asus notebook

Well, in my opinion, ASUS make rock solid high quality stuff. You can't go wrong with Asus. Its a Dell that wont exactly do cross-country-dirt-biking, but you also dont have the same price tag. But something quite not right there... They put in a 1GB GDDR3 nvidia, but ram is 667 !?!? wtf !?

For a hack, you sould stay with C2d - Nvidia - Sata. For wireless be sure to check if the pci-e slot is not soldered and can de substituted (99% will, I just say that because mine can't, but has an extra slot) - or one that comes with an atheros or broadcom wifi. If not, these are 10-20€ on ebay. Realtek audio, AC97 or any HDEF audio chips will do the trick, even funkier ones are voodooo'able, but best play it safe. Any problems, you can always go USB audio, but this is VERY rare and seldom on laptops.

Having said that, I found my current laptop (sig) to be blazing fast, solid and well built. Its an Acer, and I never thought I'd ever buy one. But the Gemstone Blue line (i think they are called) are absolutely amazing! Construction, detail and PRICE - to me, they aopted to loose money on this line to redeem public opinion. Got mine for 700€ believe it or not, 3 months ago!

Models to look at

6930
8930
6935g