I understand your troubles with an LCD, but my recommendation is leaning toward a laptop as well. Just remove the LCD and save it for when you need it and hook up whatever monitor you like. One thing to worry about is that laptop hard drives, at least in my experience, seriously lack workmanship. Trying to pack 60GB into a drive 9.5 mm tall, spinning at 5400 RPM, with 16MB of cache for a lower price than the other guys creates a fierce cost-cutting environment, and due to desktop systems being many times more popular than laptop systems, laptop hard drives lack R&D. That I see as your real dilemma. I like to tap my fingers while listening to music, and even doing that on my Gateway Solo 9300ve causes the drive to repark it's heads and RTZ! (I really don't know if a full size drive would be any better, though! I've never tried that kinda stuff. ;-) I've stuck regular motherboards in much harsher conditions than any laptops could survive, though. I'm planning to build a computer into my '71 Buick Electra. I want something that can take a wide range of humidities and temperatures and that won't cost a grand every time something breaks. As for motherboard, I recommend JetWay Kocab 18G. I have a computer company sales and service, and I've seen many motherboard put through bizarre circumstances. I always bought the JetWay boards 'cause they're so cheap. I've seen them used in metal-shops laying out on desks for years on end, in systems next to pools (lots of humidity), mounted with wads of paper pressing up on corners, placed into cases that have been insufficiently hacksawed into the right general shape, and used outside of rated specs (i.e., higher CPUs than advertised). I have seen an astonishing return rate of 1 board ever! Even that board only had bad onboard cache after a year of use and it would technically work if the cache were disabled in the BIOS. JetWay boards are consistently more compatible and speedy than other boards, and they keep up to date with their BIOS updates. The Kocab 18G uses nForce 2 video, which I assume is equivalent to GF4 MX. Needless to say, video drivers are not tough, though they don't come with Red Hat. The only issue is...I don't think the 18G (the version with built-on video) is out yet. When it comes out, one of the first places to carry it will be Advanced2000 (www.a2kpc.com). You can also ask them if they can order the board. As for other boards, I have had pretty bad luck with onboard stuff, especially when they are non-standard. One to avoid like the plague is Biostar. The all-in-one boards rarely even work in Windows! And no, I have no financial interest in JetWay nor Advanced2000. :-)
