New system

[DukeofSerbia]

Those look interesting. Can you upgrade them by yourself? Or do you have to pitch them after 2-3 years like a laptop. They pack a lot of stuff in there, so I'm guessing they run hotter than a tower. I was going to buy the p180 in hopes that it would last a couple system builds. Do you think it'll be good for it?

It is not true that laptops are not upgradeable. There are barebone laptop systems in market. The most popular laptop barebone systems are from ASUS. Only one thing is problematic in barebone laptop (like in every other laptop) – graphics card! You can’t change it because graphics card is solder in motherboard. So, in barebone laptop you choose:
processor
RAM
hard disk
optical drive

Those parts can be changed always. Plus you choose monitor and graphics card which you both can’t change.
My brother in USA has barebone laptop and he went in local store where they built for him laptop. They are cheaper than branded models like Dell, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba and etc but they are mostly equal good.

There are models which can be changed graphics but they are very rare in market: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptop...a_remove_2.htm

Models with integrated Mobility Radeon X1600 and GeForce Go 7600 are good enough.

Only good SFF systems are from Shuttle. I highly recommended that you avoid them (I mean generally on SFF barebone systems).

If you want to see how laptop barebone systems look go here: http://www.ibuypower.com/ They are best from what I know, but I don’t know do they sell in Canada.

Anyway, buy standard desktop system.

[Lemur]

Only one thing is problematic in barebone laptop (like in every other laptop) – graphics card! You can’t change it because graphics card is solder in motherboard.

And what's the one part most gamers are guaranteed to change during the 4-5 year lifespan of their PC?