Another CQ45 user reporting in... CQ45-127TX to be exact
Running Vista and everything's running good so far, except for the warm at the left palm rest area, a little too warm for my liking.

HP Total Care Pack - extended 3 year warranty cost about RM200 (Compuzone price) Some shops will charge u more, and some will even throw it in as free gift.

But if it's given as free extended warranty, chances are its not exactly HP Total Care warranty, but just shop level. Meaning, 1st year you can go claim warranty directly with any HP service center, 2nd & 3rd year have to bring back to the shop which you bought it to claim warranty.

Share the same feeling as you (and I'm sure many too). Prefer OEM disc over recovery disc. That's also one reason why I prefer laptops with just Freedos, and get OEM Windows license. A little more work from right out-of-the-box experience, but can customize the system (partitions) setup better.

I've blog a little review of my CQ45-127TX laptop after using it for about 3 weeks. Hope it helps people considering to get it...
Review: Compaq CQ45-127TX

Think there's no Wimax for Centrino2 yet... heard there's a bug with the wimax chip, so we'll only get it in Centrino2 later