Is Dell REALLY this stupid? (or is it just me?)

So I received a catalog from Dell today touting a Intel Core Duo laptop... 17 inch display, Centrino technology, 1 GB RAM, CDRW/DVD, etc etc etc for $999... a definite steal by my standards...

BUT... it comes with Windows XP Home.

Someone PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong, but Windows XP Home will not utilize both cores of this laptop's CPU... am I missing something?

I want a 2nd opinion on this... I know XP Home supports Intel's with HT technology... but everything I've ever read says that to support a true dual-core processor you must run Win2000 Pro or XP Professional.

you look as though youve been on these forums for a wee while now and your telling me you havent read any of the multiple posts in which this very same thing is said. if it isnt true then there are alot of stupid people using only 1 core of X2 and opteron's.

hey, least if you want to build your own multi-cpu sever you know you've already got the software. im sure it also has more security features than home as well.

Bringing this back down to reality, when would you ever need dual cores on a laptop?

No you didn't!

Why one would ever waste money on Windows XP Home?
That is castrated Windows XP PRO (networking!)

Well SMART people will NOT buy DELL word processors!

They chose real laptops either IBM/LENOVO (brand) or ASUS laptops.
And yes they would look for TURION 64 (I want one with dual core!)

Also from what I've seen, the due isn't 64bit capable, so why get a new machine that won't even run newer software that's just over the horizon?

XP Pro allows more simultanios network connections, domain logon, and rdp access. All of which I use so home is useless to me. Some one mentioned "more security features" this is only insofar as domain level security, the OS has no additional features over home that work without a domain (as far as I'm aware.) By the way, XP media center is Pro with domain disabled, which can be enabled with a simple hack.

Company made right choice.
IIf IBM/Lenovo dies it is mainly the problem with the user!

Acer, Toshiba.. This time I say NEVER!
..

Absolutely true!!!! I would buy an AMD64 laptop and run Linux x86_64 instead

did i miss something. will someone please answer the original question.
will windows XP home utilize both cpus in a dual cpu computer. newbie q. txs.

ratherrapid if you look at the original reply by me you'll see i answered the question. the rest of this post is just regurgitated opinions from other posts which have discused this topic a million times.

My 5 year old dell PIII 700 was faster than a dell 600m with a 1.2g Pentium M, and the HD in that unit died 3 times, the keyboard died once and the serial port didn't work when I first got it (and the machine never left my desk.) Oh by the way, for 3 years all I did was contract out to IBM, Dell, HP/Compaq, Gateway, and Emachines for repair work. I worked on 10 times more dells than any other brand, even Emachines! Sure they sell more, but the odds are still against them. And their prices are terrible for what you get, try to get a 1.8g processor, 100gb hd, 1gig of ram and a radeon700x in a dell for under 2 grand, oh wait you can't.

what do you expect from a company that outsources

Indeed!

don't know bout the rest of you but i haven't yet found one that can

"will windows XP home utilize both cpus in a dual cpu computer. newbie q. txs.:

It (XP Home) will support a single physical processor, but the single processor can be 2 or more cores....

I've got a five monitor array on my desk with multiple kvm's, I can jack my laptop in and get 3 displays going on it. That's just as good as my primary pc, except for playing games

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/0 [...] using_usb/

But XP-Pro is the OS to use!

You don't need XP Pro unless you intend to use the computer as a business workstation that needs networking. XP Home will use a single multiple core processor and multi-task just fine. See my above post.

Do you do this everytime anyone has a query:

How good is Linux driver support for Dell laptops?


Linux now supports virtually everything, including Dell laptops.

In fact HP/Compaq makes Linux laptops!

I've used Linux or IBM, Toshiba, Dell and Sony laptops and they work fine.

No you didn't!

Why one would ever waste money on Windows XP Home?
That is castrated Windows XP PRO (networking!)

Why would anyone wase money on Windows * ?
I still feel ashamed that i actually paid good money for Windows 98 way back when...

I would certainly benefit. Right now I'm using a Dell Precision M60 laptop with a 128MB QuadroFX Go 700. A workstation video card.

Just because you don't see a reason for it doesn't mean there isn't. Plenty of people use CAD on laptops. And a slew of other things that utilize dual core.

-mpjesse

Rotating ANY drawings on my laptop is often a painful one. And that's with my bad ass Quadro video card- which is pretty much top of the line as far as workstation laptop graphics go. In my line of work I'm often dealing with drawings that contain tens of thousands of lines. We're talking 1-2 million square foot facilities. Granted many of the facilities are warehouses and hangars (which are not particularly complex), but some aren't. The building I'm working on now for instance is 500,000 square feet, 5 floors, multiple secured areas, LOTS of conduits, man traps everywhere, etc. Anyways, a dual core processor would certainly help me.

-mpjesse