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these new cheap core 2 due laptops - any good?

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Darwin:
Thanks for that, Jammo. Sadly, with so many people (apparently) wanting to upgrade Vista to XP, XP prices probably won't come down anytime soon... I *wonder* if one could buy the XP UPGRADE disc instead of the full version? Save you some money if that was possible.

Ralf Maximus:
I believe Microsoft allows you to transfer licenses for XP from machine to machine.  Just uninstall it from the old one and do a fresh install on the new.  So long as the license is in use only once they shouldn't care.  Product Activation will occur, but it's a legit situation.

Unless it's a bizarro tablet or contains unique hardware (fingerprint reader) most of the device drivers should work.  Some may be the generic Microsoft drivers but they do work well.

All that's assuming you HAVE an older XP install laying around unused, that you're replacing a PC and not adding a 2nd one, etc. 

Darwin:
Good point, Ralf. In my case, I have two XP install disks but both, sadly, are OEM (HP/Compaq and Gateway). So... I wonder if buying an HP or a Gateway would be the way to go - ie, would the disk install on the newer machine?

Ralf Maximus:
Good point, Ralf. In my case, I have two XP install disks but both, sadly, are OEM (HP/Compaq and Gateway). So... I wonder if buying an HP or a Gateway would be the way to go - ie, would the disk install on the newer machine?
-Darwin (November 06, 2007, 07:38 AM)
--- End quote ---

From a technology standpoint, it should work fine.  The motherboard and chipsets on the newer PCs *have* to be backwards compatible with older hardware to keep the corporate customers happy.

Device drivers should be the only concern, especially if they are HP or Gateway proprietary.  Unless they make XP drivers the Vista ones probably won't work.  The main reason I stopped buying HP and Gateway is the fun games they'd play with their proprietary hardware.

If this was going to be my primary laptop and not a project computer, I'd err on the side of caution and buy last year's model from close-out with XP pre-installed.  On the other hand, if you're willing to experiment (and HAVE the Vista media; sometimes they don't supply it) it could work out fine.  I've gotten XP to install on some machines I thought would never work.

Darwin:
Hmm... thanks for the pointers, Ralf. Too bad my XP Pro disk is for the Gateway machine  :( Oh well... I'm in no rush to upgrade my hardware now, anyway. Going to 2GB RAM on my Gateway notebook has give it legs I never thought possible so for the near future I'll stay where I am. Nice to know that I *might* be able to upgrade to XP (without having to pay through the nose for it) on a new machine if disaster strikes one of my current notebooks..

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