Buy a macbook for everything besides gaming.. but you shouldn't game on a laptop.. so buy a Macbook...

Under $1000? You will only get cheap shit. Buy one that has the best processor, ram, graphics etc.

I have an Acer for €650,- that's about $1000,-. I'm pretty happy with it (it even plays Bioshock), but I would not recommend Vista. Sadly most laptops come standard with Vista, without the possibility to have XP. If you can I'd take XP.

Take at least Dual Core and 3GB (DDR2) internal memory.

Toshiba is also known to make good laptops (and Apple of course, but they're probably more expensive).

I got a 2.0GHz dual-core w/ 2GB RAM for $1100 last July, so you shouldn't have too much trouble. If you do end up having to get Vista, make sure you get as much RAM as you can get your hands on. (Vista uses more than 600 MB of RAM for the OS...)

WTF was microsoft thinking with vista? I hear only negative things about it. so if i have to get it i should get tons of ram.

and I will be doing some gaming on it so probably not a mac. thanks guys.

any other suggestions?

vaios are great, the use carbon fiber in many of their laptops they last a long time.
also their machines have a zero pixel warranty, in the periodo of warranty
just one pixel dead and they exchange it

I have vista on my laptop and it's fine. It's a newer laptop with 2.2 C2D, 4gig ram and it runs fine. It came preinstalled on my machine and haven't had any complaints at all. The only real annoyance was the UAC but it can be turned off.

I still run XP on my home box but I can't complain first hand about Vista. If you go with an XP laptop I would suggest keeping it that way. A lot of laptops have specialty drivers for things like volume controls, touch buttons, etc and it can be a pain to get those working when "upgrading" from one OS to another.

More OT:  I would shop around if you're on no hurry.  People hate on Dell but you can get a good machine with a decent warranty right in that price range.  I've owned many machines first hand from Alienware, Sony, HP, Sager, Toshiba, and Dell.  Some I probably paid a little too much for.  Honestly if you're not going to game I wouldn't spend more then that.  Technology changes so rapidly that spending so much on a machine is a waste IMO.

I payed £519.00 for a Acer 4gb ram 320 gig hard drive 22inch screen blue ray DVD player and HD screen it is top notch best laptop on markett.  you will be rerally lucky to get a laptop of this quality for this price. anyone have any rejections tell me.

if you are looking for a lightweight model. get the Dell XPS1330. awesome laptop. with really good spec.