17" Gaming Laptop

as far as I know the 7950s will fit in 9400s but you have to cut/trim some of the plastic inside the chassis to accomodate the extra heat pipe.

(I don't have a 9400 to verify this)

Yeah you can use that graphics card. You just have to break this piece of plastic that is in the way of the second heatsink. Anyway, your cpu and lcd may limit your enjoyment of the system. Personally I think I could deal with the lcd but I can't go below 2 ghz for my processor

1920 x 1200 is a very nice screen, i love mine. I have a 7900GS which is waeker than the GTX and I run quite a few games at max resolution and theres no problrms. Although i dont run all games at this res, theres still a handful. Im not sure Id agree w/ "i dont think event the 7950gtx would run this res in the latest games"

I see u want aftermaket hardware. I like to think ahead so ill say this. When the unfortunate day comes and ur laptop bites the dust, dell will only honor what u purchaed w/ the system. It may be worth it to just pay the extra now and so ur covered down the road and u wont have to go out and buy all this new aftermarket hardware. Lets say u buy ur laptop now then do aftermarket upgrades. Then years later when it bites the dust, all that aftermarket hardware u purchaed years ago is now useless becasue dell doesnt honor aftermarket hardware. Just something to take into consideration. I wish i had gone from 1Gb RAM to 2GB when i bought my 1705 but i chose newegg 2Gb ram a few moths later. So when my rig breaks down ill have to re-buy 2Gb cuz dell most likely wont honor my aftermarket newegg ram. (stupid move on my part)

Personally Id downsize the HD ( i have external for movies/music) and up the CPU,GPU and RAM, but thats just me. Also i think if you stick w/ the 1440x990 i think u might regreat it. Honestly my 1920x1200 screen is really sharp, bright, and displays everything beautifully. Id highly reccomend the 1920x1200 screen.



For the GTX u wana install be careful on ebay. Im not one to take apart my laptop to install a new GPU since I have little experience replacing hardware (except RAM). So as long as ur comfortable opeing ur laptop and doing some work under the hood then go ahead.

Some people may not agree w/ my aftermarket/biting the dust/ advice, but I always look for ways to protect my investemnts.

GL dude- hope my 'ranting' helps

id go with the 1900 x 1200 screen, i have this and my games look excellent, my 7900gs scores 9500 in 3dmark05. (Overclocked tho and no heat issues)

1920x1200/7900GS ThE GS can pull really good scores when AS5'ed and Oc'ed. As far as screen res, 1920x1200. you can always drop res down in games to 1440x900 if you had to & it would still look great.

anywhere from 4000-5500 depending on how high the overclock

Hey Ben, thats a good price right there, i paid £1300 for mine just over a year ago.