Since this thing [mobilty radeon 9600] is pretty pooped out and dead, i was wondering just how far i could upgrade in this machine. (Alienware Area-51m, not sure of the exact number but it's definitely not 7700).

There's two main factors i'm worried about: The Standard and Power.

GeForce Go's 6800 and up all use PCI express and the card i currently use apparently is AGP. So the first issue is, wihch models of Area-51m support PCI Express?

Secondly is power. I'm not sure how power works in a laptop, but i'm GUESSING that since laptops have fixed PSU's that theres some sort of standard and that newer cards would be developed to not draw much more than older ones within a laptop design of say 1 or 2 years. So the 2nd issue is, does a Go 6800/Mobility X800 or whatever need substantially more power than a Mobility 9600?

(I'm actually TRYING to bide my time for a Go 7800, but since that's not out yet, i can't ask if that'd work in this comp :P)

Nobody has a clue? Eh?

*hears the chirping of crickets*