Buying a SE5-friendly laptop

[dogscoff]

Ok, my old laptop is on its last legs, and I'm thinking about replacing it. Totally can't afford to do so but hell, that's what credit cards are for, right? Since sE is about the only game I play on my PC at home, I want to get a system that will run it nicely. It has to be a laptop because I have nowhere in my house for a dedicated computer desk.

Therefore, I'm asking for some help from the beta testers and from anyone else. I know that se5 is being made to run on a relatively low spec system, but I like my games large (big galaxies, lots and lots of ships) and I need to know what sort of specs I should be looking at. I also know that NDAs might comeinto effect, but I was hoping for some kind of hint.

1- What sort of spec do you think is likely to be the *bare minimum* for se5?
2- What sort of spec do i need to run se5 comfortably?
3- Given that se5 is only a few months away and that with Windows Vista out soon we can expect (or at least might hope for) a lot of clearance PCs to hit the shelves before too long, should I try to back up my data and keep my old beast running a little longer?
4- I am, quite frankly, sick to bloody death of windows. What are my chances of getting a linux machine and running se5 under emulation? I know se4 will run quite happily that way. I have no Linux experience but I think I'm ready to give it a try. Is the emulation software available for free?
5 Any other laptop-purchasing advice is welcome. In particular, brands or models to avoid/ consider. As long as it runs se5 well, has built-in wifi and more than 40gig HD I think it will do me. I'll pay whatever it takes, but obviously less is better=-)