igratton

Hello folks,

the time has come to lay out some dollar on a new laptop.
The machine will be basically be used for software development using:

WinXP Pro
Eclipse with tomcat and jboss for J2EE
VS.NET 2003 c# for windows forms, web apps and web services
SQL Server and MySQL databases
Office Apps
Web graphics design
Web Access
The odd game
(The machine will also dual boot to Gentoo Linux with GDM)

Basic Requirements
Quick CPU
Between 1gig - 2gig memory
60-100gig HD
DVD Burner
Itegrated LAN and WLAN (11g preferred)
Good speed graphics with 128meg upwards (would be nice to have both d-sub and DVI as I'll run a 2nd desktop on my other monitor)
Good quality 17" Widescreen (at least 1400x800)
Good battery life (a lot to expect with the above spec) for travel once in a while.

Would like to spend < £1500 (inc vat) if poss

My shortlist so far is

Dell Inspiron 9200 - Seems to have a good review in PC Pro although they do seem to think the screen could be better. Battery life does seem good mind. Can get some better prices from the Dell Outlet but its obviously more difficult to get exactly what you want.

Mesh Ultima PCI-E - Chap at work has the version below this one and it seems real nice. Also PCI Express so should be slightly quicker/future proof. Comes in a touch pricey when spec'd up 3.6gig CPU with 1gig ram (£1859.4 inc VAT)

HP Pavilion zd8079EA - popped into PC World yesterday and they have the lessor version of this on display. Screen seems really good like the X-black sony displays and it seems well put together.

Anyone have any other suggestions ?

Thanks in advance