Looking for assistance on how to "gear up" my laptop and trying to find out how much it can run.

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Wow many thanks for all your help, this is very helpful! I wish I knew what some of the parts meant lol since I'm completely new to specific computer parts but what I'll do is send this to one of my more computer "savvy" friends and have them take a look. Now for this you're including 1 machine 5 screens, right?

No.. that machine in the link doesn't come with monitors. Also, I don't like using more than one LCD per videocard.. performance suffers quite a bit when you double the amount of pixels you'll need to render.

I would suggest getting a Dell Inspiron 530. It comes with the Q6600 quad core. You will however need to upgrade the GFX card, ram and PSU but it would still come under $800 and might be easier in your case.

I've got 2 of them speced out the same way (except one has 4g ram while the other only has 3) and I've had no issues running 5 clients on either.

I like knowing exactly what I'm buying. Dell has a good way of not disclosing what brand motherboard (usually Foxconn), power supply, and memory they're using in their machines. I love their monitors, but I've had mixed results with the rest of their systems, which we have well over 120 of in various models at my office. In addition, I don't believe you're even given the option of Vista 64 on the Inspiron 530, and the videocard options for the 530 models suck for how much they want for an 'upgrade.' +$150 for an HD 2650XT? Please. Give me an HD4850 for nearly that price. Dell makes fine office and server machines, but I'd have a hard time recommending Dell for someone primarily interested in gaming.. mainly due to the lack of options on the motherboard (cheap Foxconn G31/G33 chipset that only has 1 pci-x16 slot and not RAID capable) and cheap power supply. Spend a little more, get a lot more in terms of quality and future upgrade options.