Choosing a developing laptop

Once in a while we get to write a letter to Santa Claus asking for hardware. This letter is about laptops, and this one goes like this:

Dear Santa Claus (the manager who signs the checks, thankfully someone who understands the value of a fast machine),

Here's what we need for laptops to our .NET division (yeap, the guys that use dynamic environments don't need as much power):

• Dell Latitude D830
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz/4MB/800MHz) with nVidia Quadro NVS 135M
• 2.0GB, DDR2, 667MHZ [1X2GB DIMMS]
• 160GB serial ATA HDD 7200RPM
• 8x DVD+/- RW Drive

NOTE1: A T7500 could also be an acceptable solution.
NOTE2: VT, x64, Santa Rosa and Vista compliance seem to be guaranteed; no 64bit drivers availability for now :(

This laptop should be upgraded to 4GB 1 to 1,5 years from now, extending the laptop's lifetime to 2.5 to 3 years. The thing is, we should probably be forced to install 64 bits then to see more then 3.5GB...

The laptop's lifetime can be shorter if:

• core needs raises / price per core prices drops
• SSDs prices drops / performance raises way over 7200 rpm's disks
• memory need raises above the 4GB limit
  

As for the development workstations needs, those will be covered on a latter letter (post).

Here it is. As most letters kids send to Santa Claus, we should always be prepared to get a not so cooler toy. And don't forget to state how much we loose waiting for long compilations on slow machines. And if this works out, the next level is the rest of The Developer Bill of Rights.