Limitdown, I really appreciate the information, especially the comment about Win2K v.s. XP. However, I'm NOT going to use this laptop as my trading platform (see original post) but instead for spreadsheets, PowerPoint, and other non-trading related tasks. Thanks for the information though. Very helpful. Cheers!
Yes, totally true, everything you said. For me, the big two things were the need for SCSI (to run the plextor PX-40, the finest drive ever created for the extraction of digital audio) and for multiple monitors. I travel constantly between 3 places, so I wanted to have one machine that could do it all. I got tired of switching between a laptop and a desktop all the time, between email and installing a new esignal every week or so... FWIW, I have the SS40G. It is definitely not as quick as the asus A7A266 mobo that I had before I swapped it for the shuttle barebones, and I'm not sure why (it may be because I am not using the shuttle onboard VGA, or possibly because I am only using PC2100 ddr, whereas the SS40G is designed for PC2700, or the ASUS VIA chipset is faster than the SIS chipset on the shuttle, or maybe ASUS just makes better stuff than shuttle - I would love to know why but I am clueless...). But it is considerably faster and better for my needs overall than a laptop, so I am quite glad I made the switch. I was also able to get the SS40G box for over $100 off refurbished on newegg. I'm thinking I might sell it eventually and swap up for the AGP model that I linked to on this thread... **It is worth mentioning that most laptops also have a monitor port, and under win98 you can run multiple monitors with one laptop, but not with win2k or better, making it pretty moot for trading with any degree of stability...
Before you buy a Toshiba check out a ECS Desknote also called i-buddy. My daughter uses one with 2.4 intel . It's a really fast computer setup and one can change configurations. She has it loaded and with winxp pro. No problems whatsoever. I have two friends with Toshiba both are extremely dissatisfied. I plan to acquire one of these desknotes in the future. www.desknote.net