Price estimination for laptop

[NeoBrain]

Hi all,
yes, it's yet another of these kind of threads, but I am absolutely new to the topic "laptops & notebooks"
So, I'm going to buy my first laptop in a few months and need to know what price I should expect, so I can still change my opinion about some parts if needed.
The parts I wanted to buy are:
- I don't know what things are important about motherboards, but it should at least support PCI-E
- a dual-core CPU, don't care if Intel or AMD (from what I heard Intel is much more expensive while it's only a bit faster, so probably AMD); should be at least 2.5 GHz each (though I didn't have much experience with dual-core either, yet)
- a middleclass GPU with equivalent (or better) power to an ATI 2600, at least 256 MB VRAM, better 512 (I ain't sure wether ATI or NVIDIA, as the future situation is totally unclear in my opinion); should be a PCI-E card
- at least 1.5 GB RAM, better 2 GB; this would be the first thing I'd give up if the price is too high, but 1 GB is absolute minimum
- I'd prefer having no OS installed at all, but if there is one installed I can still format my hard drive ;-)
- HDD: more than 200 GB minimum
- maximum display resolution: http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...20070102233334 , I'd love to have at least 1400x1050, but as I said, I have no idea what's normal for laptops, so I'd be fine with 1280x1024, too.
- display size: This is not too important for me, something better or equal than 16" should be enough I guess (I'm on a 17" for a desktop system atm, so I'm used to this size )
- display refresh rate: > 75 Hz
- I could need a 4.1 (better 6.1) sound card, but I guess these aren't too usual for laptops so I'm prepared to buy this one seperately
- 2 USB ports, 4 would be better however.
- a DVD drive (I'm not that keen on bluray)
- The overall power consumption or battery life isn't that important to me, but it shouldn't exceed the usual limits
- and one last thing, which is really important to me, is that the laptop should be VERY quiet. My current computer is SOO loud, it ain't fun anymore

And I could also need a short explanation on what I need to look at when buying these things and what's usual for laptops would also be very nice:
- Motherboards
- HDD
- RAM
- the noise which is produced by the laptop
- display size
- the current development of PCI-E (I heard sth about PCI-E 2.0, is that something I really need?)
- what about the "normal" graphics card that are used for laptops?
- Oh yeah, and just a quick enumeration of brands which have especial good/especial bad linux support would be nice, too.

The laptop should be used for a _bit_ gaming (just things like Warcraft 3, Counter Strike, Nexuiz), normal desktop use (e.g. programming, working for school, etc) and mainly as a desktop replacement (as I'm tired of all these wires and of the huge effort to move my PC to a LAN party or something)

So, to repeat my questions:
- How much will the things I listed above cost approximiated? I don't ask for anyone to look up the exact prices, just someone with knowledge to tell me the price ranges
- What is "normal" for current laptops regarding the things I listed?
- Any other comments on the setup?

I'd like to thank for anyone taking time to read these things and answer my questions!

[curaga]

Well..

- display size: This is not too important for me, something better or equal than 16" should be enough I guess (I'm on a 17" for a desktop system atm, so I'm used to this size )
- display refresh rate: > 75 Hz

The 17-inchers are NOT a delight to carry around, at 3-6kg they put you down. Also the big screen takes more battery. And no LCD screens have refresh rates of 75Hz They're all about 60Hz.

Also powerful laptops are usually noisier than desktops, they have smaller fans.
The price range.. I'd say about 1200e, dunno about US prices

[NeoBrain]

Well..
The 17-inchers are NOT a delight to carry around, at 3-6kg they put you down. Also the big screen takes more battery. And no LCD screens have refresh rates of 75Hz They're all about 60Hz.

Also powerful laptops are usually noisier than desktops, they have smaller fans.
The price range.. I'd say about 1200e, dunno about US prices

Okay, thanks for that answer!
Thinking about your words and also informing myself a bit more about laptops I came to the decision that they aren't really that more useful to me than a normal desktop pc, so I probably will spent my money on a desktop one.

[RobbieAB]

Check the Dell website, as it will give you a ballpark price on what you want, and probably a far more accurate estimate than anyone here...

Motherboards

You get what you get in general in the laptop market, as far as I can tell.

HDD

Realistically, once the disk is big enough to cover all the basics, and give a little bit of space, it's big enough. Use a USB HDD to store the pr0n/warez/music collection.

RAM

2GB expandable to 4GB is pretty much the standard outside of the seriously cheap models. Running Vista in less is unrealistic.

the noise which is produced by the laptop

How much did you spend? Cheap laptops will use cheaper desktop components, so run hot, so make a lot of noise. Of the various machines I've got, the laptop seems quieter than the desktop when idling, but when under load, it's gets a bit noiser. Avoid the really silly consumer market "Gamer" Laptops and noise shouldn't be a huge issue.

display size

15" max. Anything bigger is heavy. If you want lightweight, 12". Based on what you've said, 15" is probably what you want. Most laptops will come with a VGA port if you really need a bigger display.

the current development of PCI-E (I heard sth about PCI-E 2.0, is that something I really need?)

No, you don't automatically need PCIe, there are laptops using AMD CPUs putting ATI integrated graphics on a HT-X bus. Whether this will give you the graphics power you need I don't know. So long as the laptops graphics card has what it wants, don't worry about it.

what about the "normal" graphics card that are used for laptops?

What about them? Most will be based on a variant of a desktop chipset, probably tweaked for low power consumption. nVidia at least give official support to laptop chipsets long past the corresponding desktop chipset gets legacyed. (I know, I have one of the older chipsets they support in my laptop)

Oh yeah, and just a quick enumeration of brands which have especial good/especial bad linux support would be nice, too.

ASUS are supposed to be good. Dell are hit and miss, they claim not to, but often the basics "just work".

Dell don't officially support Linux on any laptop outside of their linux models (the consumer grade ones running Ubuntu, or the seriously enterprise stuff running RHEL), but most of their low and middle end consumer stuff tends to be reasonably well supported for the basics anyway IME. From what I have heard, their Linux models are almost a pleasure to use as a linux laptop, if you can get hold of them. When a Dell system doesn't co-operate, it can be very frustrating though. The areas I would expect to see problems would be sound cards, and wireless cards.