how much of a pain in the ass would it be to swap out the gpu to 128mb in an ASUS?

not possible.

get the CL56 instead

Well, given that he was looking at a W1N suggests to me he's looking for wide aspect, so the CL56 might not be the "silver bullet" in this case.

Sager 3790 perhaps?

Worse than a walrus' schlong.

completely redesign the laptop

You'd need a hair pin, a piece of bubble gum, 3 phillips head screws (NOT flathead), and a sponge. Make sure the sponge does not have that abrasive side, because the card is very sensitive. Oh wait, that's not it...I guess it can't be done.

Unless, of course, you are close with Richard Dean Anderson. Then who knows.

In all seriousness, don't think that one can be done. If you want to share some of the things you want in the lappy (why you were hoping for the Asus, etc.) maybe we can suggest some other routes.

get a desktop?

Well, you may end up with quite a few Sager suggestions around here. Do you need the mobility? Can you be tethered? If you are gamer, then there might be some other problems with the IBM.

I think 1280x800 should be good.

Well, there is the possibly of the:
Sager 3790 http://pctorque.com/3790.php
Mitac 8050 http://www.hyperdatadirect.com/produ...cification.htm

I think both of those can be configured to your liking....unless I missed something. Of course, there are plenty of other resellers to choose from. I just gave you two quick links to see the systems.

Also, there are some threads starting to develop that are talking about the possibility of a new gpu in the Asus m6bne. Of course, people are pretty hesitant to believe it, but who knows! Some rumors even say by the end of this months we may see something new. I am not making that claim myself, but others have. One such thread is here: http://notebookforums.com/showthread...9&page=1&pp=15

I'll keep looking.

Sager 3790 all the way. And if you want you can make it look incredible with a pain job from PCT.

There's one now! A Sager recommendation that is. And there is nothing wrong with that. However, that is why I asked about battery life and whether you can be tethered. The 6-cell battery has terrible life, imo, and the 12-cell seems to be a matter of taste. It sticks out a bit from the back and bottom. Some people don't mind at all, others can't get used to it.

If battery life is important, then the 12-cell would be pretty good. You can find pictures on this site. Just search. As for the Mitac, there are plusses and minuses all over the site as well. If I had to give an overall impression, I would say that it is a good notebook but not great and not bad. It is kinda a middle ground. Good GPU, better battery life than some, worse than others. It is generally regarded as a nice looking laptop, and I would have to agree. Quality overall seems to be somewhat subjective and deserves a thorough search on the site.

The Mitac was on the top of my list for a little while, but I needed more battery life. Right now the Asus m6bne is on top. The GPU is the only thing that holds me back for now. However, when I think of the games I play, and how I have a nice desktop that I built for playing games, and that I will not be in a place where I HAVE To play Doom 3 on my laptop (and I stop letting my testosterone make my decisions) then I find that the 64 meg version of the 9700 would do me fine. Besides that, there have been some interesting threads on this site demonstrating the capabilities of the 9700/64. It is not as weak as some people think. Alot of people are playing even Doom 3 with no problems at all.

Regardless of all that, I know you want the higher gpu, so I will leave it at that. I would only add though, that the missing 64 megs of gpu ram do not necessarily mean that the computer is not a good gaming system. After all, a good number of people would say that if you want a "gaming" system then you will need to get into the amd64 or p4hh camp. It just depends on what you mean (and what YOU need) by "gaming". I would encourage you to seek some real gaming experiences in addition the the commonly found benchmarks, that, imo, are not as beneficial as many make them out to be (though not without value).

Now that I have talked too much, I still understand that you want the 128meg. So do I! hehe...

Aopen 1557GLS or CL56.

"i need a 15.4" widescreen lappy with high resolution (1280x854 minimum) that can easily run doom 3. something like this would be nice...

Pentium M Centrino 1.7+ GHz
768MB+ DDR
60-80GB HD (Hitachi 7K60)
CD-RW/DVD drive
128MB DDR RADEON 9700"

I may be mistaken, but I don't think that the Aopen 1557GLS or the CL56 fit those specs as far as display is concerned. Aren't both of those 15 inch?

Off the top of my head, here's the options:

* you have that Sager 3790 with a great screen, good GPU and pretty much all the specs you want, but with the 12-cell battery issue.

*You have the Mitac 8050 that fits just about all the specs but seems to get a so-so vibe around here. Battery life is middle of the road.

On the "compromise specs" side, you have:

* CL56 and Aopen with pretty much your specs lacking the 15.4". Pretty good battery life. Plenty of information all over this site for the CL56 and a few good reviews of the Aopen.

* Asus m6bne which fits everything (as far as I can tell) except the GPU (has the 64mb instead of the 128mb) Battery life is great and the second battery option is awesome. Good quality, etc. Plenty of comments around here to learn more.

Some others off the top of my head are the Twinhead, and of course, all the big brand names. Of the brand names, I am not a huge fan but you can find some gems in there depending on what you need and want. Acer seems to have a good following and may be worth a look.

Still, your best bet may be to make a compromise on one of your specs, or wait a month or two and see of some of the rumors about the Asus are true and they upgrade the GPU.

Looking over your specs again, if battery life is not a huge issue or you don't mind the Sager 12-cell, that might be the one for you. Good screen, good GPU, good looks, it should have all your specs. If the 15.4" and the 128mb GPU are most important, then the Sager and Mitac are still probably on top of the list. Unless I am forgetting some, as is more than possible.

Hmmm, instead of upgrading the mem from 64 to 128, how about upgrading the GPU from 9600 to 9700? I believe they are pin compatible PGA's.....

What GPU would need to be upgraded to the 9700? Do you mean from 9700 to 9800?

As far a the GPU memory is concerned, I know very little about how upgrades work. That is, I don't know if ipgrading from 64 to 128 is even possible in a gpu, or if the only upgrade one could really talk about would be from a 9700 to a 9800. I just wish the Asus had the 9700 with 128 (at least).

Now, I apologize for when i realize that you were not talking to me and I am making no sense at all!

Upgrading the video card in a laptop is a very difficult proposition. Once you get past the physical work itself of removing a soldered board, cutting the new one to match and putting it in the old socket you will have to deal with issues of power consumption and heat.

To the user who started this thread:
Read this post, forget about upgrading the gpu - all major issues issues are mentioned in RIT's last post - and also the aOpen 1557 DOES fit your requirements.
For what you need in your lappy, I would recommend:
1) Sager 3790
2) aOpen 1557GLS
3) Mitac 8050

Does the Aopen 1557 have the 15.4" widescreen? I was not sure, but I could not find any pics or specs with it. But I didn't look too hard either! If it does have the 15.4" then I suppose it would be on the list.

Yes the aOpen 1557 has a 15.4 WXGA screen.

EDIT: Sorry, I guess I have been living in the dark - the 1557 GLS comes with SXGA+ i.e. no widescreen for it. Damn, I have always thought it was a WXGA laptop.