OT: looking at laptops

[Jason Hayes]

Has anyone out there been looking at laptops lately?

I need to pick one up soon. My current system is nearing the end of its life. 
So I have been looking around for systems that have these general specs.

- 17"+ screen
- separate video card/memory 128+
- full keyboard with separate number pad
- wireless (a/b/g/n)
- DVD +/- RW / CD-RW (blue ray would be nice but isn't essential)
- memory card reader (5- or 7-in-1)
- IEEE 1394 port and at least 4 USB
- the bigger the HD, the better
- I'd be happy with either an Intel or AMD dual core 64 bit
- 2+ G of memory
- weight and battery life aren't real big deals, but it would be nice if it 
could be under 8 lbs and can keep running on the battery for 2 hrs or more.

I use my laptop as my main system to do a lot of graphics and website design, 
as well as database management. I also do the standard word processing, 
presentations, etc. I run VMWare to have Windows ready in the background. So 
I generally have two OSs running, lots of windows open, database, graphics, 
and web apps all running at the same time.

Obviously I would want a system that runs Linux without any hitches.

If anyone has seen anything like that around and can send a note or comments 
on your experiences my way (like troubles with ATI vs. NVIDIA video cards, 
issues with wireless, etc.), it would be appreciated.

So far, I have seen systems like

Acer Aspire AS7720 at Best Buy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8621707&type=product&id=1193234282708

Something in the HP Pavilion dv9500t series
http://www.shopping.hp.com/series/category/notebooks/dv9500t_series/3/computer_store?jumpid=in_r329_personalization/browse1/home_SDP

Toshiba X205-SLi
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8553898&type=product&id=1190677997542&DCMP=KNC-TLC&ref=30&loc=KW-1153

I'm open to others if you know of them or know where I can find sales or 
specials.

Thanks!!

-- 
Jason Hayes