Well after much advice from a few laptop simmers as well as a load of amazing positive reviews all over the net, I have purchased what is touted as the ultimate gaming laptop...the best and fastest ever witnessed by many hardware review outlets like PC Magazine, etc etc....so, soon I will really know myself if that new Pentium M 2.0 GZ processor is really as good as they all say.. fingers crossed for sure as I am under the impression the new laptop with 1 GIG memory, GEForce 6800 Ultra and a 7200 rpm hard drive will rival my P4 3.0 Desktop monster...It may be the ultimate gaming machine at just under $3000 but I hope it will be the ultimate flightsimming machine too!Peter

First congrats on a very cool notebook. I would have got one had it been a little lower than astronomical in price here in Canada.Please report back on first impressions esp running FS.

Peter,Very nice. Should I end up with the XPS2 that's the config I'd order. Looking forward to hearing how it performs which should be great.Dave

Peter,I just bought a Dell laptop as well. It isn't a gaming machine,per se, but it's pretty close to what you got:Pentim M (915 chip) 2 GHz1GB DDR2 RAM (533 FSB)80 GB 5400 HDDGeForce Go 6800 Mobility (Ultra? I have NO idea).DVD-RW x8Windows XP Pro SP2Just so you all know, I am coming from a Mac backgroound (about 15 years doing graphic design as a hobby) so Windowsis all new to me. I HAVE used pc's in previous jobs that I've held,but this is the first Windows machine I've actually purchased.I picked it up mostly for my new career in real estate, but I waswondering if this would be good enough to run MSFS 2004?Thanks for any help (and please, no Mac-bashing; I've probably heardevery excuse there is as to why Mac's are better than Windows andvice versa). Thanks...Jim

Jim,Your machine sounds very much like an inspiron 9300, in which case the video card is a regular 6800, not an Ultra. I understand the Ultra is reserved for the XPS2, for now at least. Otherwise, the 9300 and the XPS2 can be configured almost identically, with the 9300 coming out cheaper.There have been forum members here that have the 9300 and said that it runs FS2004 well. Based on the specs you have, I think it will run with out any issues.