What would you do:

[Jospeh]

You have about 800$-1000$ to spend.

You need:
A netbook or small laptop that is light and easy to carry around. It doesn't really need much computing power.

A new monitor.
U2410 costs 400$ new.
2209WA costs 200$ new.
2709WFP costs 650$ new.
Other monitors I don't know how much they cost. I can check but probably around the same amount as you can find them in the US.

Something to game on.

You have:
A laptop that you can sell for around 1200$ or keep. It has a 9800M GTS graphics card and T9300 CPU.

Also, any desktop made will have to fit in a small case, otherwise you can't transport it back home.

 

[Concentric]

Ok, so just to clarify:

You currently have a laptop that's a bit too big/powerful for what you need.
You want a replacement laptop that's smaller/lighter and a desktop to play games on, along with a monitor.
You have ~$1000 to spend and could get another ~$1200 for selling your current laptop, if necessary?

 

[Jospeh]

More or less that's about that.
I can either sell the laptop or game on it though. It doesn't really matter right now as the games I play run fine on my laptop at reasonable settings. Future games though, I don't know. I want a new monitor because I don't really like the laptop screen as it looks like shit.

 

[defaultluser]

Better to sell the laptop now while it's still worth something.

The display I leave up to you, but let's say you go middle-ground and spend $400 on the display.

For a low-powered netbook/notebook: if you want the best battery life, get the new Asus EeePC 1005HA:

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1005HA-PU1X-BU-10-1-Inch-Blue-Netbook/dp/B002DYIXMS

It's cheap and has over 8 hours real-world battery life. $325 Also, it comes with very little intrusive crapware (unlike Acer).

If you want a little more performance (but the same portability), get a CULV-based system like this:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115658

Not as good on the battery life, but still very portable, and twice the horsepower of Atom. $410

Or you can just get a full-sized notebook for cheap if you want. I don't have any particular recommendations for that. They shouldn't charge you more than $500 for a low-end system.

So, let's average it out and say you spend about $400 on the display, and $400 on the notebook.

You started with $800-1000 to spend + $1200 for selling your current system.

This leaves you $1200-1400 to spend on a desktop powerhouse for gaming, which could produce quite a system. You could probably build Core i7 1156 plus a 5870 and an SSD.

Interested? I'll configure you a system if you're game.

 

[Shalafi]

best buy has a nice Samsung 1920x1080 24 inch panel for $199

head on down there and have a look at it

 

[Shadowssong]

I did something similar (minus the having a small desktop). I bought the Asus EeePC 1008HA and then built a desktop, you may want to look into the SFF section for building a small desktop (with alot of power). There is an article in consumer reports that reviews most of the current netbooks, have a look at that. That being said, I love this setup, the netbook has amazing battery life and it is great for taking notes in classes and browsing the web. My desktop is for gaming and basic use (just faster than my netbook ) I think netbook/desktop is the best combo of computers I could have!