Pre-Built or Barebone Notebook? Opinions Please

[gtd2000]

Hi There,
Long time since I posted on these boards actually and first time in this section of the woods too.

I'm a fairly experienced PC builder/tweaker/overclocker and due to work committments often travelling for a reasonable amount of time.

Now I'd like to say that I am traditionally negative towards laptops as far as "my money" is concerned (I have always been provided with one by previous employers...) because the general performance is woeful in my opinion compared to a similarly spec'd desktop PC.

Well times have changed and my current employer does not provide me with something to lug around the airport etc and I'm considering buying my own.

So anyway, I'm a bit of a gamer and naturally past experience has proved that laptops were lacking in this department.

I've been looking at a couple of reasonably priced laptops on offer that I was considering:

Compaq Presario R3000T

&

Compaq Presario Notebook with Mobile AMD Athlon? XP-M Processor 2800+

Both have what is described as

ATI Mobility Radeon

graphics which is integrated and no doubt pretty much a non-event in 3D gaming.

The question is although those two notebooks will be perfectly adequate for my use 99% of the time, I've also considered building a barebones notebook hopefully using a chassis that has a better graphics system.

What are your opinions about building a barebone notebook and where is the best place to find deals on them? Perhaps you feel that as the above two notebooks will fulfill my requirements for the majority of functions I should just forget about building one?

Thanks in advance

 

[Abhi]

How much are you willing to spend ?

 

[gtd2000]

Well to be honest I'd happily settle for one of the pre-configured HP or Compact PC's between - $699-$800 or so.

I would hope to be able to build a notebook of a better standard for upto $1000 or so.

Perhaps this is unrealistic though?

 

[Naruto]

What are you looking for in a laptop?

Simple to General Use?
Portability?
Performance?
Gaming?

I have experience with barebones and could help you out with what you need.

 

[gtd2000]

Hi Naruto,
Well, essentially it would be for general internet, emails and office applications.

I'd like to have the capability of playing DIVX/XVID/MP3 files that I have probably while on the move - i.e. at an airport or while on a flight etc.

As I've recently been holed up in hotels I've missed gaming to an extent, although this is really not an important aspect at the end of the day.

I found this site with an ECS G556 and came to the conclusion that it "might" be possible to build a half decent gaming standard notebook for not much more than the regular offerings.

I'm assuming I can easily pick up a CPU, RAM & HD for under $500.

At the end of the day all I really need is a DVD rom, 15" screen, min 30GB HD, 2hr Battery, and a 1GHz+ CPU I would expect? (...That's for what I will be doing with it 99% of the time anyway!)

Please feel free to give your advice regarding barebones laptops as it is always good to get another viewpoint

 

[Naruto]

Don't trust being able to get that 556 from that place, they have been OOS from the beginning and the price suggests that they won't go it any time soon. That is a ridiculously low price and the only reason why they haven't updated it is because its not orderable.

 

[gtd2000]

Where do u think a good place to order from would be then?