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    Satellite Pro A200-EZ2204X- decent performer?

    Discussion in 'Toshiba' started by ObjectOfObjection, Feb 24, 2008.

  1. ObjectOfObjection

    ObjectOfObjection Notebook Enthusiast

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    I currently have a Toshiba Satellite M45-S265 that I bought almost three years ago. It's my second Toshiba and I've been very happy with it. Unfortunately, the performance is somewhat limited by the 1.6GHz Pentium M and Intel 915GM Chipset. It came with one module of 512MB RAM, but I upgraded to 1GB about a year ago and it made a significant difference in speed. I've thought about going up to 2GB (the max) but the old DDR memory is painfully expensive and probably wouldn't be worth it.

    I have been thinking about treating myself to a high-end notebook- Dell Latitude D830 and XPS M1530, Lenovo ThinkPad T61 and Toshiba Tecra A9 were all on my short list. Everything I've read about the upcoming 'Montevina' platform (aka Centrino 2) makes me want to wait for it to arrive before I spend over $1500 on a notebook.

    I've been toying with the idea of buying a new budget laptop to hold me over until mid-late summer. The Dell Inspiron and Vostro notebooks were the two that seemed like the best value for what I needed.

    Today, I discovered that NewEgg has the Toshiba Satellite Pro A200-EZ2204X which is regularly $999 on sale for $799! It has XP Pro, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo (T7250), 120GB HD, and DVD SuperMulti. It only comes with 1GB of RAM, but it is installed as one module (rather than 2x512MB), so adding another GB will be a piece of cake.

    I'm wondering if this machine would be a noticeable improvement over my current Toshiba? The M45 has served me well, but bogs down when I have Outlook, Excel and Firefox open at the same time. And if a virus scan starts running, it's all over...nothing to do but let it finish or kill the virus scan (bad idea, I know). I do watch some video and download music a good bit, too.

    Any input here would be appreciated.
     
    ObjectOfObjection, Feb 24, 2008
    #1