Dell Inspiron 6000 - Windows XP Multemedia vs XP original

MrHelpful

Hello,

I have just manage to purchase a Dell Inspiron 6000 1.7Ghz spec (N01605a) from the dell website for £539.14 inc VAT and Delivery. However they have just called me back saying I could not have Windows XP Media as the computer comes with only 256mb RAM and I need a minimum of 512MB ( he did offer to sell me another 256MB RAM for an additional £120!)

Is this correct do I need 512MB RAM? I argued the case of why they had made this an available option with the 256MB option and the guy could not answer as he was not a techy. They said they will call me back.

Can anyone tell me if this is correct? and also if Windows XP Media is better the Windows XP Professional? What is the difference???? if I can't get Media should I get a reduction in price for getting just Windows XP Professional?

wolfman

Windows XP MCE (Media Center Edition) is virtually XP Pro, but with a few addons. To the average home user it's probably much more suitable due to the added media capability.

With regards to one using more memory than the other, I just can't see there being any difference as they are virtually the same operating system. In fact any version of XP will use up a similar amount of ram.

I'd personally stick with XP MCE.

With regards to Windows and memory, yes 512mb is preferable, although if well managed you should still just about be ok with 256mb. Worse case scenario just go out and buy a little more ram.

Do not go to them though! £120 is ridiculous, I paid £64 for an extra 1gb of ram, but I had to fit it myself (not as tricky as it sounds). You could buy 2x 256mb sticks and bump your total memory to 768mb for around £30.

In fact I'm wondering if they've made a mistake, maybe they meant to include XP Home.

GreenNotM

Mr H

Unfortunately your laptop will only use DDR2 533Hz memory not the cheapest and you have a limited number of memory slots to put the memory in only 2 But for around £80 you could add an extra 1GB from non Dell sources The Dell cost for a 1 GB chip is 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024) [add £246.75 :money:

At this price it would seem your graphics card is also going to borrow RAM upto 128 so Windows may only have 128MB to use - by the time you have antivirus and a firewall working you will be running at least 140MB so you def need more memory. I would keep the Media edition as MS will be withdrawing support for Home edition before they finish supporting XP Pro or MCE 2005.

As the Dell site say If you plan to... Choose...

do intensive gaming or complex video editing, or want enough memory to accommodate future growth.... 2GB
do email, web surfing or home productivity along with other applications like editing photos and music at the same time.... 1GB
do email, web surfing or home productivity along with other basic applications... 512MB

Random Access Memory (RAM) is the workhorse behind the performance of your computer. RAM temporarily stores information from your operating system, applications, and data in current use. This gives your processor easy access to the critical information that makes your programs run.
The amount of RAM you have helps determine how many programs can be executed at one time and how much data can be readily available to a program. It also helps determine how quickly your applications perform and how many applications you can easily toggle between at one time.

pin

Buy extra Ram from crucial, really good ram. Remember there are several discount codes using them and use quidco.

MrHelpful

They gave me 2 x 256Mb RAM 400Mhz instead for the same price. Hopefully this should be good enough