I'm gay.

Not too sure why you have those exact requirements - planning to play games on it or something?

You do know that graphic cards on laptops = absolute battery killer + those laptops are a pain in the @$$ to lug around, right?
Also, games don't terribly work well on Linux, so you've got some weird requirements there.
You're probably better playing the games on your desktop unless you plan to stay at college long hours.  Videos will work though.

Otherwise, you seriously don't need the 2.4GHz requirement - games rely on the graphics card primarily, videos won't need that speed (in most cases that is) and most software won't need it either.
RAM seems reasonable.  Would aim for a 8600GT/HD3600 card if you want games.
I can't give recommendations though, looking at the price, you'd probably be hard pressed to fill your requirements (most laptops with good graphics cards have a "gaming" label which you pay a premium for).

See if anyone else finds something.

EDIT: the Vaio you mentioned has a 9300M card, which is fairly poo poo.  If you're fine with that card, it could be possible.

(This post was last modified: 25/05/2009 05:11 PM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

trademark91 Wrote:well, all im shooting for is a laptop that i can use to play oblivion (with decent quality, obviously) in my spare time.

The 9300M may have a little trouble with Oblivion: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=47613
But I guess you could probably get by on low settings.

A HD3470 would probably work better if you can find a laptop with that.

trademark91 Wrote:plus, ill hav to run advanced programming software due to my major... that's why im shooting for the high cpu and grapics capabilities.

Is that a requirement of the course?  Cause I seriously doubt you'll need it, and I doubt even more it's a requirement.

(This post was last modified: 25/05/2009 05:36 PM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

trademark91 Wrote:the recommended graphics card for oblivion is the geforce6800. isn't that worse than the 9300m?

The 6800 was a high end card in it's day.
The general rule of thumb goes like this:
- high end cards » high bandwidth/speed
- newer low end cards » low bandwidth/speed, but does have newer technology / acceleration capabilities

So basically, older higher end cards run older games better.  Newer low end cards may have a slight advantage for newer games which use DX10, for example.  But in the case of the 9300M, the 6800 is probably still better anyway.  The 9300M is more equivalent to a 6600GT (though the 6600 still has higher bandwidth and probably plays Oblivion better).

IDK, but I played Oblivion a lot on my 7800GT on high-ish (no AA/AF; 1024x768) settings and it would get a little laggy during combat scenes.  Guess the 6800GT could go by with medium settings.

trademark91 Wrote:and as for the cpu, i guess i want it more than i need it...

Fair enough I guess.

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Well, $1100 is around AU$1400
Could give this a try: http://umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew...&sid=35008

(This post was last modified: 25/05/2009 06:02 PM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)