Pete10141748 Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 OK so in lots of posts now I've seen people saying that they're ignoring Vista, staying with XP etc etc So, for those who are set in their XP ways, where are you getting your laptops from now? Everywhere I look now, there seems to be either a bunch of medicore XP laptops left in stock 'cos no-one'll buy them, a bunch of very expensive XP laptops left in stock 'cos no-one'll pay that much for 'em, or 1 or 2 stock of an almost decent laptop which isn't enough for what I need. Replacing 12 laptops (and this time next year will be 30+) I really could do with them being the same make/model, for price and ease of maintaining, so getting a few from here and there isn't really good enough. Best I've found is "downgrade" options from places like Dell, but that has the potential to screw up without drivers / codecs etc, plus I'm sure I've read that it invalidates the warranty too? Not to mention that I really don't want to have to pay an extra 50-odd quid to get rid of an OS that I don't want in the first place!
markwatkins Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 We use ERGO and find then very good both in terms of support and quality of the laptop. They come with XP and are not particularly expensive or for that matter cheap! 1
alena Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 We use dabs.com - Laptops, Components, MP3 players, Software, Digital Cameras mostly for our IT suppliers or sometimes CCL Computers - Awarded Best Online Retailer 2007 & 2006 for Laptops, Desktops & Computer Hardware Depends on what you are after. Here is a good value laptop with XP. dabs.com - Acer EX4220 CelM 1GB 80GB DVDRW XPP (LX.E9306.006) 2
alan-d Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 Stone Computers - have a nice one with a 802.11n capable card ready for our planned wireless upgrade next year 1
contink Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 Recently taken an order for a fair few Novatech Laptops which have nice battery life and XP as an option. Fairly painless process and they'll do the initial install based on a system you get in advance to setup as you want it. You just setup, send back and they clone it to all your machines as required.
Michael Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 It doesn't really matter where you buy from, but of course buy a reputable brand, make sure XP drivers are available and use downgrade rights to install XP.
gshaw Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 Stone for us as well, 3 year battery warranty makes a big difference Minimum spec for us is Core2Duo, 2GB RAM 1
Diello Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 Toshiba laptops, though Misco mostly - most still have an XP version.
c-r-h Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 We normally get R series Lenovos from Dabs. They still do some that are have XP Pro or have a XP Pro CD included.
FN-GM Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 We get what ever is the best price at the time then downgrade to XP.
Oops_my_bad Posted June 13, 2008 Posted June 13, 2008 It doesn't really matter where you buy from, but of course buy a reputable brand, make sure XP drivers are available and use downgrade rights to install XP. Pretty much sums up what we do - if it comes with Vista and you want to downgrade just make sure there are drivers for XP from the manufacturer We buy all our laptops from insight with fairly hefty sums knocked off for catalist
dhoward_westexetc Posted June 14, 2008 Posted June 14, 2008 Dell offer Latitude laptops without any operating system installed - the 'N' series. This is what we have been buying recently and we can then take the XP Professional license from the old laptop to the new laptop and decomission the old one. If we are adding extra PCs then we just buy another Vista license by our select agreement and that gives us downgrade rights to XP. In our experience it has worked out about the same cost as buying a laptop with an OEM license. Driver support is excellent for both XP Pro and Vista, we bought D530s recently and they have no problems running XP.
FN-GM Posted June 14, 2008 Posted June 14, 2008 we can then take the XP Professional license from the old laptop to the new laptop and decomission the old one. Do you know your not allowed to do this if it is OEM? Also if it is volume licensing it is an upgrade so you will need some kind of Windows licence to upgrade from. Unless they are Windows XP Pro retail licences you will be breaking the licensing rules.
dhoward_westexetc Posted June 14, 2008 Posted June 14, 2008 (edited) We are fully licensed for all our PCs with Volume licenses. Most of our PCs had XP OEM licenses in the box. We also bought in the past a sizeable number of Windows 98 and 2000 licenses. Edited June 14, 2008 by dhoward_westexetc
Guest Guest Posted June 14, 2008 Posted June 14, 2008 It doesn't really matter where you buy from, but of course buy a reputable brand, make sure XP drivers are available and use downgrade rights to install XP. Yep, i generally like to wipe them anyway otherwise the bloated crap that comes with them usually makes them unusable anyway.
FN-GM Posted June 14, 2008 Posted June 14, 2008 Yep, i generally like to wipe them anyway otherwise the bloated crap that comes with them usually makes them unusable anyway. Yes i agree, i also do that.
amcevoy Posted June 20, 2008 Posted June 20, 2008 We use Laptop House Ltd in stoke (Steph or Vicki) and Welcome to PCS - The IT and Office Product Specialist (Tina) We like HP stuff. Like the HP 530. Dells are ok, although we struggle with lots of HDD failures in their servers. Toshiba motherboards break, both their onboard RAM and power input. I havn't had a HP die yet. 1
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