laptop computers

[rcsnoopy]

I've got few questions for anyone who can answer. So, i'm interested in purchasing a laptop by the end of summer.

1) I have been looking at dell.com, and gateway.com for pricing information. Does anyone know of any other good, reliable sites for purchasing laptops?

2)Also, I'll admit that my computer knowledge extends only to the realm of desktops. I am not sure how easy it is to swap out parts of laptops as compared to desktops. If in the future i want to upgrade my laptop, is it just as easy as the desktop? (ie, just open it up and pop out the parts you don't want, and in with the new ones?)

3) Finally, i'll be using my laptop at conferences to give powerpoint presentations. I've heard that there are possible issues with UXGA screens and SXGA screens when using XGA projection systems. I read that the UXGA and SXGA won't look very crisp on the XGA projection system, even if the laptops are operating in XGA mode. Is this really a concern?

Any other helpful information on laptops would be appreciated. (ie, personal experiences--"i'm very pleased i got this...", "i really wish i had got that..." etc.). Thanks.

[Jeffbx]

1) Best laptops (IMHO) are Dell & IBM

2) You are limited to certain upgrades for laptops - RAM, HD & peripherals usually. It is not possible to upgrade a processor or video card, for example, in just about any laptop.

3) It all depends. Laptop LCDs and video cards are preset to work best at one particular resolution, and so are video projectors. In most cases you can get it to work fine, but it can take some tweaking. So, you may get it to look great on the projector but it'll look bad on the laptop, or vice versa.

[Chgoman]

As far as the projection goes, as it was said, it just takes a little tweaking sometimes. You can run the laptop on XGA mode and it will probably look fine on the projector. You can set the laptop to run the video just through the projector, just on the laptop screen or both. Sometimes if you're running both the projector image will be a little distored, but if you just turn the screen off (run it only to the projector) then it will be nice and crisp. Each beast is different so you just have to play a little.