I may have to get another laptop, if I can't get my current one repaired. If I have to do it again, I will go for a lighter laptop (less than 10 lbs,), with more than 1.5 hour battery life and a non noisy fan.

This time my intended uses are zbrush, rendering and 3d applications usage. I don't care if its not a workstation card. A gaming gpu would work too. My current sager 4750 has an ATI 9700 mobile which has been great. Just very hot.

Which type of cpu should I look at now too? THis is more important than the GPU for rendering. Dual core seems to half render times, which is really nice. But this is from a desktop comparison. I know nothing about the latest Amd 64 mobile processors and the new Intel Dual Core processors.

Any info would be useful.

One more thing, integrate graphics are probably a bad idea. I need some horsepower, zbrush seems to like that and lots of RAM. 14-15 screen this time for portability and to keep the price down.

I'd definately try to go Nvidia, as they are much better at modeling. I would try to get a Core Duo with at least 1.83 Ghz. Probably 2.0. If you care to entertain the idea, you can get a killer E1705 that will destroy anything else, for alot less that $1600. If you want the portability, I'd look at the Asus A8JM, if you can find em, and the Compal from Powernotebooks (HEL80, I think?).

Check out the Tecra A6. 14" wxga. Starts at just under $1000 w/ celeron & a intel integrated card, but you could cusomize it from Toshiba with a Core Duo & quadro 110, get RAM & HDD thorugh newegg & come in right about $1600 total.

If you're only gonna get a 110, I'd go for the Latitude D620. It can be had for around $1200.

I'm not a big fan of nvidia. I have had more problems with them than I have had with ATI, driver wise. So I am not going out of my way for a nvidia laptop. It doesn't really matter for my usage. I do want a laptop that has easily to get parts. This is the problem with my sager right now. I'm leaning towards the 15.4" Dell with WSXGA screen. An XGA screen would be awful, I need to have some resolution, WUXGA is overkill.

From my experiences, Nvidia performs extremely better. But at any rate, the Dell D620 has WXGA+ (1440 Res). E1505 would also be a decent choice. The x1400 won't handle large models very well, but for most average size models it will suffice.

So what would handle large models better? My current limitation is 2.2 million in zbrush. I have to use selective hiding for that too.

x1400 ~= 9700

how about the sager 5750?

I do love sagers, however there warranty has really let me down. Also it would be a huge bonus if you could order parts. Like motherboard replacements.

Really, anything over a x1400 (x1600, 7600 or higher) will handle anything fairly well.

512MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 120M TurboCache™ [Included in Price]

Is this card better than?

In the Lattitude D820 My config with 2 gigs of ram comes around 1,685 bucks. Any discounts?

You can always buy ram from newegg. That'll save a couple hundred or less. The 120m is equivilent to the 7400, but since it is a quadro it will have the extra power in 3d apps. Have you thought about the Asus S96J or A8JM?

What are the advantages of the one I just posted and these 2 asus models? Do they have a quadro in them?

Any Heat issues?

The S96J will be cheaper ($1200 or so). Really good build quality. The video card is the best you can find in the 15.4" (x1600, along with the 7600). You can get it from Powernotebooks with a three year warranty standard.

With the D820, I've heard about screen issues as well as build quality issues. Dell apparently has good service though.

I would just read reviews. Plenty of info out there.