What's a good heavy duty laptop?

[usgeex]

I have been using desktops for the past few years. I have an intel Quad core 2.4Ghz 4GB RAM & 1TB hdd (7200 RPM) with a fairly good graphics card (nothing too fancy).

I'm moving out of the country and I don't wanna take my desktop with 22" acer LCD with myself so I am looking for a laptop that is as good as my desktop.
I'd love to have some suggestions. New or used doesn't make a difference to me as long as it's under $1000.
thanks

[Busybuyer888]

Will OP be moving around with the laptop on a daily basis or keeping it stationary at a desk?

Will OP need it to be compact, as desk space may be at a premium?

[usgeex]

Will OP be moving around with the laptop on a daily basis or keeping it stationary at a desk?

Will OP need it to be compact, as desk space may be at a premium?

yeah that's a good question. I won't need it to be too compact. I am looking for good performance. I might take it to work with myself or maybe not. So compactness is not a priority as long as the battery life is excellent and the processor is good too. The reason i'm asking for a better performance is because I will be running many applications on it including vmware server for virtual machines (for testing and educational purposes).

[Busybuyer888]

For running virtual machines OP would want a BEAST. The $1,000 budget might be an problem.

Specs:
Intel Core i7 (never a mobile AMD CPU for virtualization)
16 GB memory (maybe 8GB if only running max. 1 VM)
1 SSD (SSD as boot + swap drive provides noticable performance - maybe even put a VM image on this for max. VM speed)
1 500GB-750GB 7,200rpm (to store many VM images, backup copies)

The above specs (dual drives) are available on some 17.3" laptops. The HP DV-7 for example. I understand some ASUS 17.3" model also support dual drives.

The Lenovo T-4xx (14") and T-5xx (15.6") models support mSATA SSD (internal card) as well as a normal HD.

Some other RFDers suggest converting the DVD-ROM bay into a HD bay too for the 2nd HD slot.

To hit the sub-$1,000 budget - I suspect we'd have to go with a Core-i5 CPU and 1 HD. (ie. no SSD)

[usgeex]

thanks for your great reply. I think you are right. I'll keep these points in consideration. thanks