Hi
I am very partial to Toshiba/IBM/Sony/Futjitsu all
are Japanese built .. the rest of then ( all of the laptops) are built in Taiwan
in 2 factories .. just crank out different cases ..
The Japs build better stuff than Taiwan ( look at cars ,
as an example )
Good resource is www.eritech.com
Refurbs ( warranty or demo returns ) with a significant price saving as well as
warranty .. believe it or not Costco is also okay ( but new)
I would go with the P4 with hyperthread over an AMD for
just that reason ( Hyperthread is like a dual cpu ) want at least 1 gig of ram (
if he's going to run trading stuff on it ) Prefer the ATI graphics card
over a Nvidia ... min 5400 rpm HD , prefer 7200 rpm ( few have
that )
The Amd will run a little warmer than the P4 , but the P4
( they now refer to the cpu's as 500 and 700 series etc ) isn't that cool
either .. always elevate the lappy off the desk at the rear or get a lappy
cooler for 25 bucks .. heat kills these babies ... and it's reflected off
the desk surface back onto the main components
17 wide screen is real nice for trading ... but a little
big to carry .. but worth it .. all the new ones allow an extra hang on external
monitor so you can go dual ... but get a lappy with a PMCIA slot and you
can add an additional video card also ...
That's about it .. I found eritech to
provide good service / great prices and if you are not in CA .. no taxes
either ...
Happy to help anymore if I can ..