How is vista?

Question

I need a new PC. My old laptop crashed, literally. I am thinking of getting a dell with an intel core duo processor, 1.73 ghz. It would have 2G of ram. Would this be enough of a computer to comfortable use word processing, email, internet, and downloading movies and music? Or is vista so much of a hog that these are bare system requirements?

I want this computer to last me a few years (4 - 5). Do you think that the computer i specified could do the trick, or should I go with a more expensive mac for my basic computing needs?

Answer 1

Vista is very good and should run very smoothly on that PC. But if money isn't a big of a issue then I would suggest a little bit faster processor.

Note that if you wan't you computer to last 4-5 years then you need to take care of it. Most average users don't know the little things you need to do for the computer to run smoothly.

Clean your hard drive from time to time like disc clean up and defragmentation. Also keep background tasks to a minimum and prevent them from starting at startup.

Answer 2

It sound OK to me. IF, it can upgrade to more RAM, remember, that the first upgrade a person can do to help with performance. Vista says a minimum of 512 MB, but, when we read more it throw in that some goodies may not work. Most people say 1 GB get you going. 2GB should help with multiple programs being opened. Another tidbit is Vista can use a Jump Drive for Virtual Memory instead of the HDD providing a little faster access. At this time your laptop should work with everything it come with. Be warned, an old printer or other things you may want to use, you need to check their support web-site for Drivers and Upgrades to be sure they run with Vista.
This includes any software you have, games etc.

Answer 3

For the requirements you list, that computer will work just fine. The only thing I would add is a large hard-drive for your movie and music needs. They generally take up a lot of space and you will fill it up fast.

Dell also has some excellent coupons, including a 20% off $999 laptop coupon good until 3/1. It is available at http://www.24houredeals.com/Dell-coupons-23-mer.html

Good Luck

Answer 4

That will do what you want and maybe a little more. As to what I think of vista,, kinda early to tell I am not so thrilled with the interface but I am comeing arround to it slowly, I mean we have pretty much had the same interface since the 95 days. Stablity and all of the little tweaks and extras is what makes it worth it to me so far. The speech recogntion is a pretty cool feature, it seems to turn on and off a little bit quicker and its kinda nice to see it come on how it went off.

Answer 5

That should be just fine.