So the thread title sums it up pretty much. I'm going to convince my Dad to get me a laptop, especially considering it's my birthday in two months and some change. That being said, I'll sort this out for you.

• The laptop needs to come installed with Windows 7. There's no better time to get a new piece of hardware than when a new OS is coming out. Arguable because of what happened with Vista, but you get the idea.
• When exactly does Windows 7 come out. Can I look forward to new laptops having it on them? Do you know any websites currently catering to this option?
• Do you know of any recommendable laptops? I do like name brands, but it also has to be affordable.
• The big one, will it run Starcraft II? I realize the specs for it aren't official. Yet we all know Blizzard likes to make games that can run on a majority of customers' machines without making them upgrade. Well I'd like my new laptop to excel in running SC II, not just run it. I want it to ride that shit.
  

As far as I know, Windows 7 is not going to be released in two months, so I don't think there is virtually any chance of you getting a laptop with Windows 7 pre-installed, you can install the BETA, however. When it comes to running Starcraft II (since I'm not PC-tech suaveish), I will leave that answer to someone else. Assuming you are getting a new laptop that packs some kind of punch, and from my experiences, being that Blizzard normally has good optimizations (I think), you could be able to run it. Don't count on my word, aside from Windows 7 not coming out in two months. At least, I don't think.

"So the thread title sums it up pretty much. I'm going to convince my Dad to get me a laptop, especially considering it's my birthday in two months and some change. That being said, I'll sort this out for you.

• The laptop needs to come installed with Windows 7. There's no better time to get a new piece of hardware than when a new OS is coming out. Arguable because of what happened with Vista, but you get the idea.

• When exactly does Windows 7 come out. Can I look forward to new laptops having it on them? Do you know any websites currently catering to this option?

• Do you know of any recommendable laptops? I do like name brands, but it also has to be affordable.

• The big one, will it run Starcraft II? I realize the specs for it aren't official. Yet we all know Blizzard likes to make games that can run on a majority of customers' machines without making them upgrade. Well I'd like my new laptop to excel in running SC II, not just run it. I want it to ride that shit.

"

I recommend reading Kalos' article on StarCraft 2 in Windows Seven.

He's the guy who revealed the graphics requirement of StarCraft 2 that was leaked from Blizzard/AMD back in last year.

I don't really see why you want Windows 7. I've been using XP for years, and I can play every PC game I own, even recent ones like Fallout 3. Also, with Windows XP you won't get some update that will fuck everything up, because they're not updating it anymore.

7 seems promising from the beta, but it's really a better idea to get XP right now and wait and see.

I haven't really talked about budget, but he wants me to get one of the stripped-down ones to do school work on. While I want to take advantage of a new laptop by making it powerful enough to run SC II, because if I play any PC game, it'll be that. I'd say $1500... at max? Just a very rough estimate.

I would assume at 1500 you would probably be able to run SC2 at around mid-low settings, assuming it's a laptop. If you woulda went for a pc, I'm sure you can get something that can run SCII on high.

Windows7 RC is runs like Jesus on my machine.  RAM usage is down 8%.