Digital Media Thoughts has a good article on why Microsoft opted to keep the HD-DVD drive out of the Xbox 360 Elite (or any other Xbox 360 console). They missed one key advantage: portability. The external drive works just as well with my laptop running Windows Vista as it does with the Xbox 360. Not that I prefer watching HD-DVDs on my laptop, but you can buy one drive and move it around the house instead of needing one for every room.
what sort of support does your graphics card on a laptop require to use the 360 hd drive? would a 7600 go or a x1600 do the trick?