FFXI LaptopFollow

That item is no longer active. In general, when it comes to laptops stear clear of ones with the Intel Graphics solutions for games (check the details tab on them). ATI and Nvidia has some integrated graphics that aren't all that great for gaming too--but their worst solutions are typically still far better than the Intel integrated graphics. Also look at the memory arrangement for the video. Some will share system memory instead of having their own video memory. This can also create some bottlenecking (not to mention, they can potentially use up system memory, forcing Winblows to swap things to the hard drive as memory runs low)

Windows 7 can be a bit quirky with FFXI (especially if you want to run 3rd party apps), so you may want to reserve the option to put an xp partition on their in case you run into trouble. So, may want to watch out for the hard drive space if you are the type that likes to keep a lot of stuff on you laptop (photos, videos, etc).

As for hard drive speed, 5400 spindle speed is a common speed put in bargain laptops (lower power and heat). While 7200 is nicer, it won't really affect gamePLAY so much as the LOADING times of the games/zones so long as you have enough physical memory to avoid a lot of swapping to the drive. <This point cannot be stressed enough for laptops--load up on physical memory.> Once an FFXI zone is loaded, that's pretty much it until new elements come in (like a new wave of mobs warp in to campaign in a Beastman controlled zone). Otherwise, you likely won't tell much difference between a 5400/7200 drive with FFXI other then an extra couple of seconds on a zone change--bottle necking in FFXI is more dependant on system/video RAM and CPU/GPU. Hard drives have gotten prety cheap--especially if it's still on the IDE spec. and not the SATA. If it's not specifically a SATA drive, you may be able to upgrade to a larger/faster drive fairly cheap at the time of purchase so it's worth checking out--videos and such that load from the drive will run much smoother at 7200 RPMs.

The biggest impact for your laptop will usually be limited to your video solution and RAM solutions though (aside from the CPU, of course). Go for the newer releases of ATI/Nvidia video options if you can (again, stear clear of Intel), and the more/faster RAM when you can. 1GB/2GB is pretty good for XP, but not so much for 7. You pretty much need to double your RAM when going from XP to 7--try to avoid anything less than 2GB if you can if you are going to be running Vista/7.

Raist