Phew, I just spent close to an entire work day reading all of this thread, looking for which laptop is right for me. After looking up a number of suggested notebooks mentioned in this thread, I've noticed that many of them are no longer being made. However, I noticed that Allen speaks very highly of the Acer TravelMate 662 and many other people have spoken highly of the Dell i8600.
I'd like to set my future notebook up to run both ProTools LE (undecided on MBox or 002r yet) as well as Avid Xpress DV. I did notice in the Avid forums that people were having problems with the i8600's and there was no real solution just yet. That being said, I decided to dedicate some more time researching the Acer 662.
Shortly after begining my search for an Acer 662, I realized that they are no longer be sold in the US (although there are still a few units left overseas) and that they cost upwards of $2000. As an alternative, I did come across a few Acer TravelMate 291LMi units at a very reasonable price. The specs for this model are as follows:
Processor: Intel® Pentium® M processor 1.40GHz
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Memory: 512MB
Hard drive: 40GB
Optical drive: DVD-RW
TFT Display: 15.0" XGA Graphics Intel® Extreme Graphics 2
(you can find the full specs
here)
This system looks almost identical to the 662, but I was wondering if Allen or any other 662 users could make any comparisons? I do plan on adding an external HD as well, as 40GB won't do much good when working with audio AND video.
I appreciate any help and praise everyone who has posted in this thread thus-far. You guys have provided me with an abundance of useful info and now I'm just trying to put the final pieces of the puzzle together before dropping a load of cash for a new system!
Derek
(forgive me if this post was plagued with retardation, my brain is barely functioning after trying to take in all this info in such a short time)