Greetings,
I figured that this might be useful here, as well as DBUG -- here's what I would consider when buying a laptop:
Can one find a suitable machine for around $1200? No AMD please, I’d prefer a [Intel Core 2 Duo] processor. Specs would be appreciated.
Yes, at the moment, AMD is not the performance "king", nor are they as efficient. Intel's Core 2 Duo is the top of the heap in laptops, and shares the best desktop performance with the Core 2 Quad machines. (BTW, "Core" is the name of the chip, like "Pentium" was, and Core 2 is the second generation, and Duo and Quad means they are dual or quad CPU's on the chip...)
Yes, certainly $1,200 will by you a very nice laptop -- even half of that is possible these days. I'll touch on some of the issues in choosing a laptop, rather than get too nitty gritty in the specs; because much of what you choose will be based on how you will use it.
If you can find a laptop that comes with WinXP, that is a very big plus -- however most will have Vista, which is unfortunate, for various reasons. Like the amount of RAM it requires: if you need 1GB in WinXP for good performance, then Vista will need 2GB. These are the minimums I would consider.
The second main choice you'll need to make is screen size vs weight: if you will be working on it a fair bit, and only transport it some of the time, you may want to get a 17" screen. If you need lighter weight because you're going to lug it around a lot, then 15" (or 14") might be a better compromise. Along the same lines, if it is mainly left on your desk, will you be connecting it to a second monitor? If so, then you may want to look for a model with a DVI (digital) output, so it will work better with a nice LCD monitor.
The third choice is between top performance vs battery life -- again, this will be based on whether you set it on a desk (and can plug it in) to use it, or whether you need better than say 2-3 hours of use on the battery alone. You can get optional larger capacity batteries, but this can only extend the time so much, when you have a more power-hungry CPU and GPU (video) in the machine. Some machines (Lenovo/IBM) have an optional second battery that slides into the optical drive bay (in place of the drive), for when you need more battery life.
The last "big" choice you have is the GPU (video) chip -- if you are working with large 3D models, then this can be worthwhile, but for "just" 2D DataCAD, then most middle-of-the-road video chips will be fine.
After these choices come things like hard drive size; and to a slightly lesser extent hard drive speed. If you plan to actually have this machine on your lap, then the amount of heat coming from the CPU and from the bottom of the unit in general is an important consideration.
For me, I would go for a WinXP machine with a 17" screen, 2GB of RAM, and at least a 120GB SATA 7200RPM hard drive, and a DVI output. I would spring for the largest battery they have available, too; but only to try and keep the time on the battery longer than an hour a few years down the road.
If I was forced to buy Vista (which you may have to do!) I would get 3GB RAM with a 32bit version of Vista, or 4GB with a 64bit version of Vista. (You must get a 64bit OS in order to use more than 3GB of RAM!)
Here's an HP machine that would fit the bill:
http://tinyurl.com/3f5fk6
...and a Lenovo machine:
http://tinyurl.com/4a3pxe