The ultimate desktop PC killing notebook

THE CHEAP B*stard is back, with a vengeance. Our own Desiré Athow does a good job of bringing you his Weekly Hardware Deals, with an emphasis on UK deals and the prices in Pounds Sterling.

But I'm no Desiré, I'm just a Cheap B*stard. I currently don't live in the UK, and I wouldn't recognise a British Pound even if it hit me in the head. As such, I don't spend money *SO* often as to warrant a weekly column. So, to get back to Cheap Basket School, let's recite the Jim Munroe Definition of a Cheap B*stard: "I go to extreme lengths to avoid extravagances other people term necessities, such as cars, and keep any recurring costs to a skin-n-bones minimum."

With that thought fresh in mind let's move to the issue: notebooks. You like them, I like them. But *when* I decide to spend an awful lot of money (and anything in the 4-digits range qualifies as such for me) in one, I don't really like paying a premium price for "ultra-thin" fancy ones or buzzwords like "Centrino" which mostly means WiFi on the system board chipset, and a "processor-slowdown when idle" feature.

My quest is finding the perfect desktop PC replacement, in a notebook. As a Cheap B*stard, I don't travel around a lot, and for me a notebook is just a "desktop PC replacement that you can move around". Or in other words, a PC that I can easily move from the coffee table to the bedroom and back to the sitting room or take with me every once a while to another location. I imposed upon myself a 2.8 Ghz P4 cpu, 512MB of RAM, and a 40GB hard drive, and a large screen (15" or more) as the bare minimums.

Six months ago, my search for an affordable non-Centrino Pentium 4 notebook led me to find two great deals: 2.8 Ghz Sony VAIOs and Celeron-based Toshiba ones. Today, as I prepare to pass on my Sony PCG-FRV26 to a relative, I am once again looking for an affordable P4 notebook, to be used as my primary system for software reviews. Of course, the "Corporations" would prefer that we all spend more than a couple thousand greenbacks, like the "Desktop Replacement" Sony VAIO VGN-A190 currently retailing for $2699 greenbacks. My answer to them: in your dreams!. Here's the list of my possible buying candidates, compiled after a day of web browsing around. All prices in U.S. dollars, at time of writing, and from U.S. sellers, of course. Remember also that there are companies out there offering your own personal U.S. Mailing address, so you can receive packages from north-american sellers like Amazon.com USA and have the items shipped back elsewhere in the world.

IBM's Thinkpad G40: 3-Ghz P4, 40GB HD, 256MB Ram, 15" LCD, and dual-band Wi-Fi for $1436

This is the first one I found, and I quickly decided it wasn't good enough. However, I recognise that some people might be willing to pay a premium price for the "eye-bee'em" brand. I once did. I no longer do. It be of interest for the conservative Cheap B*stard. It sports a 3 Ghz Pentium 4 cpu, a meager 256MB of RAM, a CD-RW/DVD combo drive, and a 15 inch SXGA screen. Dual-band Wi-Fi is on board but lacking the latest "g" standard, with both 802.11a (5 Ghz) and 802.11b (2.4 Ghz) compatibility, making it superb for moving it between the workplace and home, since 802.11a seems to be much more prevalent in work/corporate environments. Find it here.

Acer TM254ELCI: 2.8 Ghz P4, 40GB HD, 512MB RAM, 15" LCD, 802.11b Wi-Fi, for $1,099

The Cheap B*stard in me is yelling "go with this one!" inside my head. For $337 greenbacks less than the IBM, it offers two times the memory, and a only slightly slower CPU (what's 200 Mhz, after all?, -he wonders). It also includes a CD-RW/DVD combo drive. Find it here.

Acer ASPIRE 1662WLMI P4 3Ghz, 60GB HD, 512MB RAM, Wide screen (WXGA) 15.4-inch LCD, DVD+/- Writer, 802.11b/g WiFi for $1305

This one is simply screaming "Buy Me". Just compare it to the IBM: for less money you get a wide-screen LCD, 60GB of hard disk space (vs. 40) and a dual-format CD-RW and DVD (+ and -) writer. I am currently leaning towards this one. An ATI Radeon 9700 video chip with 64mb of dedicated video memory sets this one apart, including a very handy ntsc/pal video out connector in the back. Find it here.

The ultimate Desktop Killer:
Acer Aspire 1710 - P4 3Ghz, 120GB HD, 1 GIGABYTE RAM, 17 inch LCD, CD-RW and DVD-recorder (+) for $1895

A 120-gigabyte hard disk sets this one apart from all other notebooks, plus the unusual gigabyte of RAM, and a nVidia GeForce FX 5700 graphics chipset with 128 MB of dedicated video memory. The 17 inch LCD will undoubtedly be a pleasure and would put 15 inch CRT owners on the brink of suicide at first sight. Needless to say, half of my brain wants to kill the Cheap-B*stard and go with this one.

Which one will I finally choose?. Read The Inquirer often, and you will find out. Which one would you pick from my list, and why? I'd like to know.
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