Out of Pod Experience

http://www.microcenter.com/product/402682/R503U-MH21_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Black

is the linked laptop capable of running eve smoothly? i could use some help figuring out if its worth a buy.

Greatest problem I also foresee is that tiny RAM size.
It has a Radeon HD 7340 included in the APU (CPU+GPU combo), and it will eat up RAM for the shared pool, so it will be very, very tight.
You will probably experience hang-ups whenever loading a new grid, or when many ships pop up on an existing grid, or any other number of things - how severe they are depend on how frugal you will be with your background apps and your client detail settings.

Assuming you can somehow miraculously not hit "out of RAM" massive swapfile usage issues (at least temporarily), a high-ish detail FullHD (you'd also need an external monitor for that resolution since the built-in display can't go that high) single client EVE should JUST BARELY be running at about 15-20 FPS (give or take) while hangar ship-spinning, and most likely dip into single-digit FPS in crowded areas.

Of course, drastically lowering graphic detail will significantly reduce RAM-related issues and also greatly increase the FPS.
If you reduce to minimum resolution and near-minimum detail you could probably even run two clients at well over 60 FPS in most areas.

Verdict :
Playable, but not very pretty.

Recommendations:
Select the "add-on" upgrade to at least 4 GB of RAM (25-27$ extra), preferably 8 GB (43$ extra).

Thanks, sorry for the late reply, was in between pcs

Bought the asus with the forthought to upgrade the ram to 8gb. Overkill maybe, but knew nothing about the clunkiness of windows 8.

I necro this as a word of warning to all thinking of purchasing a new pc for eve: from my perspective, one would be wise to AVOID WINDOWS 8 t all costs.

Hated it, returned the laptop on that those grounds alone, and got a slghty pricer, but so much better HP ProBook. Better everything, plus windows 7. Great for eve on the go.