Just a few questions on HP dv4000 series

After many posting and all of you replies (which I greatly appreaciated), I had finally made a choice to go with HP DV4000 series.

I have though a few questions.
1. Is P-M 750 is fast enough for most of the task (no gaming) or should I spend more and upgrade to higher processor?
2. Is Win XP Home really that bugging as many post say so? $29 upgrade to Win XP Pro is something that I can easily afford, but I plan to work only at home, do I really need Pro?
3. I was thinking about upgrade to 12-cell battery but I am seeing that it is a little bit bulky and expends outside the "normal" notebook dimentions. It is also is not running all the way accross the back of the notebook. Does it make notebook kind of out of balance or is it stable with it?
4. I am planning to keep this notebook for at least 3 years? Do you think that investing $179 for 3-years plan is a good idea or is HP is not tend to get broken in first three years? Also should I buy this plan right when I purchase the nothebook or later on?

Thank you again and again for all your previous and future advices.
Leo

 

the 750 is plenty fast if you arent doing major number crunching. having more ram will speed up your experience much more. it's alot cheaper if you install it yourself though (if you can). if you can't get 512MB min, 1GB preferably.

XP Pro is worth it over XP home, $29 is cheap. dell usually charges another $100. it has advanced power saving & monitoring features xp home doesnt have.

for the battery i would say get the standard w/ the 12 cell as an additional. that way you can use the standard for day to day, and bring the 12 w/ standard for trips. best of both worlds.

no idea about the warranty, some1 else will ahve to answer that one.

 

I'm not sure, but I think its cheaper to buy the warranty when the buy the notebook. HP's tend to be quite well built, but you never know, I'd go with the warranty.

 

You have until the standard (1-year) warranty expires to buy the HP extended warranty. I've bought this for two previous HP/Compaq laptops and actually had to use them. Both of the motherboards were replaced, with shipping both ways paid by HP. It's cheap insurance, and you have time to think about it, assuming you still have the 1-yr warranty in effect...

 

A faster hard drive will boost perforamnce more than a faster CPU.