1.) I plan on using this laptop for schoolwork and gaming (mostly FS2, Oblivion, and a few others). I think it's sufficient. What do you think?
Ah both links wouldn't load all the way, so I'll say what I can based off the specs in the title bar...
Looks more than sufficient for FS2. Widescreens are quite nice for web and document work. On games they typically give you the black bars on the sides to make a rectangle screen if it's an old game or the video doesn't resize to fit. If you get a laptop bag make sure it'll fit a widescreen first, some don't. Kensington makes a line of green rough plastic/fabric exterior bags, rollabouts, and a backpack I think that will take a beating. You can find them at Circuit City. Technically speaking, the hard drive is of decent capacity for what you are doing, tad average speed but in laptops that translates to longer battery life. Of which while on that subject - if you are going to be unable to get to a wall socket or won't be lugging the power adapter around - get a longer lasting battery/spare. One last point on laptops, is that if you do Photoshop or graphics work a lot, you'll find that your images won't look/fit the same way on other people's PC's due to the widescreen stretching. So you'll have to learn to compensate for that.
2.) Will the laptop and monitor both work at the same resolutions?
Depends on what you set it at... and no that's not a dumb answer.
Native resolutions being matched would be best, but if you are going to be switching
around resolutions for games to look right and things along that order, than you'll probably
notice a difference. If you are going to work at 1024x768 on the laptop all the time, then
get a monitor that has the same native resolution, it'll look better. I once had a laptop with
a UXGA high resolution screen. I ended up putting it down to the 768 because everything was
too small to read or the applications didn't play nice. Then what I ended up with was a picture with
less quality and everything being fuzzy because of the non-native resolution being set that way.
3.) With the monitor, keyboard, and mouse being connected/disconnected at a regular rate, should I invest in a docking station for my dorm?
Depends on how much that small convenience of unplugging 3 things is worth to you?
I've got *counts* 7 plugs into the laptop I'm typing on now, and I use it as a desktop 80% of the time.
Granted if you'll be in a pinch for time and have to go quick, yeah it might be nice. If you can get things shipped to you at school, then I'd just wait and see. Budget for it, but if you find you don't need it then you will have that $$ for something else.
4.) There is a lack of sound card. I don't have any need to be doing sound editing work or anything like that, and it does have a headphone jack. Is not having a sound card a big deal for what I want to be doing with it?
If you read that over, you answered your own question. If you are doing as you list, then no
you won't need a dedicated sound card. On laptops, typically you would get a Sound Blaster external
USB or PCMCIA card with breakout box anyway if you were going to do surround sound or editing.
The sound will be processed by the CPU, maybe slow it down a little bit, but with what you're doing it probably will never be noticed.
5.) Should I get the WinXP OEM disk instead of the retail one? (The OEM disk is substantially cheaper, but I'm concerned about reinstall problems in the event something happens and I need to reformat.)
Ah I've never seen any difference in the OEM disc's I've gotten for Windows. It's either a system format/recovery disk (if from a company like Compaq/Dell) or a relabeled full Windows disc. I'd go for the full one myself. Personally I have to wonder why you are paying so much on WinXP? Unless there's something you "must" have in Pro or the media center edition... just stick with Home. A couple years back I picked up XP Home for $80 at Office Depot on a sale day.
6.) I may want to dual boot some combination of XP, Vista, and Linux (Distro undetermined) at some time in the future. Will I be able to do that with this machine?
I don't have experience in dual-booting... but from what I've read XP and Linux are fine. I believe Vista and Linux are fine... getting all three on there doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but if it's not already do-able it should be in the near future.
7.) Are there any questions I should have asked, but didn't?
Have you factored in costs for misc items like the mouse and any other wiring, a printer, laptop bag, security software? (Tip - McAffee is evil! Norton nope, and ZA mildly irritating)
Ah go read reviews if you haven't already, check forums (besides here), see if there's been any problems or patches you'll need to get or resolve. Make a list of updates you'll have to do to all the software and Windows... because when you are actually at the point of installing... you'll forget half of it.
Other than that, price hunt some more. Google products (formally Froogle) might be worth a look, PriceWatch has been around for a long long time. A Pricegrabber.com another comparison tool. Ten to one you're better off going retail for the return policy, but there's always eBay.
Good luck.
