Basic Laptop purchase question

[sarasota]

I'm thinking about buying a Dell laptop and will use it for:

+ Internet
+ eBay
+ Word processing
+ practicing, as compared to doing work related tasks, on my Photoshop 6.5 and Illustrator 10 (both older versions)
+downloading music (I don't think I'll get into movies)

I have a Dell desktop that is old and has worked well for me, and would like to purchase a Dell Inspiron 1501 with either 512 MB of Ram and Vista Home Basic, or 1 GB of Ram and Vista Home Premium.

My question. Can I do what I mention above with either of these configured systems, or is it best to go with the latter of the two?

In another thread, someone mentioned that they thought Vista still had bugs and togo with Windows XP. XP is not offered by Dell.

Thanks.

PS I'm not sure if this matters, but I do find that I often have two or three programs open at a time and this is very convenient. I'm not sure if the above configs. will allow this???

 

[tboy]

As for vista not being an option, one can always buy a laptop or pc with no O/S and then Load XP.....can't they?

 

[Edifice]

Yeah, they can't force you to buy it with Vista preloaded now, can they?

 

[jim9000]

Save yourself a massive headache, get a MAC with 1 GB ram and you will be a happy user!

 

[WoodPeckr]

For music and photos go for Vista Home Premium over Vista Basic and get at least 1 Gig of Ram.
Vista is a big resource hog, 512 Ram isn't enough.

 

[ray liotta]

Sensible thing to do is get a Mac.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Sensible thing to do is get a Mac.

In even more sensible thing would be put Linux on that laptop.
For what sarasota intends Linux will work just fine.
With Mac you have to learn a new OS so why not learn Linux which is FREE.
Dell was talking about offering Linux on their PCs a month ago.
I've been playing around with Linux the last couple months and am quite impressed with it.

 

[Cassini]

Bestbuy and Future shop have a sale on this weekend, this should fulfill your requirements...

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10084163&catid=20354

Only purchase a 17" laptop if you don't plan on carrying it around. The students that purchase the huge 17" laptops in September, hate carrying them around by Christmas.

Keep the laptop light.

 

[Never Compromised]

I'm thinking about buying a Dell laptop and will use it for:

+ practicing, as compared to doing work related tasks, on my Photoshop 6.5 and Illustrator 10 (both older versions)

Photoshop and Illustrator? You should seriously consider a MacBook Pro.

 

[Edifice]

Yeah, I like this really small portable laptop.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_VAIO_T..._HDD/4505-3121_7-31516598.html?tag=prod.txt.9

 

[Galahad]

Dell still offers XP on some of their laptop.

Maybe you can try to phone them and see if they could install XP instead of Vista on the laptop you're interested in.

 

[jim9000]

Learning MAC OS???

In even more sensible thing would be put Linux on that laptop.
For what sarasota intends Linux will work just fine.
With Mac you have to learn a new OS so why not learn Linux which is FREE.
Dell was talking about offering Linux on their PCs a month ago.
I've been playing around with Linux the last couple months and am quite impressed with it.

MAC OS is pretty intuitive. Not much to learn. Drag, drop, simple.

 

[WoodPeckr]

MAC OS is pretty intuitive. Not much to learn. Drag, drop, simple.

Same with Linux...only it's FREE!.........

 

[sarasota]

They do offer XP ?!?!

Dell still offers XP on some of their laptop.

Thanks for all the responses.

-In time I'll get a Mac, but right now I'm going to stick with the Dell. I don't use the Photoshop or Illustrator for anything major - just practice.

-I've heard good things about Linux, but I'm not all that computer savvy.

_ 15", 17", my arms are like tree trunks, weight doesn't matter

I did not see this offered the other day, but Dell does offer XP. New question, I'd like to avoid alot headaches with Vista as Bass mentioned, and I am just a casual user when it comes to video, graphics, gaming, and such, does the 1501 with XP look good for the uses I originally stated (some info below)? I think someone mentioned to plan for the future, but downloading a bit of music is all I plan on incorporating into my life . I'll just 'buy up' when the time comes.

Concerns:

1) Will the optical burner be fine for me and be compatable with my current CDs?

2) Should I have any concerns with the video card?

I'd like my old programs to work effortlessly and I do not need to upgrade them. I'm am also not a visual coniseiur and am looking for just very good images, not excellent images.

Thanks again.

-Hard Drive

80GB1 Hard Drive

-Memory

1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm

-Wireless Networking Cards

Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini Card (54Mbps)

-Video Card
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)

-Processor

AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TL-50

-Optical Drive

8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer2 DVD+R write capability.

 

[blackdog]

Just get a mac.

 

[WoodPeckr]

1) Will the optical burner be fine for me and be compatable with my current CDs?

I'd like my old programs to work effortlessly and I do not need to upgrade them. I'm am also not a visual coniseiur and am looking for just very good images, not excellent images.

Burner should play fine.
However, most but not all of your old programs will work on XP.
You won't know which until you try loading them.
Vista is worse since they say it won't support any old apps forcing you to upgrade all your apps.

Vista forces you to upgrade everything and everything on Mac is proprietary and costs more than Windows.
That's why I'm trying out Linux with a dual boot setup and can run either XP or Linux with no problems. This way I can learn Linux and still have XP as a backup OS.
Linux is a lot like Mac but EVERYTHING IS FREE.
Linux came with a ton of free apps and anything else you may want is out there and can be downloaded for free.

 

[danibbler]

Vista forces you to upgrade everything and everything on Mac is proprietary and costs more than Windows.
That's why I'm trying out Linux with a dual boot setup and can run either XP or Linux with no problems. This way I can learn Linux and still have XP as a backup OS.
Linux is a lot like Mac but EVERYTHING IS FREE.
Linux came with a ton of free apps and anything else you may want is out there and can be downloaded for free.

Your posts have a bit of a fanboi attitude to them. LOL!

On the Mac, little of the hardware is proprietary and only Apple's software is proprietary. Everything else is priced about the same (not all) as that of the Windows' world.

Linux is NOWHERE near as easy as a Mac which means that it's nowhere near like a Mac. The OP will have to spend tons of time learning how to use Linux. Sure, it's "free" but the stuff is not as polished as that of either the Windows' or Mac worlds. For example, I have Ubuntu 5.10 on my machine here courtesy of Keir Thomas' book but the CD only had 1.9.xxxx of OO. Did Synaptic Package Manager automatically download 2.0 for me? No, it only updates the 1.9 version. Unlike OS X, it's not smart enough to tell me that there is a new 2.0 (or even 2.2) version out there.

For what the OP is thinking of doing, either Windows or Mac is probably the better choice with the Mac being my personal choice.

 

[Galahad]

-Memory

1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm

If you could get Win XP from Dell, 1GB of RAM is good enough of now. However, you should consider paying a little more now and get the 1GB on 1 Dimm instead of 2 Dimm. Most laptops have only 2 Dimm slots for the RAM chips. If you wanted to upgrade your memory in the future, you will have a spare slot to add the memory. Otherwise, you will have to remove one of your Dimm chip in order to install a higher capacity one. If both slots were occupied and you add another 1GB in the future, you'll end up with only 1.5GB. Whereas if you have a free slot and add another 1GB, you will have 2GB of memory.

 

[thirdtime]

The Dell Inspiron 1501 supports dual channel memory, so 2 sticks of 512 MB would actually be faster than one stick of 1 GB.
You really need to decide when you order it, if 2 years down the road you want 1 or 2 GB of memory in it. If you eventually want 2 GB, go with Galahad's suggestion. If not, stay with the 2 sticks of 512 MB.

 

[WoodPeckr]

Linux is NOWHERE near as easy as a Mac which means that it's nowhere near like a Mac. The OP will have to spend tons of time learning how to use Linux.

LOL!
Been playing around with a dated Fedora core and didn't think it was that difficult at all and I'm no computer geek. Used a book by Rickford Grant, 'Linux For Non-Geeks' which is an excellent guide, so that may explain the ease I am having learning Linux.
Had played around some with OSX and see some of Mac & Windows in all 3 OSs.
Windows just went to Vista and later this year Mac is doing a major upgrade to a new OS also, so my thinking is, dump them both and learn Linux which seems to do everything they do and it's FREE.
That's why I recommended doing a dual boot setup, so you can take your time learning Linux which so far I find very impressive.