Need advice on a laptop for the wife.

I'm hoping some of you tech gurus can give me some assistance. My wife needs a new laptop for work. Work will pay for $1000 of it and I can kick in a couple hundred if need be, but we're shooting for the $1000 mark. Here's the specs of what it needs.

Biggest screen possible, prefer 2GB of Ram, 150+GB hard drive, wireless lan, 2.0mhz chip or better. Doesn't have to be light and thin, it's mainly going to be used at home. Here's the kicker...it needs to have Win XP Pro. She has specific work software that isn't compatible with Vista, so Vista is a no-go. Any suggestions and or links to products would be awesome. I think I got all of the specifics. Cheers.

Christian

 

Maybe look at dell vostro 1700

It meets most of your requirements except for the xp operating system and processor speed. It's currently only $749 leaving room for upgrades. Dell sells windows xp pro so if you asked them to include that instead of vista they might be willing to work with you.

 

www.tigerdirect.com

They have not the best prices, but a large selection and I always use them myself.

 

Chances are you won't find a laptop that will come with windows on, so you will have to uninstall vista and put xp on it.

I recommend newegg.com for your online computer shopping.

 

I've reformatted and re-installed windows a hundred times...but never on a laptop and I've never "down graded" operating systems before. Any reason that I would have hardware or any other conflicts going down to Win XP on a unit that already has Vista?

 

Well reformatting on a laptop should be similar to reformatting on a desktop. I dont think you will have much trouble there but...some manufactures like the toshiba I bought came with vista I was planning on downgrading it to xp but guess what...there are no drivers to support XP on their website for that particular laptop...so I returned it. I am looking at the moment for another laptop...I have read acer provides drivers for xp on their website for their vista installed laptops. I hope this helps .

 

I'm interested in buying a laptop as well... I met a person from China, who claims to be a reseller-affiliate of HP... Beat the rate... $511 for an HP Pavilion DV9507tx Series laptop...

Well, what happened was history... She couldn't prove that she was for real... Anyone willing to check out with her and finding out the truth, for all of us in here? Please PM me then...

oh, and HP retails the same model for $1600 + taxes here in India...

 

I checked into building a Dell Vostro on their website, but it turns out that the Vostro model is completely sold out and they're not going to make it anymore. I've had good luck with Dell in the past, so I'm thinking of an Inspiron 1750. It's got all the requirements, 17"screen, 2.4 DuoCore chip, 3gb ram, 250gb hard drive for about $1300. Right now I'm leaning towards that one.

 

go for Gateway intel centrino

 

Yes, Dell Inspiron 1750 is also a good choice.
You can also check Lenevo's high end Thinkpads..

 

I have a Gateway w/ Intel Core Duo(Centrino), it's annoying...I hate the integrated GFX card cuz I can't play any games.


But that wouldn't be a problem for your wife, unless she's a gamer...but still this laptop has 1GB RAM, had windows xp MCE 05 though..

 

being a girl, he would love Sony Vaio.

However you can buy compaq Presario or HP series. Cheap and reliable. most importantly wider service center converage.

 

If you're in the USA, go for HP Pavilion dv9507TX Notebook PC...

This, in my opinion, is one of theeeeeeeeeeeeee best out there in the market... Plus, they have great promotional offers for people living in the USA...

 

I ended up going with the Inspirion 1720 with all the stuff I needed, including 4gb of ram. Cost me $1400 shipped. It's very fast and a nice setup. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

 

so long, as you're happy with it...