I had a hunch the "old math co-processor might ring a bell as you and I seem share similar some similar engineering type properties :D I use Autocad at home for various projects related to my hobbies and home business and my little cheap 4 yr old lap top runs Autocad just as seamlessly as my computer at my engineering "day" job. I kind of doubt it would do very well if I was trying to work with huge complex 3d assemblies, but until I am modeling a complete commercial airliner, I don't think I will need to worry about it :D

I dont have any machines with Expressbus but it is a 2.5 Gbit/s standard versus PCMCIA card bus of 1066 Mbit/s.

Expresscard is a smaller version of the PCMCIA card. It will probably replace it in time. The Toshiba laptop I was looking at had both.

http://www.alienware.com/Configurator_Pages/area-51_m5550.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M5550-R3&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
$1049 with free GeForce 6600 Graphics upgrade
Spend $60 or so at Newegg to get another 512MB RAM and $90 or so on a 100GB hard drive and you'll be set for a while

I opted for an Alienware Intel Core-2 Duo 1.66Ghz laptop instead of the Toshiba. I am upgrading it with 2GB RAM and buying an extra laptop drive. The RAM and hard drive I am buying as a seperate purchase from Newegg for about the same price as an upgrade. The 120GB drive will go into the laptop and the 40GB drive will get removed and stored on a shelf as a backup. The extra RAM will probably get sold on Ebay. I am buying an Expresscard with Firewire interface and hope to do some video capture/overlay.

I think the Intel Core-2 Duo chips are winning the laptop battle. Smaller die sizes and less power mean more runtime on a battery. I like two cores or dual core either one for not having the system response slow down while I am multitasking. I opted for a little more expensive system because my company has a zero interest deal and I tend to keep a laptop for a while. My last one is 120MHz with no USB port or Firewire(yuck!).

If you want small the Dell XPS 12??? is fairly interesting, but you do pay for the smaller size. I went for a 15.4" screen as a compromise. Big enough to see detail and small enough to be less of a burden than a 17" monster.

JMO, of course. I am not an expert, but I did visit the Holiday Inn website.....

If you're comparing last-gen Intel v. AMD stuff, then yes the AMD stuff is cheaper and performs pretty well. However, it's pretty widely acknowledged in all the trade papers and websites (ie., Tom's Hardware) that the Core 2 Duo processors are significantly better -- significant enough to more than justify the price premium. It's a new microarchitecture (v. the Core Duo processors). You can get a C2D processor in a laptop from Dell or HP.com for around $1100. The C2D will buy you an extra 9-12 mos of life out of your PC in terms of being able to have the power to run apps 3 years from now.

Souk,

If you were married, your wife could help you with this.

That said, I have used both makers of main chips for years and no problems with either. As long as you keep them cool they almost always outlast the computer.

Looking for speed, get a lot of RAM and a very fast (and large) hard drive. Nothing beats memory or access speed as they usual bottlenecks are not processor speed, but the speed that the hard drive can supply the information TO THE CHIP so it can process it.

True the C2D is the best chip on the market. However, he is talking about getting a CD which is a pretty crappy chip for todays standards.

I'm a computer tourist.

I just bought a machine with the Intel Core 2 Duo.

I told the builder that I wanted to do video work as a hobby so he set the Duo to run faster in series instead of two singles. The desktop has other parts that I know nothing about.. I do have some paper work if anyone's interested.

all I know is to follow what Joeaksa said about which e-mail program and anti-virus software to use.


btw.. the Dell 2407 wide screen is nice for my act [it's a small brain act].