Which laptop?

[Jaws]

9. Chose MS XP Professional, unless you are prepared to use Vista, and if you go down the route of Vista, in which case go for Home Premium or Ultimate.

I'd recommend Business edition over Home Premium any day. If you do end up doing any development on the Home Premium edition you are likely to become frustrated with its limitations. The business edition is supposed to be the equivalent to XP Pro.

[JoJoGabor]

I agree, I am very pleased with my Dell XPS1330 - can't fault it!!

Try and upgrade it to 4GB RAM and it should fly, oh and if you think you ever might be tempted to play any kind of 3D game, get the 256GB dedicated graphics card. Mine has the 128MB dedicated which runs most games, but some of the new ones require a 256GB!

[bogeyman]

MacBook Pro - just don't apply the security updates

[Clippy]

Appreciate the pointers given.

Pretty much agree with points raised but am behind the times in grpahics card technology.

One point raised was not needing a HD based graphics card. Is this HD as in Hi Definition?

I would watch the occassional DVD on my lappy and output to a Samsung SM2032MW monitor.

Would I be able to do this without a HD based card?

[Bear]

I agree, I am very pleased with my Dell XPS1330 - can't fault it!!

Try and upgrade it to 4GB RAM and it should fly, oh and if you think you ever might be tempted to play any kind of 3D game, get the 256GB dedicated graphics card. Mine has the 128MB dedicated which runs most games, but some of the new ones require a 256GB!

- That's quite a jump!!

[pmeswani]

Appreciate the pointers given.

Pretty much agree with points raised but am behind the times in grpahics card technology.

One point raised was not needing a HD based graphics card. Is this HD as in Hi Definition?

I would watch the occassional DVD on my lappy and output to a Samsung SM2032MW monitor.

Would I be able to do this without a HD based card?

If you are watching just DVD's, then you won't need a High Definition card (HD for short as you guessed. ). However, if you are going to watch the DVD's on your TV, and your TV does not have a VGA port but has a HDMI port (most HD TV's will have a VGA Port), then there is a justification for a HD based graphics card. But if you are going for a HD graphics card, then you are better off going for a laptop with Blu-ray drive. I doubt that you will find many laptops with a HD graphics card and a standard DVD drive.

[Clippy]

This looks quite good:

Samsung Q210

Anyone any experience of Samsung laptops?

[Fred Bloggs]

I don't suppose Samsung actually make them? Just buy them in and badge them?