I second the recommendation for the Dell Inspiron 8x00 laptops mentioned on the previous page of this thread, I have all first three models of the series (including the 8000, 8100, and 8200) and they're all good performers for 9x gaming, especially if you can live without DOS by just using Windows ME which is better on newer 9x-compatible hardware anyway.
kanecvr wrote:One problem with the 8000/8100/8200 series seems to be the speaker cans and 7.2v battery pack under the palmrest. The speaker cans go bad for some reason and refuse to work whatsoever - I have two 8200 machines - both with the same exact problem. Then there's the 7.2v battery witch loves to leak.
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[EDIT] - about the Inspiron 8000/8100 - these can be slowed down a bit from bios by enabling CPU battery save function (even when plugged in). A 600MHz model should slow down to 200 or 300MHz (if I remember correctly), and with the Geforce 2 Go it makes a decent machine for newer dos games. The ESS / Crystal that it comes with also has dos drivers. Be wary that not all models allow for this power save feature. I know the 8100 does, but I don't know about the 8000.
I never experienced battery leaks with the little green 7.2v CMOS battery on those older laptops, but I remember encountering speaker problems when I replaced the palmrest on my 8200, so I just replaced the bad speakers with the good ones I saved from the old palmrest and the problem was solved, good thing I save spare parts for these laptops just in case something goes wrong.
And about being able to slow down the CPU, the Inspiron 8000 still has that feature, and the frequency varies on the CPU (e.g. a 700 MHz model may slow down to 550 MHz and a 1 GHz model may slow down to 700 MHz).
If you want a smaller alternative to the Inspiron 8x00 series, look no further than the Dell Latitude C6x0 laptops which are smaller (have a 14-inch screen), but have specs that are similar to the matching Latitude C8x0/Inspiron 8x00 laptops. I have a C640 with a 2 GHz Pentium 4-M and a 32MB Radeon 7500, and it also makes a good Windows ME gaming laptop, the only thing you'll lose is the ability to use the internal optical drive and a module bay floppy drive simultaneously since there's only one module bay drive slot rather than a built-in optical drive accompanied by a module bay slot (I remember finding a cable that plugs the floppy drive module into the laptop's docking station port, but IDK how hard they are to find nowadays), but it's still a good choice if you prefer a small and lightweight laptop over a big and bulky one.