Always had good luck (and service) from Dell
Originally Posted by
Loren Pechtel
Ram: Maxed for XP. I'm not going Vista at present.
Cpu: As fast as reasonable. Core 2.
Graphics: Not a big deal. I play few real-time games in the first place.
HD: Big.
Screen size: Less of an issue.
Optical: I've yet to see one that didn't offer everything from a plain reader to a DVD burner.
I do expect to spend at least $2k.
No dock, I've got better equipment already.
The follow Dell should work for you quite well (for about $3K):
Dell Latitude D830
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 (2.40GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800Mhz Dual Core
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2, with media
LCD PANEL 15.4 inch Wide Screen WUXGA LCD Panel
MEMORY 4.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
HARD DRIVE 160GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™
VIDEO CARD 256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 140M™
WI-FI WIRELESS CARD Dell Wireless™ 1390 802.11g Mini Card
BLUETOOTH WIRELESS Dell Wireless® 360 Bluetooth Module for Windows XP
FINGERPRINT READER OPTION Touchpad with UPEK® Fingerprint Reader
BATTERY 9 Cell Primary and 6 Cell Media Bay Batteries
PRIMARY POWER OPTIONS 90W A/C Adapter
FLOPPY DRIVE No Floppy Drive
SECURITY Norton Internet Security™ 2006 15 Month Subscription
BACKUP OS DRIVERS AND SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION Resource CD