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Looking for a laptop some gaming like Rome total war, supreme comander 2,1701 AD those kind of games I don't care how big it is and battery life isn't a concern I travel during the week am in hotels want some thing for work productivity searching the net, streaming net flix so I'd need a wireless card
looked at some Asus i5 on neweg seem to be a reasonable price
any thoughts would be helpful
thanks

I think the i5's are a great choice. The i7 laptops basically start at $1000 so you'd only get the base models with a cheaper video card to compensate for the more expensive processor.

I think Asus generally has good options for reasonable prices.

One 16" i7 / ATI 5730 1 GB option: (5730 may be a bit weak though) with a 320 GB 7200 RPM HD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220696

The i5's tend to have weak graphics cards until you get higher in price.

17" i5 / 5870 (320 GB 7200 RPM HD) ($1150)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152196

Just got this one today for 712ish shipped

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834115857

Acer Aspire AS5742G-7200 NoteBook
Intel Core i5 460M(2.53GHz) 15.6"
4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm
DVD Super Multi
NVIDIA GeForce GT 420M

Best quality would most certainly not be from Acer.

That aside, with the budget restriction of $1000, it's hard to recommend a really solid notebook with a good enough GPU to play 3D games. Asus has some nice laptops around 800$, but they're not built like tanks either.

Have a look at the Lenovo range.

$999 - IdeaPad Y560 Laptop - 06465NU - i5-480M, 4GB, 500GB, ATI 5730 1GB.
$1149 - IdeaPad Y560 Laptop - 064658U - i7-740QM, 4GB, 500GB, ATI 5730 1GB, Blu-ray.

They also have an i3 model with the ATI 5730 1GB for about $850.

Alienware M11x R2: i5 and i7 UM versions, Solid build, geforce Gt 335m gpu with optimus, various mem and hdd options.
You mention you dont care about size. This is an 11.6" beast! But it'll run most anything i throw at it from dirt2, NFS: Hot Persuit, Bioshock, Borderlands. All run at very playable frame rates at high settings. You also get displayport and hdmi out, i5 version starts at about $1020 i think (I'm from the UK.)

The only negative, for me at least is no gigabit ethernet. There's also no optical drive if that bothers you. Why oh why Dell did you not fit gig ethernet?!?

I bought an i5 520, gt335m, 4GB, 320GB about 6 months ago coming from a 17" desktop replacement and still loving it! Everyone should have one of these things!

If you want best quality there are 2 manufacturers I would deal with: Apple or Lenovo Thinkpad line. Everything else I wouldn't touch. Most crappy in my experience: Dell, Sony, Acer, Toshiba. HP is ok but not of Thinkpad/Macbook quality.

I've owned a Toshiba with few problems. Several of my friends have Sonys and Dells that are extremely solid. My little brother's HP is built like a tank.

Point is, anecdotes != data.