if you could change 1 thing .....

Don't forget about $300-$400 from the price tag depending on who you go to to get your Compal CL-56 or Asus M6BNe from...to tell you the truth, if the price was about $100-$200 difference, I would definitely have gotten the Asus.

I too have an Asus (M6BNe). Kinda wish I had at least 128 MB video card; although i haven't had any problems with the 64 MB to tell ya the truth.

REALLY wish they made it over here with the WSXGA screen.

If I could change one thing on my notebook i'd have to change the graphics card.

I have the ASUS M6Ne...if I could change one thing, it would be its its weight
Although it's not THAT heavy... lighter is always good.

Graphics for sure, if that is even a possibility in the Acer Aspire 1620 series.

Otherwise, I'd either swap this 5400rpm drive for a 7200rpm one.

Or maybe, switch the 512MB Ram for 1024MB.

Go to istnc.com and check out their prices, i'd say they put m6(b)ne's at most $200 more than cl56's. I just ordered a m6ne from them and they're great people. Size/weight would be the thing to change, and the more vram would be nice too. But it seems like the performance difference from 9700 64mb and 128mb is minimal (looking at other's benchmark comparisons). Most of the power from video cards is the processor, not the ram. You can always overclock a little if needed.

You've ordered it, but has it arrived yet?

That's good to know, that was the one component I was worried about on my Gateway 7422GX I should be receiving today. I am hoping to play Doom3 smoothly on it and it has an ATI Radeon 9550 with 64mb of vram.

Other than that, I was already considering upgrading the hard drive from the 80GB 4200rpm to a Hitachi 60GB 7200rpm.

I would change the model number from Acer Travelmate 800 LCI to Acer Travelmate 8104.

Graphics card or the noise level of the fans.

I would want a swapable graphics card.

iBook:

PCMCIA slot
line-in
1 xtra firewire and/or firewire 800
64MB Radeon 9600/9700
memory card reader
12-13" widescreen display for dual document viewing
gigabit ethernet
oh yeah, and shave some weight so it's ~4.1lbs

pr50wner,
isn't there an option in the synaptics drivers to disable the touchpad when typing or w/ a mouse present?

i have the m6ne...i think i'd like for the exhaust to be on the back, so it wouldn't blow on my hand...having the usb ports not all in one spot might be nice too...i'm not a serious enough gamer to care about the vid card...it's perfectly fine for hl2, css, etc...

I wish my M6Ne was smaller.

Clearly the M6 was designed as a widescreen and then adapted to standard later.

They could trim off 2-3 centimeters from the width and 2cm from the depth and not lose anything.

And I wish ASUS would release a tool to customize the DJ and quicklaunch buttons.

and maybe a little more angular/masculine design (although it still is one of the sexiest looking laptops out there)

Exchange all plastic with aluminium and carbon fibre, add venting holes beneath the hard drive for better cooling, and add a higher capacity battery.

I'd replace my Hitachi 5k80 hard disk with a nice, fast, and silent solid state hard disk... now I just have to find several thousands of dollars somewhere.

I got it friday, it's in perfect condition, love it. Not one dead/stuck pixel, everything AOK. Istnc.com's customer service is A+++, i was going to change the drive from a 60gb 7200 to a 100gb 5400 (for more space) after recieving but later changed my mind in lieu of the 100gb 7200's to come out soon. They already sent it in the mail and just said to send it back for a full refund. They state that there is a 20% restocking fee on returns, but don't inforce it. They changed my memory (upgrade to 1gbx1 2700) the day of shipping and called right back the day of recieving regarding some driver problems. They test every unit, memory burn battery check etc.. Will do what it takes to make you happy. I even heard they switched out a notebook for a bad pixel free of charge (except shipping to them).

This notebook is very nice, the only thing i don't like is the width, it's wide for a 15.1in, due to the chassis being designed for both a wide and regular screen. The performance is great and the keyboard is lovely. The weight is a bit on the heavy side, exspecially with the extra battery, but with both batteries can get 6-7 hours of usage in battery saving mode. The chassis also is a bit creeky, hope not from carrying it in a sinza sleeve with books in a backpack. But all notebook will make a little noise when twisted the wrong way. All and all satisfied, the best thing i found in 2 months of hunting.

The V6V's (V6800V) look tempting though, have to see what they run for once they come out. But looking at the review on tom's hardware, not very impressive performance wise. They look cool as hell though, and seem to be the right size. Asus power!!!!!!

Oh yeah, hard drives are by far the most obsolete part of any computer system. Unstable, power hungry, noisey, and very prone to failure. The only thing that move at 7200rpm, or any rpm. Wait about 10 years (or maybe less) and we should see some viable, affordable solid state solutions. NO MOVING PARTS PLEASE!!!!

My processor. Same speed, maybe higher, but from an 81 Watt to a 61 Watt, or whatever the specifics are...