Quote: Original post by metalmidget
On batteries, is there any choice between types? Or is there one type that's pretty standard?

Lithium Ion is the standard these days; I doubt you'll find anything else. The main battery choice is big vs. small: 6 Lithium cells or 9 Lithium cells. The differences are price, battery life, and weight.

Quote:
Is having 2 batteries recommended?

I have two; I like it.

Quote:
Say I'm using a graphics intensive game continuously, starting with a fully charged battery. How long can I expect the battery to last (roughly, obviously)?

On my Dell with a GeForce Go 6800, I can play Morrowind for about an hour and a half. (Normal battery life is about 2.5-3 hours.) That's with power savings type settings at moderate, so I don't kill the battery as fast as possible but I still get some performance. However, newer games using more shaders would probably be even worse, and newer hardware might be worse or better.

How likely are you to play games on battery, though? I find that if I'm in a place where I have a good surface for my mouse, I can probably plug into the wall for full performance.

Quote:
What sort of hard drive RPM should I be looking for, to not get frustrated?

Ooh, there's a tough one. Hard drive speed is a big difference between performance and power consumption. I recommend either a 5400 or 7200 RPM drive (but that doesn't narrow it down mutch).

I'm happy with a 5400 RPM drive, but you might find it too slow.

Good luck!

Oh man, I completely forgot to come back to this thread. Guess I've been too caught up in using my new laptop!
OK, so I ended up getting an Acer Aspire 5920. Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8600 (either 256 or 512, not sure), Vista Home Premium, 220GB hard drive, DVD/CD burner, 15.4 widescreen.
I turned it on and while I was reading the "read this before using your new computer" pamphlet, it found my wireless router and connected me to the net without me pressing a button! *gasp* I uninstalled the Norton trial version and downloaded AVG and Spybot. I haven't done anything with office yet, but this offer looks pretty damn good.
I got it from JB-HiFi in Nunawading (eastern Melbourne, Aus). I would recommend them to anyone- friendly and helpful staff who knew their stuff. This was the last one, so instead of the $1700 standard price, I only paid $1500! Plus, she gave me the extended (3 year) warranty for $100, instead of $150-200. I also bought a carry case and a wireless mouse for $40 each. So all up, AU$1680. I think I did quite well.

Thanks for all the help guys!
metal

[Edited by - metalmidget on January 31, 2008 2:03:25 AM]

I'd say Dell is a good option

Congrats on your purchase.

That JB Hi-Fi store certainly is good. I like their new location in Home HQ, it's nice and big. =)

As for an office solution, that educational offer is way too good to pass up. Definitely take advantage of it since you are going to be attending Uni soon.

Just be careful with acer. Not to make you feel bad about your purchase but acers have an extremely poor build quality (hence why they are a good value, theres always a trade off) Just so you dont think my statement is unfounded Ive been a computer tech for the past 10 years fixing anything imaginable and acer and dells were repaired by me more then anything, both for hardware that has gone bad. Not saying anything like this will happen to yours cause by the price it sounds like you have a higher end model which those tend to do alot better.