Rich's Tongfamily (Richtong.net add-on)

We are looking for a new notebook standard at “Ignition”:http://ignitionpartners.com. I’m partial to the build-it-yourself models that ASUS has. I have the older M3N and it is just as good as any other that I’ve seen (Dell and IBM thin and light), but you spec exactly what you want. Here are some reviews;
* ASUS M5200N: Elder Brother of ASUS S5200N
There are two places to get it:
* “JNCS”:http://www.jncs.com/static-temp/nb-as-m5n.php. The build it option has a 768MB with Pentium M Model 735 at $1,298. Then you add a nice big hard drive $189 for a 80GB 7200 Hitachi 8MB drive and $129 for Windows XP Home plus $20 for ground delivery and you get a screaming laptop for $1748. This is a well know reseller.
* “Proportable”:http://proportable.com/detail.aspx?ID=5. 768MB, Pentium M Model 745 (1.8GHz), 80GB 5400, no XP for $1772 not including shipping, so quite a bit more than the JNCS, but I’ve ordered from them before and they are reliable.
* “Topmic.com”:http://store.topmic.com/asm5nmincela.html.
$1300 for base plus a 512MB Ram, 1.8GHz Pentium M 745 and 80GB 4200 rpm (so less power) and $99 for XP Home is $1658 with free shipping. Low price, but I’ve not heard of them, so caveat emptor
* “Chembooks”:http://www.discountlaptops.com/index.php?section=configurator&regular_model_id=898&model_id=803. They have the $1690 with the Pentium M 745 (1.8GHz), 512MB memory, 80GB 4200RPM Toshiba hard drive and Windows XP Home. NOt a bad deal, but haven’t heard of them.