The Sager 5650

Yes, it's a good laptop, but the ATI 9000 doesn't appear to drain much more than the 7500. Also, the P4 mobile processor doesn't really give you much more batt life considering the P4 in the 5660 will run at 50% when on batteries anyways if you let it. The mobile processors cost more making the price of the laptops close to the same. To compare:

5650
2.0GHZ P4-M
512MB RAM
UXGA LCD
40GB 5400rpm
Radeon 7500
$1948

5660
2.66GHZ P4
512MB RAM
UXGA LCD
40GB 5400rpm
Radeon 9000
$1922


With the 5660 you get much better performance with the 9000 and a faster processor.
With the 5650 you will get maybe 15-20 more minutes at most (guessing) use on a single battery over the 5660.

Close to the same price.

It should come set to do it by default, but:

For the 5660:
During boot up after your computer posts and shows CPU/RAM specs keep pushing "F2" when it says at the bottom of the screen to hit "F2" to enter setup. This will take you into the bios screen. Use the arrow keys to move left and right and highlight the tab "Advanced" then arrow down so that "Intel Developed Advanced Menu" is highlighted and press "Enter" to go into the sub menu for it. Now the second line should say "Throttle Duty rate" Arrow down to highlight it and use the "+" and "-" keys to change it's value. 50% means it will underclock by 50% and 0% will keep it from underclocking when on the batteries and of course there are inbetween settings. Once you've done that, push "F10" to save and exit.

For the 8886:
During boot up after your computer posts and shows CPU/RAM specs, keep pushing "Ctrl", "Alt", and "S" when it says to push them at the bottom to enter setup. This will take you into the bios screen. Use the arrow keys to highlight the menu on the top "Power"... you may have to push "Alt" to highlight the top menu so you can arrow over. Now arrow down and highlight "Low Power Saving" and hit enter. This will keep your CPU running 100% when on the batteries from my tests. Once you see the check mark next to the one you selected, arrow over to the "Exit" tab and arrow down to "Save and Exit" and hit "Enter".

Also, you can right click the desktop and go to properties/screensaver/power and set it for maximum battery if it's set in the bois to make the change.

Regarding the 5650 vs. 5660...I was once thinking the same thing, but if you truly want mobility, the dual battery setup should be good enough. Chances are you'll only be going plug to plug; if not, save your money and use it to get that extra battery.

Agreed, dual batts should do it. I looked into the 5650, but I then got hooked on the 8886 :-) Lol, as far as the GPU, the 7500 is a good card, especially with 64 megs of ram, but it's still older than the M9, lol. If you can get the M9, it'd be best to.