I'm going on a trip pretty soon for about 2 months and I dread leaving my desktop behind. So I need a laptop. Here's what I found so far:

I do lots of stuff on my desktop.

From the latest games to the oldest games.
Burning CDR's.
Watching DVD's.
Emulation ala Connectix Virtual PC/Vmware.
Store huge amount of files (my backup is 40+gb which I plan on taking with me.
OS planned for use on my laptop is Windows 2000 Pro. No dual-boot's since they are not needed and all the games I need to play work fine on it.
Networking with computers at destination
Modem for RAS to connect at work here in the UK.


I just checked out Dell and saw the Inspiron 8100.

So far I've decided on the:

1.2ghz P3
512MB SDRAM PC133 2 chips
2nd battery
(is there anyway to remove the software products? I'd like to get the price down to a minimum)
60GB HD
16XCDR/DVD built-in. (Probably crappy 16XCDR/DVD but looks like there's no choice. Will probably get an external Plextor later if the built-in doesn't fit my needs)
Floppy Drive
Xircom 10/100 + 56k modem. (Hope this turns out alright...would like a better namebrand but the Xircom's for the laptops at work, work fine)
Geforce 2 GO 32MB DDR (Noticed the Radeon 7500 but you can't pick the higher monitor for the laptop and also drivers are a MAJOR consideration for me. So NOONE BASH ME FOR NOT GETTING ONE OTHERWISE YOU WILL JUST BE SHOWING YOUR LOW IQ. I want to use this laptop for desktop/Gaming for 5+ years....I KNOW the GEFORCE will last that long. The Radeon will not.
Harmon Kardon External Speakers


And that's about it. So far it runs around $3,504.

Questions:

I was wondering if anyone can recommend a better model or if someone has bought this model before any problems/recommendations they may have?

Get the DEll. Our company just bought like 30 of these and they rule. They are hands down the best laptop out there

i heard compaq has some really decent prices on laptops

The Dells rock, that's what I get for our Engineering staff to run Solidworks on (and for myself later this year). I don't believe that there are a ton of laptop makers that have GeForce chips available, and I wouldn't waste my time with the ATI chip yet.

I have a compaq, that's why I said DELL hehe. I like my laptop but they really don't make compaq's for the power user like they do on the Dell's

Exacually go with the dell lol and if i am right i dunno i think ibm makes laptops. dunno

heh. I knew the mobile radeon 7500 sucked even without looking at the benchmarks (I haven't kept up in the mobile graphics lately). Well just checked out this website: http://www.extremetech.com/article/0,339...ap%253D4,00.asp


Oh yeppee. Radeon outperforms the Geforce in 3Dmark. YAY! Too bad I won't be playing 3Dmark that often. ;(

I'm stickin' with ma' Geforce baby! GO NVIDIA! WOOHOO!

If it wasn't for the gaming part, I would say go Compaq. Of course, I'm probably in the minority here...as usual.

Radeon 7500 suck?
What the heck is wrong with some of you?

I've done a ton of research about the Inspiron 8100 (for my first notebook purchase), and I've found that the GF2 GO is a complete disaster. Its filled with issues. Issues that required driver updates
to complete BIOS updates to fix (even then, some issues still aren't fixed)...What do you expect? Its Nvidia's first attempt at a mobile platform.

Just because Nvidia does extremely well in the desktop arena, does not mean they "rule the roost" for all markets. Ati still holds the largest market share for mobile graphics.

Have a look...
http://www.gotapex.com/reviews.php?rev=gf2go-vs-7500/index.html
http://www4.tomshardware.com/mobile/02q1/020220/index.html

It is only recently, that the GF4 GO 440 is able to match (and just barely beat, by a few "points") the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500. Despite this, mobile versions of the Geforce (2 GO and 4 GO) tend to drain your batteries alot more than the ATI option.

Ati drivers (in notebooks) are way more stable than Nvidia's.
But the problem is, they lack updates (Dell is currently working on a new set) and all companies that feature the Mobility Radeon 7500 force consumers to use WinXP. (Including Dell, Sony, etc.)

It is only IBM that releases drivers for Win98, Win2k and WinXP for the Mobility Radeon 7500.

Wow, blast from the past. Well, try running a CAD/CAM app (preferrably parasolid based) with an ATI card and see how far you get.