Dell XPS Inspiron is the fastest laptop, but also the bulkiest. Link: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/p...en&s=dhs&~ck=mnGaming notebooks by Alienware.Link: http://www.alienware.com/Product_Pages/notebook_gaming.aspxGaming notebooks by VoodooPC.Link: http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/notebook.aspxThose three are the best laptops for gaming. Don't worry about everyday work. Any gaming machine, be it notebook or otherwise, will handle office apps and daily work with ease. I am sure Dell might come with some office apps, but I do not know if that is the case with the other two.Mike :-waveP4 3.2E @4.00ghz 250FSBDFI Lanparty Pro875B Rev B1gb Corsair XMS PC3500 2-3-3-6 @2.75vNvidia BFG 6800 Ultra OCSB Audigy2 Platinum ExSony CPD-G520 21' MonitorLiquid Cooled GoodnessPics: http://community.webshots.com/user/chksix2002 (NEW Gallery FS9@ 2048x1536!!!)

I configured an 8200 Dell Inspiron with a Ge Force 2 card and it runs 2004 pretty well. I would buy a laptop that I could customize with the amount of memory and video card and you should be OK. Pricey but worth it.

Those look good but are more than I want to spend. I'm looking at the Toshiba's with the 15.4 wxga screens, any known problems with the Toshiba's ?:)

I bought an Acer Aspire 1356LCi.It is equipped with an ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 64MB dedicated VRAM (so it does not take anything away from the 512MB system RAM).There are more advanced versions nowadays, with higher display resolution and more processing power.It was fairly cheap (1300 $) for the provided power and equipment and FS surprisingly runs smoother on my laptop than on my PC with almost the same config (except the more powerfull graphics card).

My dad had bought a Compaq R3000Z for work. It's seasonal construction so I can use it for school in the winter.It has an Athlon64 3000+, 512mb RAM, GoForce 4 MX440 32mb, Combo drive, 60gb HDD, and a 15.4'' widescreen display. I think it cost about $1700 Canadian.There are different models of it. It can take upto a Athlon64 3700 and a 64mb MX440 as well as up to 2gb DDR system memory.Generally laptops aren't good for games as graphics cards often share memory with the main system. The graphics cards aren't that powerful either. The R3000Z is a well rounded system though.