Vostro 1400 and XP Pro - Questions

I am thinking about buying the 1400 w/ the T7250 160 GB 5400 HD, and the basic Intel X3100 graphics. I live in Israel and will be buying the laptop here.

I will be using it almost exclusively for international travel, lots of airports, long flights and hotels. No gaming, just internet & mail, Office (mostly Word), and watching movies.

One of the main reasons I have chosen the Vostro is that it gives me the option to forgo Vista and use XP instead, which I vastly prefer.

Question: Given the uses mentioned above and working under XP, do I need more than 1 GB Ram?

Also, I have been told that the machine will work faster under XP PRO than under Vista, even with 2 GB. Any opinions?

Thanks.

 

1GB is sufficient with XP, for what you want to do (Internet, mail, Office).

 

Thanks. If I want to add more RAM later, it is complicated installing it? I've done it on a desktop but not in a notebook.

 

Not at all. It's just as easy on a notebook.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/vos1500/en/sm/index.htm

 

Thanks again. Does it make sense, using XP and not Vista? I have been using XP for so long, am so used to it, and I have heard such bad things about Vista, not to mention how it gobbles up system resources. Thoughts?

 

One more thing (I hope this is my last question): I have read that XP improves battery life (as opposed to Vista), which is a very important consideration for me. Thx again.