Is This Adequate For My Needs?

I'm still somewhat stuck on the dv4000, because of what I've read about the display, the build, configurabilty and the price. It seems the best able to meet my needs in terms of power and quality while staying within my budget. I'll be mostly using Photoshop 7, Dreamweaver MX, Flash MX, probably some type of slideshow program and maybe Painter.

Here's the configuratoin I'm considering:
Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 745A (1.80 GHz)
256MB DDR2 SDRAM (1x256MB) (I'll get at least 1, maybe 2 GB elsewhere)
80 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 900
Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 2200BG & Bluetooth(TM)
15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Will this do the job? Should wait & see if they put Core Duo in the dv4000, or is that not likely to happen?

 

What do you expect to do with those programs? I do professional technical drawing using the full Adobe's suit of programs on my conservative HP NX6125 and I haven't had problems with running out of CPU power. All you need is RAM really with this stuff. Video editing and multimedia stuff is the thing you need the cpu power as well but I woulndn't really know about that.

 

Should be fine, once you upgrade the memory, especially with photoshop

 

I have a desktop for the really heavy work, but will use the laptop when I need to be mobile.

 

then yeah, like i said, once you upgrade your memory, it'll do fine for what you need. The only thing is that i've heard some complaints about the display having a bad viewing angle on the dv4000. dont have one though, so i couldn't say.

 

Oooh, another question. Costco has a similar config, but without Bluetooth, has 1gb RAM and WinXP Pro for about the same price...... Any benefits (or downsides) to that, namely XP pro and the fact that its 2 sticks of 512 RAM?

 

if you don't need bluetooth, then it would probably be a better deal. Definitly if you get 1gb ram instead of 256mb.

 

sorry, i meant costco is the better deal most likely, especially because if you order it, you'll have to pay shipping.

 

Turns out Costco does not have that particular unit in stock at my local store, only the 43??, with the 4200 rpm harddrive. Oh well.

They had that one and a 14" (Compaq) notebook side by side, and now I'm wondering if I might like the smaller one better. Time for another thread, perhaps.....