<p>yeah, price would essentially be the same.</p>
<p>i’m looking to buy a laptop when Merom chip (Intel core2duo) is on the market. I’ll probably max it out with 2GB of RAM, DVD-RW, 256MB graphic card, and at least 100GB of hard drive. This is gonna cost me about $1800.</p>
<p>Another option is to get a generic laptop with Dothan chip (Pentium M-reportedly 40% slower that Merom), 1GB of RAM, CD-RW/DVD, integrated graphic card, and a smaller HD. This kind of laptop can be purchased around 800~900 dollars. Then after 2 years I would switch to another 800~900 system, which then would have superior specs compared to this.</p>
<p>With all that technical stuff set aside, I’m wondering which option would give me better performance after 3 years…I’m leaning towards the former option, but there are so many things that can go wrong with a comp in 4 years (spyware, virus, hardware malfunction), so the latter is the safer bet.</p>
<p>Any suggestions?</p>