I would definitely consider the new ultra books in particular the Asus ultra book that is both a tablet and laptop in one it won't be cheap but for travel the size and weight will be important, I think you should go with 8,it will hard to find new with out it. I would definitely not get 17" for travel. I think anything in the newer released laptops will cover your needs. The ultra book convertible is the best of both worlds, I think being able to use it in tablet mode will come in very handy. I personally own the Asus tf300 transformer tablet which I love but you want something bigger it sound like and your gaming needs would probably dictate a laptop. I don't mind a refurbished as long as it is factory refurbished with some warranty.

Thanks! Still love working w Vista. Re watching TV at work, I work from home evenings and weekends - on other projects unrelated to my corporate exec day job. So the Vista machine is what I chose to keep from co-mingling my personal projects from actual work product. With the hours I spend away from the office (in spite of a 4-hour commute in total each day) I want to know of all the features available w Vista, including the TV/DVR one--have not had time to learn that one yet. Lynne

Ms. Rose, do you have a Micro Center in your area? They have a web site but when you go into their stores, unlike a lot of the Best Buy folks, the people who work there are VERY educated in what they sell and the prices are great. My uses are very similar to yours. I've owned a lot of laptops and have paid a lot of money for extra's I never used. My favorite so far has been smaller sized, inexpensive HP's and Compaqs (400.00 or less) with a key pad on the board. They have all the features needed like micro card slots, usb ports, ample ram and hard drive space but are lighter and easier to move around with. After having an 18 inch mammoth HP and hating it, I'll never go larger than 15 inch again. It hasn't happened yet, but I am glad that if after a couple of years something does go wrong with the unit, it won't cost an arm and a leg to replace. Micro Center also has a great warranty program if that's something you are interested in. One thing that people don't usually think about but is really important is to know where the vent fans are for your system. HP used to build them on the bottom causing the units to get very hot. They've now redesigned them to vent on the side, but I'm not sure if all manufactures have done that yet. Also, I know a lot of people are happy with them, but my husband is an IT computer guy and a Dell employee; he's very familiar with their products and feels they are not what they used to be and are over priced for what you get. Here is a link that might be useful: Micro Center

Using the virtual machine for running older xp programs is a very good idea, however you have to understand how to set it up and you might want to have someone help you with that if you choose to get a newer version of windows. The 2 gigs is the amount of RAM memory it has and for xp that should be workable. As to why it is so slow, lots of things can contribute to that from infection, malware, number of programs, and possibly it needs a defrag and disc cleanup. If you are buying it from a business ask for them to do the cleanups before you buy it. Check out the websites for the software you are using they often times offer an updated driver etc to have the program work on the newer version of windows. For a business I would really recommend moving to at least windows 7 for security reasons since very soon Microsoft will not be providing any type of updates including security related ones. I also just read an article about some of the antivirus companies moving away from supporting xp. It really is going to be fairly obsolete after the end of life date. So for the safety of your files etc you will want to be looking to move forward.