sten, The laptop that I was looking at (mentioned above) was in the dse catalog sale, which finished today (5/8/07) so the price goes back up $200 or so. I was talking to them today, the store that is closest to me doesn't have any of them anyway!

I was playing around the the dell website yesterday - i was starting with the top XPS model and expanding from that, they get very expensive!

So far i think it will be a HP, and defiantly Core 2 Duo, but im having problems finding a new laptop without vista, i'm not sure if they are selling them anymore, though they may have some out the back for a bit cheaper! hopefully - im not ready to go vista yet!

Another question, graphics - should i be looking for a laptop with an actual graphics card (like the nVidia® GeForce™ Go 7300) or one with a graphics accelerator? Whats the difference and what will be better?

I think I will go 1GB (2x 512mb) of memory at the moment and a 120GB hard drive (haven't decided if I want to go the 7200rpm or stick with the 5000rpm drive)

For non vista model, here they offer DOS or linux, which has no charge for the OS, . But you might have problem getting the drivers for XP. You might need to manually download individual driver from their original manufacturer. Some vista driver do works on XP.

Graphic accelerator will consume less power. If you need to work with 3D or if you want to play 3D games on your laptop, then you'll need the independent graphic chip, preferably with independent video ram as well. But i won't recommend playing games on laptop. For the same price, i can get a much better rig(desktop) for gaming purposes.

If you use XP, and with 1GB or ram, 5400rpm is good enough. 7200rpm one will also consume more power. If you can find out the amount of cache on the harddrive, that's more representative. Normally it's 2MB, if you can get one with 4 to 8MB will be a lot better.

I wont be playing many games at all, since the laptop is mainly for work purposes! So the graphics accelerator should be good enough for me! Apparently this graphics accelerator is compatible with Aero (which I'm not to fussed about, I think I'll just turn it off anyway). I have a copy of XP Professional for the computer at home that I could install onto the laptop (instead of vista) if I really don't like it (I'll see how it goes, maybe i can get used to it! ).

I'm not to sure on the Hard Drive cache, but if the 5400rpm will consume less power (battery life is important to me) and is still good enough, I think I'll go with that one!

Also, what is the PCI Express Card used for. I'm assuming it is not the same as the PC Card (PCMCIA) that is in my other laptop?

Otherwise, I think I have everything else sorted. It's got a 15.4" widescreen, 1.3MP camera and fingerprint reader (fancy feature, not too much use ) and the speakers are harmon kardon too.

Well, if you get those with Vista, you're paying for it's license, which i think it's more than AUS$100.

That's the external version of PCIe, which electrically same with the desktop counterpart. It's suppose to replace PCMCIA, for faster speed and lower power consumption. But availability of hardware choices is still limited. Anyway, most laptop already has everything you need built right in, so that will usually be left unplugged.

Thanks for your explanation of PCIe.

All of the laptops that I have looked at are Windows Vista Home Basic or Premium, no one seems to be selling XP anymore. Though I did see one store (I think it was an online store) that was offering to downgrade to XP, and then give you the choice to upgrade to Vista again if you wanted to in the future.

Have you try look for DOS or Linux one?

I want to purchase the laptop from a store, just so if I have any problems, I can get it sorted out with the store. But so far, I haven't found any with just Linux or DOS on it.

I guess the graphics accelerator you're talking about is GMA 950. It's good, but it sucks at anything 3D. It use a bit less energy, you won't even notice. About Core 2 Duo, prepared to pay more for it compared to AMD laptops.

That's why I just got myself a brand new HP Pavilion dv2410ca (I'm receiving it in the mail tomorrow).

NET LAPTOP COST: CA$899.96 (no tax incl.)

It's replacing my old Samsung NV 5000.


xboxrulz

I'm a supporter of AMD too. But there's no doubt that Core 2 Duo is great performer when it comes to laptops. Further more the battery life is significantly longer than AMD's. The power management of built in GMA950 is definitely more efficient compare to external graphic chip. Being on the same die as the northbridge, means they can save energy from the interface glue logic and memory management logic. Being less powerful in terms of graphic capability also means lower power consumption. As i've mentioned before, if it's not for gaming, then being a lesser performer at 3D will not show any difference for normal 2D application. Unless of cause you're willing to give away some CPU resources for Vista and it's Aero effect.

For desktop I'll definitely recommend AMD. I hope they can survive the recent attack from Intel.

I think I will go with the onbaord graphics accelerator. I wont be doing that much (if any at all) major 3d work and won't be playing any games, so it shouldn't worry me!

I already have a AMD Sempron at home which is a desktop. Its only something like 1.6Ghz, but it works really well! I have Win XP and Suse and it does wonders (well, enough for me!)

Should I be expecting a huge performance increase with the core duo also?