Vista and new lappie

[Jokke]

Hey. I wonder how Vista is? Is it still buggy? See, I'm considering buying a laptop, and as we all know, you cant get a new one without Vista nowadays (not that I know of at least). Can I buy one, or should I wait? Also, can anyone recommend an affordable laptop? Nothing too fancy, just for schoolwork and surfing the internet. I like to play games, but i will save up to a desktop later.

[TheLostSwede]

Hi Jokke,


I see you live in the same country as i am and i happen to work for one of the biggest dealers in Norway and we also happen to be pretty big on Laptops. What pricerange in NOK do you look for?

[Jokke]

I'm looking for a computer at maks 5500 NOK. As mentioned earlier it doesn't have to be very powerful, as it is to be used for school and such, most probably just Word and Powerpoint and surfing the internet. Do your company have a website or something?

[TheLostSwede]

http://www.netshop.no/aspx/produkt/prdinfovnet.aspx?plid=45478

That one looks pretty good then. Toshiba makes great Laptops. Their service is outstanding here in the Nordics.

[LIN]

There are several Dell Inspiron models in your price range, which offer WinXP Pro. You can view them by going to the Small Business section on Dell's site.

[and no, I am in no way connected to Dell] :)


LIN

[Jokke]

A thought just struck me: Is it possible to buy laptops without an operating system? I guess not, but...

[Thrax]

For some manufacturers.

The only thing about Toshiba laptops is that you absolutely must remove all the junk that they preload, especially if you get a Vista one, because your laptop will have almost 100 processes running out of the box.

[NiGHTS]

You can, but you won't really save yourself any money, methinks. "Whitebooks" exist but they're such a small percentage of the market ...picture a barebones computer in laptop form. You supply proc, RAM, HD, and you're good to go.

I'm not sure what the prices for something like that would be out where you are, but when I was in the market for a laptop to do exactly the same job you're describing (cheap, use as a notebook for classes, browse, etc.) I wasn't going to save myself any money. In the end I went with a Compaq that I configured online and saved myself a hell of a lot of money.

[Jokke]

thank you LIN, I have revieved the contents of your link and find it quite interesting. I will add it to my list of possible computers.

[Jokke]

http://www.netshop.no/aspx/produkt/prdinfovnet.aspx?plid=45478

That one looks pretty good then. Toshiba makes great Laptops. Their service is outstanding here in the Nordics.

Thank you. Looks ok. I take it that you work for Netshop? A quite good store, i have been shopping there for more than one occasion.

[Madball]

I have Vista on my laptop. I haven't had a single problem with it. It's very stable and no software conflicts as of yet. I had to upgrade to 2gigs of ram though. And I turned off all the annoying user alerts that it throws at you for EVERYTHING you try it do. I'd say go for it. If you don't like it you can always install XP on it.

[Jokke]

One more thing? What's the difference between Vista Basic and Business. I asked a Dell-Employee at their website but he was very reluctant to give me any information or answer any of my questions. He just said that there were "major differences, like security". So what are the main differences?

[Winga]

For what you say you need your laptop for, Vista Basic should do just fine.
If it's pre-loaded it should come with all the compatible vista drivers. It's when you start putting software or games on that's not mainstream you pick up problems. A lot of peripherals are still lacking Vista drivers as well.

My experience with Vista so far has been quite good. Vista will actually find updates for all your hardware and look online for a solution if you have a software conflict with Vista. Although my experience with the software issue has not been good. Vista has not resolved any of the issues I've had.

[Jokke]

Well, I recon they can't have software conflicts forever, right? I trust Windows will fix Vista issues sometime.

[Jokke]

After careful consideration (and persuading my mom) I have decided to up the price, and therefore also the performance a bit. I have three possible candidates who look quite similar, but I need to know what's the better:

https://www.mamoz.no/produkt/LX.AGQ0X.177/Acer+Aspire+5613ZWLMi%2FDual+Cor.html

https://www.mamoz.no/produkt/LX.AXK0X.175/Acer_Aspire_5613ZWLMi_Core_Duo.html

https://www.mamoz.no/produkt/LX.AX80X.444/Acer_Aspire_5104WLMi_AMD_Turion.html

Sorry, pages in norwegian, but you'll probably get the basics.

If anyone has ideas or recommendations to other laptops in somewhat similar pricerange I will be thankful to recieve them. I may be a bit off-topic here, but please bear with me.

[Thrax]

https://www.mamoz.no/produkt/LX.AXK0X.175/Acer_Aspire_5613ZWLMi_Core_Duo.html

Will give you the most performance/longest battery life for the tasks you have described.

[Madball]

Basic is very, well, basic. It is a very stripped down version of Vista. Microsoft's website list's the differences. It doesn't have the Aero interface, which does nothing for functionality, but looks cool. And I think networking is very limited, dunno if that's important to you.

[Jokke]

Well, new laptop on it's way. I have mixed feelings about vista, one part is scared ****less that my games won't run, the other can't wait to see what it looks and feels like. Thank you everyone for help, contributions and information. :D

[Winga]

With them releasing the latest updates (http://icrontic.com/forum/showthread.php?t=64611) and the imminent release of SP1 (they say November?) Vista seems to have come a long way from when they first released it. You shouldn't pick up too many problems. Despite what skeptics say, I like Vista and the fun part for me is finding a way around a problem. I have spent many hours looking for solutions to the bugs I've picked up and feel a great sense of achievement when I'm able to fix it. That is after all what being a geek in training is all about :D

I'm sure you going to enjoy your laptop. If all else fails you can always go back to XP and wait for SP1 before reloading Vista.