for trading, i'd go with the cheaper one. 2 gigs is plenty of ram to run three screens off it also. If you are doing any high end graphics stuff, maybe the higher end one. i personally wouldn't notice the diff cause i just trade and surf the net with my PC's. The matrox site has a link where they list resolutions with each video card brand, but it looks like you found that I think. All Nvidia cards will run at the highest resolutions. The digital dualhead2go, will even run 24" inch screens at max res. I'd prefer 2 of these over three 20's. I am also hunting down a laptop. i may get that same one, but I want XP. You can still get Dell Vostro laptops with XP in the 17 inch version. A similarly equipped one runs about $800.
Bought the dv9720us, the cheaper one, this morning from Staples. I'll let you know how it goes. It's so cheap, $699 after a $50 rebate, I may keep it as a backup to run some monitors and eventually build a nice kick ass desktop or a higher end laptop. I'll keep my eye open for new HP coupons in the meantime. BTW, here's a great site for info on notebooks where you can ask anything you can think of and get a very knowledgeable response. http://www.notebookreview.com And one more thing. as far as XP goes I bought a media disc of Vista Home Premium and I'll probably format the hard drive and reinstall the software to get all the bloat wear off it which really slows it down. Or I could partition it and install XP on one and Vista on the other and do a dual boot. We'll see.
An update. Just posted this on notebookreview.com. There's a new coupon today for $500 off and I got the better one and will bring the other one back to Staples. ------------------- Hi, Guys Well I finally got the notebook I wanted and at a great price. If you remember my posts I tried to get the HP dv9700t a few weeks ago but waited a day too long and the $400 off code had expired. And I need a new notebook so I bought a HP dv9720us with an integrated card and an AMD chip for what would be $699 at Staples which has them on sale this week. So that is a great price and actually it's working great. But I really wanted a better chip and hard drives and especially a better video card and this also has a better battery and network card. Then today they came out with a new code for $500 off. It's great. So I'll bring the AMD one back to Staples. Just wanted to thank everyone here for all your help and the knowledge you shared in educating me about the realities of notebook components. The one I bought is amazingly only $948 plus tax after the $500 rebate. Could have upgraded a few more things but I'll use the extra money toward an HDTV at some point to use as a monitor. BTW the rebate code for this is NB1391. It will go quick if you're interested. The one I bought has these components: HP Pavilion dv9700t customizable Notebook PC * Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) * Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T7500 (2.20 GHz, 4 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) * 17.0" WXGA+ High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1440 x 900) * 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) * 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS * FREE Upgrade to HP Imprint Finish (Radiance) + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam + Microphone * FREE Upgrade to Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection and BluetoothTM * 240GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (120GB x 2) * LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support * High Capacity 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery * Microsoft(R) Works 9.0 * HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope Product price does not include a $8.00 recycling fee per unit* This item ships free $1,448.99 $948.99