Need new laptop + 2 LCDs + Docking station

[PCBrandon]

Budget: ~$2100 for laptop, both LCDs and docking station, and preferably a decent wireless keyboard and mouse. OS is covered, but I don't think you can get a laptop without an OS (and actually reduce the cost of the laptop )

Brands: I've been happy with Dell. I wouldn't mind something from the ThinkPad series, though.

The laptop will be used primarily for web development. I mostly just have my text editor and quite a few browsers and explorer windows open. Sometimes Photoshop comes up, but it's for light work. I sometimes game, I'm looking at *maybe* trying out Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. If the graphics card needed to play those games makes the price go past the budget, I can live without. OS will be Vista, but I often get bored and switch to a Linux distro or XP every once in a while.

The laptop needs to be light with a screen of 15.4". A long battery life is a huge plus.

This is what I want to do. At home I'd like to have this setup: a docking station where I slide my laptop into with a wireless keyboard and mouse already hooked up. When the laptop boots up, it'll immediately span both 19" LCDs. The monitors don't have be super high quality. Average quality would be fine.

Any thoughts, links?

Thanks!

[glc]

It's probably over your budget, but the Dell Precisions on their small biz site look like they are made for this kind of use. They have docking stations available and come with Nvidia Quadro graphics adapters.

[Lespaul20]

I think you could stay maybe under budget with Precision. Also, the Thinkpad T41s are very similar to the Precision. If you budget around $400 for the LCD's,( unless you need something of higher quality), and $200 for the Docking stations so you will have around $1500 for the Laptop. It's doable but might be hard.

[thefultonhow]

ThinkPads are the only laptops I know of that can drive two external monitors. One would be on VGA, the other on DVI.

[PCBrandon]

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I'm finally ready to purchase this stuff.

I'm thinking about going with the Precision M4300 for $1681:
Intel®Core™2DuoT9300(2.50GHz)6ML2Cache,800MHzDualCore
Genuine Windows® XP Professional, SP2 with Media
3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service
NVIDIA Quadro FX 360M, 512MB Turbo Cache memory (256 dedicated)
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA Anti-Glare LCD Panel
4.0GB, DDR2-667MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM (Free Fall Sensor)
24X CD-RW/DVD w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™
Dell Wireless® 360 Bluetooth Module for Windows XP
Dell Wireless™ 1395 802.11g Mini Card

I'm also getting a docking station bundle that comes with two LCDs and a wireless keyboard and mouse for $675:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...04&sku=SOLM652

I actually just found a coupon on the above bundle that knocks off $112

Thoughts?

[glc]

2 questions - is that hard drive big enough, and do you need a DVD burner?

[PCBrandon]

Hard drive should be big enough. I have a 500 GB external drive plus this laptop will be storing all my work files, music, and movies. I don't think I'll really "need" a DVD burner, but I'm going to go ahead and opt to spend the $56 more for it just in case.

Found out I won't be able to purchase this until at least next Tuesday.