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I've got a bit of a question. I'm in the market for a laptop and I've always liked to have near top end quality, although I also happen to be unkeen on spending my hard earned cash. I've looked at the stats on this laptop and they are spectacular (My friend bought one so I'm gonna check it out when his ships) but I'm also looking at a lower cost alternative, the HP 8000t. It has nearly the same stats and is around $400 cheaper. The other thing is that for the same price I can get a 15.4" MacBook Pro, which I know as well to be an extremely good laptop. Although I've never owned a Mac and have not seen a MacBook Pro. Now, I've never used a Mac and I have a few friends Bias against Hp for various reasons and just witnessed my roommate last years Toshiba completely die (Harddrive failed. I tried every type of format and install of at least 4 different operating systems) so I am wondering if anyone has first hand comparasons of any of these.

I just opened up my new p105-s921 and my first impression is WOW. The finger print is easy to set up and works better than i expected. Its very quiet, light, and the screen is amazing. It was also extremely easy to connect to the internet. The only problem that i can see rght now is having to remove a lot of useless programs. Ill get back later with impressions after i have owned it for a while.

Removing the programs is always a problem when you buy from one of the big vendors.

thers no reason to be biased on this laptop, or toshiba a hd is not a whole laptop and have had alot of hard drive faliures from alot of diff comps over the years, its just natural "wear n tare" im so into this comp im going to post my own review with pics and in action pics (i used it to dj a party its first week). so keep tuned!

after a week or so of use, i havent run into many problems at all. havent had any hiccups or anything like that. personally i think that the speakers are loud enough, but i use a head set most of the time anyway. my real only complaint is that the cover scratches very easily. i left the protective sheet on as long as i could stand it, and right when i took it off i somehow managed to scratch it right away. overall it was definately worth the money.

i'm getting mine on Monday..will probably try and image what's on there, then load Vista Beta 2. That or upgrade it to xp pro. Probably want to wipe it and reinstall as that's the fastest way of getting rid of the bloatware.

Looked at the vista requirements today and it should be fine, but may have to struggle a little with getting the various device drivers to work, we'll see.

First of all there isn't that much bloatware. Just do the uninstall thing, took me about 10 minutes to get rid of unwanted apps. Here's something to think about just in case you aren't aware of how this notebook is setup.

Toshiba has integrated some cool features that you might lose after doing an OS upgrade. Here they are in a list.

1. Protector suite finger print app.
2. Wireless configurator. This works great.
3. My safe folder. Opens with finger print reader.
4. Touchpad configurator.
5. No boot media feature.

Just a heads up but let us know how the Vista upgrade goes. And personally I don't see a need to upgrade to XP Pro. I have Pro on my desktop and don't miss it at all.

Good Luck!

Mooney, thks for the list. That's why the image..and I'm assuming it comes with a 'reinstall' cd? Some do some don't. Anyway will try and image to my external drive. I need the xp pro upgrade in order to run ms virtual server. I also may want to put server 2003 on there.

I checked the specs for Vista and the laptop (esp the cpu and video) and it looks promising, but there's a download from ms for checking compliance. Will post my experiences.

The other challenge is getting memory to bulk out the 4GB limit..i'm finding it hard to find any 2GB sticks..lots of 2GB *kits*..i.e. 2 sticks, only found one 2GB stick so far:

http://www.bytewizecomputers.com/pro...7/10/911/11776

oops..the above is PC5400, this laptop needs 5300..sorry! See my note further down.

Gmo, there is a toshiba recovery disk with all the drivers so you'll be alright with the upgrade. I check the Vista specs and this notebook is good to go. Looking forward to your evaluation and if this is your first duo core box then you're in for a nice surprise.

Unless your Windows XP edition is 64bit and has the required CPU , it won't even recognize the full 4GB, so don't concern yourself with it.

In further checking specs and newsgroups, Vista should be able to address the full 4GB, the chipset supports that as well. From a brief scan of discussions in the Vista technet group, 32 bit can go up to 4GB.

The fly in the ointment is usually that most applications (they were talking specfically about games) are not written for Windows to address more than 2GB. Although I might do some gaming on it, I'll primarily be using it for running things like Virtual Server and SQL Server.

XP also can address 4GB Max, see following link and discussion:

http://tinyurl.com/kpby5

Update..had a further discussion on the Vista technet site with a msft Vista tech, he stated there should be no issues utilizing the full 4GB. True, some apps may not use more than 2GB (most should not anyway) but the OS will reserve what it needs then manage the rest of the memory for the apps that are running.


So we'll see I guess..If the damn delivery truck would just get here faster!

I got mine friday, so far I am loving it.The speakers and screen are great.It is actually pretty loud, I was worried that they would be a little low.So far A+.I am just trying to figure out which programs to delete and which to keep, I hope it is all on the restore cd.

Yippee..it came today..

So currently removing the malware..*cough*..special software like AOL etc. Also will eventually want to remove the mcafee stuff. Noted that it does have the "windows vista capable" logo that MS licenses. They did not make the user manual easy to find (on the cd..as an exe file you have to install and the install does not put it in the menu).

Also bought Acronis True Image 9.0 to do an image to dvd/external drive, then will try with the Vista install. There's another thread here or on notebookreview.com where someone is already trying to install to Vista. Once I get my config set I'll image it and proceed with Vista.

Update..2 things..it comes with xp pro, which is good rather than xp home. xp pro can support ms virtual server. Also, review of the Acronis site forums finds some significant complaints/bugs with the current build, mainly that it's having issues writing recovery disks to dvds..apparently it all looks like it's going swimmingly..but the result is a blank dvd. There are others though that still swear by it, so it may be a combination of bugs and/or user errors as imaging & recovery can be a bit daunting for the novice user.

Great!

Tip: Access the user manual by opening the Toshiba Assist, then click on the question mark.

I made a mistake in my reply to you earlier. Quote: "And personally I don't see a need to upgrade to XP Pro. I have Pro on my desktop and don't miss it at all".

Our notebooks come with XP Pro. Hmm.. I must have slept that one. No wonder I didn't miss it... I already had it.


I must get more sleep I must get more sleep I must get more sleep

I think you can get all these as downloads from Toshiba's support site.

http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...odItemList.jsp