But I couldn't resist buying the new Toshiba Satellite A505-S6035 when I saw it on sale at Newegg.com for just $899.99. It is now selling again for the pre-sale price of almost $1,200!

For such a low price, the A505-S6035 comes packed with great hardware such as an Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6Ghz quad core processor with "Turbo Boost" to 2.8Ghz and four extra virtual cores courtesy of Hyper-Threading technology.

Some of the other features include a 500 GB 5400 RPM hard drive, 4 GB of DDR3 1066 memory, an Nvidia GeForce GT 330M video card with 1 GB of DDR3 memory, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, 10/100Mbs LAN, a 16" LCD @ 1366x768, an HDMI out port, an SDHC memory card reader, and four USB 2.0 ports.

This desktop replacement notebook is going to spend most of its life resting on a laptop cooler on my desk hooked up to a 24" Dell monitor.

I've never used a webcam.

I don't need Bluetooth connectivity and if I do, a Bluetooth micro usb dongle will solve that problem.

The relatively short battery life is understandable for a computer with these kind of high performance specs.

For traveling, I have an Acer AS1410-2285 11.6" dual core netbook (technically a "laptop") with a 5-6 hour battery life.

I do miss the four corner beveling and slightly textured keys on my old A105's keyboard.

The large touchpad has a very subtle texture to it that helps you distinguish it from the smooth glossy surface of the rest of the palm rest.

The left & right touchpad mouse buttons are large and the chrome color makes them easy to see with your peripheral vision.

It took me a few hours to make Windows 7 feel more like home by restoring a more traditional quick launch menu with a left hand side "Show Desktop" button, installing "Classic Shell" for a more familiar Start menu, and a multitude of other Windows File Explorer and registry tweaks.

I also switched the Advanced Performance Options menu to "Adjust for best performance" to turn off all the flashy Aero graphics, animations, fades, and translucent windows.

Windows 7 Home Premium doesn't come equipped with "XP Mode" like the Pro and Ultimate versions, but it turns out that I didn't need it.

All of my old 32 bit programs were installed in the Program Files x86 folder and run perfectly.

Then I downloaded a trial version of the PassMark Peformance Test computer benchmark software and ran the full test.

The Toshiba A505-S6035 initially acheived a great score of 1010.6.

Then it went down to 986.3 once I installed all of my programs, antivirus software, and transferred all of my pictures/videos/documents to the hard drive.

My old Toshiba A105 scored a 440 before the RAM & HD upgrade. It scored a respectable 561.8 after upgrading the hard drive and memory.

If this new A505-S6035 starts to feel slow in a few years, I'll probably upgrade the HDD to a 7200 RPM, 10,000 RPM or possibly a SSD (solid state disk) and increase the RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB.

Overall, I'd highly recommend the Toshiba Satellite A505-S6035 for people seeking a competent desktop replacement laptop with good gaming and video encoding capabilities. If you can find it on sale for $900 or less again, jump on it.

To view the full results of my PassMark Performance Test benchmark test, click on the blue link below to load the large image.

For more of my related updates, click on the following links: Toshiba Satellite A505 Hard Drive & RAM Upgrade Guide Toshiba Satellite A105 Overheating Dust Removal Guide, Toshiba Satellite A105-S4254 Review, Acer Aspire AS1410-2285 11.6" Laptop Review, Acer Aspire One 10.1" Netbook Review, Toshiba Satellite A105-S4254 HDD & RAM Upgrade Guide, Toshiba Satellite M115 Laptop Review, Laptop CMOS Battery Replacement Guide, Pacsafe TravelSafe 12L Portable Safe, MS Natural Keyboard Sticky Spacebar Fix, and HP iPAQ HX4700 PDA GPS Navigation.