I'm looking for a sturdy reliable laptop.

Dell sucks ass. I'm on an Inspiron 6400 and it's starting to slow down tremendously. When I turn it up and push it to the max, it slows down and loads the CPU. However, when I use NHC to control the speed at 1GHz it works fine because the temperature is low. I believe the thermal paste is toast.

I need something reliable. More importantly silent operation.

I was looking at a MacBook, Lenovo T61, Fujitsu S or N series and finally Alienware.

I deviated away from a MacBook because there is no ExpressCard/PCMCIA slot because I would like eSATA connectivity.

Recommend me the best brand among those mentioned that can give me the best bang for buck. Also, if there are other brands that work silently, please mention it to me.

Budget perhaps below 7,000. I can push it a little, but 7,000 is ideal.

This post has been edited by mofonyx: May 20 2008, 07:27 AM

Well I have NHC on, and when I leave it to Max. Battery it runs cool and only at 1.00GHz (processor of course). When I put it on Max. Performance it switches to 2.00GHz. I leave it for an hour or two, come back to see the temp's up to 75oC and it's slow. I have also tried rebooting, coming back and running a software (lets say some lightweight game - WCIII DoTA), it screws up, slows down and cannot load. Putting a cooler under the laptop solves all these problems.

The T61 is a great option I guess, but Lenovo.com (USA) is so much cheaper. You can get a 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache + 2 GB RAM for below USD 1,500. Whereas in Malaysia, you'd have to pay 6,800 for HALF the specs. What the heck is up? And am I able to configure my Lenovo specs to my requirements like the US site allows?

Also, I've mentioned why I would not prefer a Mac - because it does not have a PCMCIA or ExpressCard slot for eSATA compatibility.

I would like to know if Lenovo or Fujitsu is a better option for silent and reliable computing.

Cheers.