Wanting to buy a laptop to use for work and home. Looking at the ASUS G Series G1S-B1 Intel Core 2 Duo T7700. I've also been reviewing several of the Clevo laptops (they make the Sager, Alienware, Voodoo, Falcon NW, and several others). They cost a bit more, but you can customize them the way you want.

My main questions (might should have posted this on the Vista site), if I go the custom route should I go XP Prof or Vista Ultimate? My work environment is still XP, not sure for how long. My home network is XP. I would guess Vista is more future proof, but it might be more of a pain in the short-term. If I go Vista, can I still connect to my home wireless network through with Vista? Also, if I go XP, it sounds like XP doesn't support some of the functions on this new laptops (i.e., Turbo ram) or you have to download fixes (ie., dual core support). Also, if XP is loaded at these custom sites do they make sure all the drivers are loaded (which I read is the biggest pain with getting XP to work on these new laptops). I'm leaning toward Vista Ultimate or at leat Home Premium, if it will work with my home network. BTW, home network is through a 2Wire wireless modem (attwireless DSL).

I'm concerned about the connectivity as one of my son's friends was trying to access my home wireless network on his laptob which had Vista and was not able to. I tried helping him connect, but I'm not familiar with Vista and it's set up was different than mine on XP. Were we just doing something wrong or is it not compatible?

Any help is appreciated.

If i were u i would go for XP, i have owned both and i like XP more
microsoft even released SP3 RC2 too which fixes some bugs
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads [...] tionalInfo

VISTA has still some works to do IMO

btw, here is a better link, VISTA VS VISTA SP1 :
http://www.anandtech.com/systems/s [...] i=3233&p=6

Vista SP1 has been out for a couple weeks now(atleast has been sent to manufacturer and is availible for download now if ya know where to get it from)
I have never come across a wireless network that hasn't been compatible with a computer running Vista.
After having run vista since the day it came out, i will say that during the first month or so there were a few issues with some 3rd party programs, and a crash or two here and there, but after that month and a half it has been running nearly perfectly.
I am currently running a multi boot between XP MCE, Vista Home Premium, and Ubuntu.
With trying to get all my programs working on the two windows os's I jave in the past 2 months had more issues getting stuff to work on XP than on Vista.
In addition if you are gaming on the PC then Vista will also give you increased performance in the graphics.

Vista also has great automated troubleshooting with compatibility, which sometimes automatically asks you if programs installed correctly becuase it found some other setting that should make the installation more likely to be compaible.

The part were you said the setup for the wireless network is diferent is the only part that i can think of why you may want to stick with XP

Vista has changed a bit of the user interface. This in the end can accually make most things easier but it takes a couple weeks to learn. A good rule of thumb is if something is not in the place it would normally be on XP, then think about where the most obvious place it would be and most likely it will be there.

Great tips and links Thanks,
Turtle, If I go Vista, is it worth upgrading to Ultmate or is Home Premium fine? Also, if I decide later to upgrade, can you upgrade from Home to Ultimate without having to reload all your programs?

yeah you can

As long as you only running a simple home network, i would just stick with Home Premium, the only advantage i would upgrade to ultimate would be the encryption options and the advanced networking settings for a more structured network