Opinions of XP on M1330

I bought my M1330 a few days ago and am just waiting for it in the mail. I'm not so sure if I should downgrade to XP as I have heard that Vista is becoming more stable now that SP1 is out. First, my setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 (2x 2.6GHz) Processor
3GB 667MHz RAM
500GB HDD (5400 RPM afaik)
LED Display
128MB NVidia 8400M Graphics
9-cell battery

My intentions are to run a TrueCrypted system that can run for as long as possible.

For those that don't know and are too lazy to look further into TrueCrypt, it essentially completely encrypts a hard drive so that it requires a password to boot into the operating system. Because of this, everything that goes on while the system is running has to have real time encryption and decryption. This adds strain to the CPU.

What is your opinion? Should I downgrade to XP for the speedier system and longer lasting battery life, or won't it make much of a difference? For those who are running XP on their M1330, do you like it? What is the general difference between XP and Vista? Would you ever go back?

 

no point going to xp for 'speed‘
your system should be powerful enough. I doubt you can notice any difference even you compare two systems with vista and xp side by side.
do check if there are any compatability issues though.

 

Thanks, but how about battery life? I'm running Vista on my current laptop, and the battery life is terrible. It uses up heaps of ram and drains the battery in about 70-80 minutes with lowest brightness on, and before the drive was encrypted it only got about 90 minutes. Given that part of it is due to my current laptop being a beast of a system, it still doesn't make up for the fact that Vista is killing it fast.

 

So I'm lazy, hmm ...

Stick with vista. The M1330 with the 2.6 and nvidia card will have no problems running vista. I get just as much battery life with vista on my 1420 as xp on my 1420

 

Thanks. Bump for other peoples opinions.

 

I currently run DUALBOOT of Vista Home Premium AND XP on my M1330

It has 2GB of RAM and Intel Graphics. 99% of the time I run Vista, XP is just there if any compatibility issues are found with some software I could run.

Keep Vista, but check this guide out!

Dell Vista Bloatware Removal Guide:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

It increased my xps performance by 20% (because of all that software eating valuable resources)

Also, I get 3 full hours on low power mode, at 60% screen brightness

 

For the love of God get rid of Vista..
I had the intention of getting accustomed to it and living with it but after a while the OS became too slow.. With XP it's blazing fast, believe me.
Moreover, I couldn't even play Farcry on lowest graphics on Vista (I've the nVidia card).. I can play even Crysis on XP on the same machine.

 

errr, if you couldn't play far cry with the nvidia, you are doing something wrong.

 

Your new M1330 makes mine seem impotent.

 

Vista SP1 is solid and quick. Try it for a week and you won't go back.

Don't let the Apple executives brainwash you.

 

Hehe thanks. I'm now actually considering upgrading to Vista x64 instead. I've had troubles with it before, but that was when it was SP0 and didn't have completely compatible video drivers (desktop machine I assembled for a friend). From the reviews, it seems that this is the best option.

So lets take a new spin on this topic. Same sort of questions, but for Vista x64.

Cheers ^.^

 

64 Bit rules dude end of story

here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=158277&page=1


have fun when you install it