NP5790 or NP2090 - What to do?

I need a laptop that will be good for both gaming (FPS, MMO, etc) as well as portable enough to serve as my main workstation for work. This is something I plan to lug to work every day and then bring home and game on.

The NP9260 made me salivate, but I have a zd8000 now which is pretty heavy by itself (the adapter is a BRICK) and the idea of carrying around an 11.55lb laptop every day as well as the crappy battery life has turned me off to this. So, I'm looking at the NP5790 and NP2090.

The NP5790 is at first glance exactly what I want. However, I looked at the NP2090 and a few ideas popped into my head. What if I got a smaller (read: more portable) laptop that has pretty much the same specs and then just hook it to an external monitor (say, a nice big 22 incher )at home for games? Both computers seem comparable in specs (except for the video card, of course, but I would expect to upgrade the NP5790 later), unless I'm missing something.

So, I guess my questions are:

A) What (if any) difference would there be if I were to get an NP2090 and hook it to a docking station (say, a Targus Express card) and to a nice DVI monitor versus using the laptop screen itself? As I understand it, laptop screens are usually higher response time anyway, so could this in fact have a -better- response time? Will there be noticable lag? To put this in contrast as to how picky I am, I got a wireless mouse for my laptop once and couldn't use it for games, the .1s lag was too much; if the docking port is like that too, then I'll pass. Also, it looks as though the 2090 doensn't have direct DVI out, though the 5790 does. Of course, I probably wouldn't use a monitor with the 5790...

B) Upgradability. It looks as though the video card on the NP5790 is upgradable (to hopefully the 8700 ) and beyond. Is the card on the NP2090 upgradable as well? I love my zd8000 but it has a crappy video card (an x600) and it's soldered in so not much I can do about it; I could easily squeeze another 6 months out of it if I could simply upgrade the video card, but I can't.

C) Raid. As I understand it, you can hotswap out the optical drive on the NP5790 and put in another hard drive that you can RAID with your primary. I don't see the option for the 2nd HD on any of the reseller websites, though. Is this that big of a factor?

I should note that price isn't as much a factor here, since the NP2090 with a nice LCD and docking port will be roughly the same as the NP790 without.

Anyway, any other advice? I really like the look of the NP5790, and while I will take function over aesthetics, it is a factor. Also, I'm a big fan of numpads I just can't decide, help!

 

The 8600M GT in the Compal IFL90 (Sager NP2090) cannot be further upgraded.

 

From pictures of the NP2090 It looks like it has DVI out... http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/product2x.cfm?ProductType=2090&SubType=V#
You can see the pictures there. I was planning on doing the same thing, ordering the Sager NP2090, and using my 19" widescreen monitor. Not to hijack this thread, but i have a question about this. the max resolution on my 19" Samsung 906bw is 1440x900, would i want to then get the np2090 with the WXGA or WSXGA+ resolution? I would be switching screens fairly often between my apartment and the classroom etc (college student)

 

The NP2090, otherwise known as the Compal IFL90, does not have DVI or HDMI out.

 

then what is that in the picture?


EDIT: oops thats vga my bad. Ok with my question before but using the vga output, which model would i want? probably the WSXGA+ with the high resolution right?

 

The resolution on your external monitor will be controlled by the 8600M GT, not the resolution on your laptop screen, so its resolution won't matter.

Once you teach your 8600M GT what resolution you want on your external monitor it will remember that setting.

 

If your budget is 2000+ then go for 5290, if not 2090.