Gaming Notebook -> Pentium M 1.5 or P4 w/oHT 3.0g or more?

If you really don't care about size, weight, and battery life then get an HP zd7000 or a Toshiba with a 17" LCD and a Pentium 4M. These will weigh 9 pounds or more and the A/C adaptor will be very heavy also for a total of 12 pounds + at least. You will still be able to easily move it around the house or take it to a car, etc. but this would not be for frequent traveling or carrying it across campus, etc. In fact, most student notebook backpacks top out at the 15" square or 15.4" widescreen LCD's seen on Pentium M (Centrino) models.

You want to get 128mb dedicated video to allow you to play all the new games. Some games will run at 64mb but at reduced settings. You cannot upgrade the video later so get the best you can. The ATI 9600 or 9700 with 128mb dedicated video should do fine for you.

Hyperthreading will only benefit you if you are doing multitasking (running multiple demanding programs at once) a lot.

See zd7000forums.com for details on the HP 17" Pentium 4M monster.

There is a $100 custom order rebate good for any HP custom order notebook at hpshopping (website)through 12/1/04 -- I have posted the link to the rebate on the hpshopping homepage (under mail in rebates) on another thread yesterday (10/5/04)