Just a few thoughts. From http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2808&p=2 :

" While the previous Core Duo chips were all numbered as T2000 series processors, the new Core 2 Duos are all T7000 and T5000 chips. The T5000 models feature a 2MB L2 cache while the T7000 have a full 4MB L2, and as the name implies all of these CPUs are dual core. "

So, I would suggest taking a T7000 series that would have the additional cache. T7100 should be fine though if you want a little more oomph go for the T7250.

I would likely suggest the 1280x800 is adequate as that is what my 15.4" laptop is at in terms of resolution as any higher and I'd have trouble reading the screen without using the bigger text.

I would likely suggest 2GB of RAM if you plan on running many apps on the laptop at one time as the additional memory can be put to good use. Also, if you go for integrated graphics some of this will be used by that.

I think your graphics card choice is OK though if go down you would gain a bit in battery life I would think.

A 5400 RPM drive should be fast enough unless you are doing a lot with the hard drive.

JB

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Home Desktop: VoodooPC Hexx. AMD Athlon FX-60, 2 GB RAM, 2 x 250 GB HD, 7900 GTX video card. Home Laptop: HP dv4000, Pentium M, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, ATi 700 Radeon Mobility

The one thing that I tend to recommend when considering options on laptops is to look at things that you can upgrade vs. things you cannot upgrade or at least not upgrade easily. In this case, you can always upgrade the RAM later if you want. The processor and video card are NOT things that you can upgrade later (if you can, it will be rather difficult and certainly very expensive). Thus, you should decide now what you want in terms of a processor and video card because you will be stuck with them unless you buy a new laptop.

Having said that, a "bump" in processor speeds are typically not all that cost benefitial. If you are spending more than about $100 extra for a bump in processor speed, you are not likely getting your money's worth. Bumps in processor speed usually does not result in much noticeable performance benefit unless you are doing REALLY processor intensive things like editting/processing video, applying filters to pictures when editting them, etc. The stuff that you listed as your typical uses are not really what I would consider "processor intensive" (unless you are doing massive spreadsheets with LOTS of calculcations).

Thus, generally you will get more "bang" for your buck out of a video card upgrade than a processor upgrade, especially when going from integrated graphics to a dedicated video card. But, again the current uses that you listed are in general not graphics intensive items (unless you decided to end getting Vista instead of XP...then Vista could use the extra graphics horsepower).

Overall, the best bang for the buck in your situation is the RAM upgrade. If you had to choose one of the three and could never modify anything else, I personally would go with more memory over processor or video card upgrades. But the BIG advantage of RAM is that you can always upgrade it later. So, you could use you "one" upgrade right now for the processor or video card and then later upgrade the RAM if you wanted or needed.

Personally if it were me, I would go with option #2 (assuming the 1 gb comes in one DIMM) and then order a second 1 gb DIMM through a third party (such as Crucial) for about $50 or so...and save roughly $50. But, then I don't have any qualms about cracking open a computer and upgrading stuff myself. If one where to have qualms about such things, then option #3 would likely be my first choice. The only exception is if I thought that I REALLY needed (or wanted) the extra processor speed. I would say that a bump to the 1.6 ghz processor is likely worth the $50 increase. If you go the next step, then I would say go all the way to the 2.0 ghz processor as it is only $15 dollars more than the 1.8 ghz, but I am not sure if I would consider a .4 ghz bump worth $145 or not. It is in that "gray" area. I would not consider the $200+ price increase to go to the 4 mb cache processors worth it unless I REALLY needed the speed.

As to Vista, any one of the processors would likely have Vista just fine. If you want to run Aero (the 3D interface), then I would likely suggest that you want the dedicated graphics card, not the integrated. Vista will run fine without Aero, but if you want the "eye candy" then the added graphics horsepower is likely a good choice.

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[soapbox] Backup good...no backup bad!! [/soap box]

To be honest, the laptop you've found looks very good for what you're planning to do with it. I've been out of the loop awhile, but if its FSB is indeed 800Mhz, then don't worry bout a thing, maybe get the 1.8ghz version, but thats your call for things to be a little faster. Since your bus speed is fast, everything is going to be generally fast. Its a good rule to follow. Anyhow, the only other thing I can suggest is to get an extra gig of ram, 2gb total. Sives upgrading later, and things are accessed better. Plus that'll let windows have more ram to play with for your integrated video. I quite disagree with getting anykind of discrete video card, not only are they incredably expensive (and even though upgradeable sometimes, its still difficult, expensive and yada yada) but they sap battery power like a tree hugger, well, on a tree i suppose.

And, maybe don't look at getting a faster hard drive, but possibly one with more space. Totally your call, I think your system, except for having a bit more ram, is perfectly fine for what you're doing. It won't break down due to heat anytime soon, it won't be too pricey, and you will feel better about that once it ages out, which happens in about half a year . (lappys depreciate in value big time, especially the DX9 capable ones now) UNLESS you want to play some serious games and have a laptop with an quadruple gpu system as hot as the sun's surface and literally would be, don't worry about faster speeds and video. You don't need a hotrod to get to work, a nissan would probably have better mileage anyway. Same goes for lappies.

Hope this dispells some buy the latest greatest stuff demons.

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Do or Do Not, There is no Try - Yoda (my roomie) M1710 - 3.26Ghz Core 2 Duo T7600 (Bus Speed 233Mhz) Mult. 14X Voltage 1.313 volts. SuperPI 2Million Bestest Time : 31 Seconds. 2Gb Ram at 333Mhz 7950 Go Gtx (525 Mhz / 600 Mhz) 512Mb <-Hope to get up soon. Have a "Hardware" Question? I might be able to help! power2022@gmail.com