... Any hot tips for a bro before he lays out $1200 for a Sony Viao hotrod in a few short hours.

... Looking for same advice on a flat screen monitor.

TIA,
Winston Wolf

yeah-go to Winbook.com, piuck out what will probably be a more powerful machine in the same price range(results may vary for price ranges, but in the $1800 range, it was a desktop replacer for me, better than what anyone else had to offer anywhere near that price)and buy it. Save money by not paying for Sony's massive ad campaign-I've got nothing against them, but all the Vaio has going for it, in it's price range, is sleek looks. Winbook builds solid performers for less, generally.

Oh, and flat screen monitors rock hard, but I don't know brands on them, so I'm no help there...

Just my $.03 adjusted for inflation...

Juggernaut

Sharp LL-T1820 is probably the best all round for the buck flat screen. 18inch screen.  Sells for about $1,300.  MaximumPC gave it a perfect 10.  I would get a PC built before getting a Sony. If I remember right the sony had so-so parts and not so great performance.  He could look at the Alienwares that Best Buy sells.

Oh, if you can lay out the $$, the Alienwares rock-you'd have to custom build it to do better.

I was under the impression he was talking about a laptop, tho-am I perhaps mistook?

Juggernaut

I didnt notice if he wanted a laptop or not.  You can get the prebuilt Alienwares for under a thousand.  Not bad performance but won't come close to one of their area-51s