Associate
- Joined
- 16 Oct 2005
- Posts
- 187
Hi,
I've been asked to source a laptop for my younger sister. She only wants to use it for internet, office, itunes, msn, so nothing demanding. And she only wants to spend £400, £450 at a push.
I'm struggling over whether to recommend Vista or XP. I know XP would run quickly on a low spec machine, but am unfamiliar with Vista and have heard that it may struggle on just 1GB of RAM, especially with integrated graphics. She says she isn't bothered about Vista, but I have a feeling that she may regret not going for it, if not just for the "gadgets" or whatever they're called on the right of the screen. Gimicky I know, but I know my younger sister
.
For XP, I've pretty much recommended just the basic Dell Inspiron 6400 (Dual Core Pentium 1.73Ghz, 1GB RAM, 120Gb SATA, Integrated Gfx) for £399. I've also said that if she wants a good experience with Vista "Aero" not on Basic she would probably have to spend more at £499 and get something like the Acer 5613AWLMi (Intel Core Duo T2350 1.86Ghz, 2GB RAM, SATA, GeForce Go 7300).
What I'm asking is how well would a laptop with those first specs or similar run Vista Basic? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't run Aero at all : can I just check that this only means missing out on translucency/flip3d/taskbarpreview, and the sidebar/gadgets stuff remains?
Many many thanks.
I've been asked to source a laptop for my younger sister. She only wants to use it for internet, office, itunes, msn, so nothing demanding. And she only wants to spend £400, £450 at a push.
I'm struggling over whether to recommend Vista or XP. I know XP would run quickly on a low spec machine, but am unfamiliar with Vista and have heard that it may struggle on just 1GB of RAM, especially with integrated graphics. She says she isn't bothered about Vista, but I have a feeling that she may regret not going for it, if not just for the "gadgets" or whatever they're called on the right of the screen. Gimicky I know, but I know my younger sister
.For XP, I've pretty much recommended just the basic Dell Inspiron 6400 (Dual Core Pentium 1.73Ghz, 1GB RAM, 120Gb SATA, Integrated Gfx) for £399. I've also said that if she wants a good experience with Vista "Aero" not on Basic she would probably have to spend more at £499 and get something like the Acer 5613AWLMi (Intel Core Duo T2350 1.86Ghz, 2GB RAM, SATA, GeForce Go 7300).
What I'm asking is how well would a laptop with those first specs or similar run Vista Basic? I'm pretty sure it wouldn't run Aero at all : can I just check that this only means missing out on translucency/flip3d/taskbarpreview, and the sidebar/gadgets stuff remains?
Many many thanks.
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