Buying a laptop, good places to customize?

[alman9898]

Well, I went through Dell and HP, but wasn't exactly satisfied with all the options. So I went to ibuypower and customized this set up

Case ( Battalion-101 HEL-80 15.4" 16:10 Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Case Original Metalic Silver Color )
Processor ( Intel® Core 2 Duo Mobile T7200 Dual-Core Processor (2x 2.0GHz/4MB Cache/667FSB) )
Memory ( 2048MB(1024MB X2) DDR2-667 PC5300 [Notebook Memory] Corsair Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( Mobility 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 PCI-Express 3D Video )
Hard Drive ( 160 GB 5400rpm Serial-ATA-150 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive )
External Raid Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [HEL-80] )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem [Notebook] )
Network Card ( Build-in 10/100/1000 Network LAN [Notebook] )
Mouse ( None )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] )
Extras ( [Free !!!] Extra Li-Ion Battery 6-Cell [HEL-80] )
Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case )
Operation System ( MS Windows XP Professional w/ Service Pack 2 )
Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner ( None )
Additional Software ( MS Office 2007 Basic Edition )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
TV Tuner ( None )
Video Camera ( Build-in Digital Web Video Camera )
Headset ( None )
Wireless Network Adapter ( [Free !!!] Wireless 802.11 a/b/g 3945 Mini-Card )
Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

for $1,574.00

Now my question is: has anyone had any experience with iBuyPower? How was their service and are their better prices out there? Basically for the laptop I'm looking for high capacity hard drive, a capable video card (so I can play CS:S), and XP Professional (no ****ing Vista please) with Office installed.

[Publius Clodius Pulcher]

All I hear about ibuypower is bad. One of the kids at my work has a laptop from ibuypower and it overheats etc.

Overall, a laptopis not meant for gaming. Are you just trying to play a spot of CS:S on the side, or do you seriously wanna game? If it's the later go with either Alienware or pimped out Dell, maybe an Asus. Realize that it'll be heavy and hot, not in a good way.

Hopefully you just want to do a bit on the side, and you have a desktop for your serious gaming. If that's the case I'd got with a Dell, one with either a low-end Nvidia card or the new Intel X3100 (which I hear can pick up 30+ fps in CS:S).

A few tips are, don't upgrade RAM until after you get it, because it's significantly cheaper.

If you really don't want a dell, then check out Newegg for some good deals on good laptops. Here are a few that may suit your needs.

Excellent Asus with Nvidia DX10 card

Asus, but significantly improved w/ 8600 and 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo

And http://www.notebookreview.com/ is an excellent site to research notebook purchases.

EDIT: Quick look on NotebookReview forums revealed this topic. Again, I'd advise against ibuypower.

[alman9898]

I don't plan on primarily using it for gaming. Anyway, the problem I keep facing is that the really good options out there all come with Vista...