I see.
The only one of those requirements that it does not cover is the "decent battery life".

I'm not quite sure I understand which parts of the laptop you would like to see removed. You stated you "only need CPU and screen".

As far as I understand, These ECS desknotes have very fast CPUs, are very light (due to a lot of air in them for cooling) can have a screen up to 1400x1050 15", and come without most of these unneccessities like a battery and a floppy drive.

I just realized that I have got a 20GB 2.5" Hard disk and a VIA 3C cpu lying ariond, so I might get the VIA version without a CPU and a disk, if nothing better shows up soon.

Marius (Escort Cab + Mark II)