Umm, you think the Dell is cheapest? Hell, Alienware, a company notorious for overpricing things is cheaper than dell. Dell is really only good for businesses that want to buy computers in large quantities. I can see sony being more expensive but I thought toshiba was a pretty cheap place as things go. That's really weird to have dell being cheaper than toshiba. o.o Configured the way I'd want it, it comes to $2001. Not bad at all.

You know that a geforce 7400 go is the low end version of the 7-series right? The x700 in my laptop 0wnz it. 7400 is a pretty good graphics card though, nonetheless. About equivilant to the x1400's in the other computers. 7800 go is pure awesomeness though.

I don't know what your preferences are but I really like mine at 6lbs and I don't think I'd want a bigger screen than the 15.4" wide it has. It seems really big compared to the 13" laptops at school so a 17" would be veritably huge. My screen supports resolution up to 1680*1050 resolution. :] It is very pretty. I probably wouldn't mind 8lbs too much, but... 6lbs is much lighter.

Of those three you listed I like the dell the best. The price seems fairly good (maybe not as good as acer, but it's still good) and it's really powerful. I don't know about the size though still. That is a matter of pure opinion, however, so if you think you'd rather have a 17" screen and an 8-9lb laptop then go for it. The only thing I would really worry about is battery life. I doubt you get more than 2 hours even on power saving settings with all that heavy duty stuff in it. Buy a spare battery for sure if you get the dell. That's another thing I really like about mine, it gets about 3.5 hours doing internet and word processing and stuff, but it still has enough power to do some serious gaming if I want. I think I'll buy another battery anyways though, for long trips and the like.

just get XP Professional SP2, still teh best

gah, now im leaning towards the 17" toshiba.  It seems to be the most balanced in portability, reliability, performance, and extras.  despite its size, i hear it is the sleakest, lightest, most solid 17" notebook out there.

I just sent my old Sony GRX 650 in for repair (finally)!

$150 to $200 to fix it. Is it worth it? Probably not.

The laptop is 4 years old. Here are the specs:

1.8 GHz P4M
512 MB Ram =|
30 GB HDD  =|
Radeon 7500 w/32 MB dedicated video
8 Lbs o.o
2 hour battery life
...and the most important...
16.1" screen with 1600x1200 native resolution B):wub:

This laptop is so old, I probably could not sell it for more than $500. And, you may think I am crazy for spending the money to get it fixed. But, I am in love with the screen.

XGA 1028x768 = 789504 pixels :lol:
WXGA 1200x800 =960000 pixels
WSXGA 1440x900 = 1296000 pixels
SXGA 1280x1024 = 1310720 pixels (has anyone realized this is not a standard aspect ratio?)
SXGA+ 1440x1050 = 1512000 pixels  
WSXGA+ 1680x1050 = 1764000 pixels
UXGA 1600x1200 = 1920000 pixels :wub:
WUXGA 1920X1200 = 2304000 pixels  :wub:

To me desktop real estate is the most important factor followed by graphics card and then CPU/memory.

But that is just me.

@cryzble: It's okay, but 7600 is kinda low powered imho. It probably can't run battlefield 2.
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=409&card2=10
I liked your dell better. (which is odd since I normally don't like dell)

@ranman: it depends on if you are intending to buy a new computer soon. It's worth it if you don't want a new computer and just want to stick with that one. Personally though, I like to get a new computer every 2-3 years though. They go out of date so fast. Nice screen tho! Beats my wsxga+

To me, 1st priority is graphics, next is battery life, then size and then cpu, memory, and the other stuff. This kind of shows in the computer I bought too lol. Only 1GB memory and a 2Ghz pentium M (no core duo) but x700 graphics and 6lbs and about 3.5 tested battery.

... Actually a 7600 go is not better than a mobility x1600

http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=409&card2=366

For some odd reason, even though the 7800 go is extreme and ultimate power of dhoom, the 7600 go is like... wimpy compared to it. It probably helps the battery some though with the low powered card. It certainly beats an integrated one anyways lol.

Well pick one soon and then give us a good review!

Nice! I love tom's hardware. Although it almost seems more a review of the Acer/Asus series laptops lol. (the ferrari is way overpriced too imho. My $1.3 laptop has better specs than it... and ferrari is $2k. All for the fancy paint job and ferrari logo!)

Looks like your gpu beats mine by about 1k in 3dmark scores, but mine hangs in about 5-15fps below yours on most of the games, so 'tis all good. The x1600 apparently really gives you a boost with the high anti-aliasing and stuff. O_O Maybe that's why it gets those higher 3dmark scores. Mine's a lot smaller and lighter than the Asus one though. \o/ Better battery too so it's a tradeoff.

Of course... then there's the new http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115226 with 2GB ram, x1600 256MB dedicated, 2Ghz core duo, and other awesome pwnagement and it's the same size as mine and only 30 minutes less battery. It costs $2k though... I think my friend frank is getting that one 'cause he has a bit more $$$ to spend than I.

A couple weeks ago was the best time to buy my laptop (8100) because it went on uber sale at newegg because of the launch of the 8200 series. When mine first came out, it too was $2k (about a year ago) and it's about $1.5k right now. Newegg dropped it down to $1.3k when the 8200 came out and cycled them out (no more left!). Much woot for price camping! You can still buy mine at other newegg competitors but only at the $1.5k price. Muahahaha! Newegg ftw!

Anyways, quit deciding and buy one and give it a good review so we can see how much uberness you got!