Time for New Laptop

[BabyBear]

The time has arrived that I need to change my laptop and have a fair idea of the spec. It will be used essentially for business purposes and will not be used for gaming.

My feeling is that Windows 7 Professional is probably worth the price difference and that unless I am going to have 4GB of memory and run games then 64GB OS is overkill.

Is my thinking good?

Thanks

[Keef]

Lots of questions would need to be asked and answered to give a proper response to that - but do you think you will need the extra bits in Win 7 Pro over Home Premium?

[BabyBear]

Thanks keef, and that is the big question. I don't fully understand the differences, however I believe that professional is more compatible with XP programmes and files and that there is better security and remote access functionality.

I will have an XP desk top with Acrobat Professional 7, OS map routing software (which I may put on the laptop) and I will occasionally be using it on a network which has XP machine, I will aslo be using it for remote access to a company accounts software package on their server.

Essentially these are the reasons I believe professional would be the better option.

[Keef]

Yes, it sounds as if you will be better covered with Pro. Most of those functions can be handled with Home Premium, but for XP emulation and the remote desktop function you need Pro.

There are workarounds (I use a different. free package to provide remote desktop) but the effort to set that up may make Pro a more efficient solution in your environment.

Memory - unless you are running very large spreadsheets or apps, 4GB should be more than enough memory.

The graphics card may be a consideration: my laptop does an excellent job except for high-definition videos and video-conferencing causing the thing to get too hot. I had to install a fan-control app to turn up the blower at times. More research into video performance and cooling would have been a good idea.

[BabyBear]

Thanks again Keef, Pro. it is then. I hadn't considered needing 4GB of memory and had thought 3GB would do the job. What I hadn't considered was video conferencing; it may well be a function that I make more use of in the future.

What is your view on 32bit v 64bit, my understanding is that 32bit will do the job nicely and be more compatible with accessories.

It seems the home computers are higher specification due to the assumption they are more likely to be used for media apps. Also seems they represent better value for money?