I want a new Laptop, BUT WITHOUT VISTA!!!!!

my brother is starting school and i want to get him a nice small inexpensive laptop, in the sub 1000 dollar range, with a halfway decent cpu and the ability to play games without overheating (not just a school-only computer in other words).

i LOVE my t43 thinkpad, but i want to get him a sony viao, because they are sleek and small and not that expensive these days. but i cant find ANY major vendors that are selling new laptops with xp, sony or other.

you see, im really into video, and that shit with vista purposefully downgrading hd content if you dont have a hdcp compliant video card even if the video file is non-protected is pure bullshit. they are trying to slow down hd piracy, and i will have none of it! vista can suck my balls, pure and simple.

i also dont want vista for the laundry list of other major complains people have had with it. Iv had professional experience with xp for 4 years, im not about to start over. ill probably be installing the "alternative" versions of a lot of popular software on his machine and setting it up for leaching and what not, i just dont want him to have to deal with vista's drm, wich is the whole reason vista was made in the first place. im not going to support a company trying to tell a user what he can and cant do with his own machine. vista is a joke, hopefully the first big domino in microsofts demise.

so, who sells new laptops with factory warrantees that have XP not vista?

 

go for a refurbished one at one of the 'big' stores

'refurbished' means sold but the customer didn't like it and brought it back and they can't sell it as new

 

No it means it was faulty, and has been 'repaired'.
You're thinking of 'Open Box'.

 

If your brother is in a Major University then he will most likely be able to purchase WinXP for Very, Very, Very cheap from the campus computer store.

 

The problem is new name brand computers and laptops don't have XP hardware drivers.

 

True, but look hard enough and you can usually find them.

 

hey george depending on where you go you might be able to find a few with xp on them. try looking on the egg they had a few when i was browsing there a month ago. have a look at this laptop as an example.
also as stated before student disco's are around but be careful some cheaper mfg. void their warranty if you change the system os.

 

The swines!

 

did some investigating, turns out lots of manufacturers offer xp as the op system but only when you buy the computer directly from them. i like buying from big electronics stores because when shit breaks you can just let them deal with it instead of having to return it through the mail. i worked at drew university’s computer networking department and we were responsible for maintaining our schools mandated laptops, t43's.

even if i got one with vista i wouldnt be buying a legit student copy of windows xp anyway, i would just do the double activation trick.

one of my friends is trying to tell me vista isnt that bad, i think it is. he uses vista 64bit dual booted with vista 32bit. he has a gtx8800 and a quad core, so he doesnt have to worry about slowed speed from crippling drm but a laptop with middle of the road components might get slowed down after a wile. iv seen his machine in action, id go as far as to say its just as unstable as xp if not more, but that might be because hes running 64bit.

most laptops these days come with the hdcp video cards, so the downgraded pirated hd content wouldnt be a problem i guess, but all the other shit would be. my brother isnt that computer savvy, at least not as much as me i think. i want him to have a simple op system that just "works" with whatever he wants to do with it, without having to search the web for homebrew backwords xp drivers. mostly i just want to send a clear message to microshit that drm will not be tolerated by myself.

unfortunately sony is one computer manufacturer that DOESNT offer xp as an option anymore (big surprise). i found a few older ones in random places around the net that are just slightly older models that still have xp, not so sure about the manufacturers hardware coverage ont hose though.

dell still sells stuff with xp, i think most of the others do also. i realy dig the fingerprint scanners and small size of the viaos, but are there any other laptop brands i should be lookign for that have these same qualities? he needs shit loads of hd space and 1 gb of ram and a decent video card. fire wire port (preferably one of each) and definitely needs bluetooth and definitely an svideo out, with the video card being able to send a component signal through the svideo output in preparation for a s-video-to-component adaptor. if the video card doesnt have this setting the converter will work but the outputted video will be black and white. Having a hdmi jack would be superb but my budget is a firm $1000. i seem to remember a manufacturer that lets you customize every last prog that comes on your computer, so you can leave out all that bs they usualy come installed with, does anyone remember what company this was?

i plan on getting a third party accidental damage warranty too. i was reading the fine print of sonys accidental damage policy and its a bunch of worthless hot air, it only covers accidental damage from "normal use". you wouldnt believe what people do to their laptops. having worked at drews computer department i heard all the best stories. once every few years during the first month of class someone (usually a freshman) will get so wasted they think their all-black thinkpad is a urnial, and theyll fusking piss in it!! im not shitting you, a kid i know actually did this wile he was piss drunk TO SOMEONE ELSES COMPUTER! then i go to work and i find out this has happened before. i asked if anyone every did number 2, thank god the answer was no. those laptops are too nice to be literally shat on.

 

Despite what I ironically said in my last post, you ought to clean up the language of that post, as funny as the story is, we have a lot of young members here.
As for your quest, I'm afraid it isn't possible. Laptops under $1000 always have very poor graphics cards, barely able to play games a couple of years old, and while they may have lots of memory, the GPUs will get you nowhere. The HDCP port is also unrealistic, and I know of very few laptops in that price range that have S-Video either. Aim lower or spend more.

 

Well... I think I have a winner >.>

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114234

Obviously not the greatest but will get the job done for games. Has a decent processor too.

Windows XP Media Center
Intel Pentium M 760(2.0GHz)
1GB RAM(can upgrade to 2)
GeForce Go 6600 128MB
S-Video
120GB HDD (dual 60GB)
TV reciever
might need you to put in a burner if it's not included.

Got 2hrs of battery life... full load probably... maybe not

Recertified... didn't read the rest but it looks solid at the least.

Will get you through Half-Life 2, Battlefield and Doom 3 no problem.

Has alot of bulkware too but it shouldn't be a problem if you can get rid of most of it...

 

Hmm, what does recertified mean?
Besides, I doubt a Go6600 is going to be much better than an X1200. If it were a 6600GT then perhaps not, but I would be very surprised if it could run Doom 3, Quake 4 etc. on high settings at anything above 800x600.

 

i was thinking maybe one of these:

http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php/cPath/95_51_178/products_id/1609

itll be about 150 out of my price range but its got everything i think my brother will ever need. it looks lame but its powerful.

how cheap could i get a laptop with a hdmi port for? sony wants around 2,000.

 

Well, as far as I know it performs very similarly to the desktop version of the GeForce 6600. And that can handle Doom 3 at max at 12 x 10. 16 x 12 is doable too but I'm not sure.

It'll handle Half-Life 2 no problem at decent settings at acceptable res and Far Cry at max at 10 x 7.

So while it isn't top-end I think it's the very best bet.

Recertiefied... meh... probably means refurbished.

And it'll blow away an X1200... the GeForce 6600 definitely handled the X1300 and the Pro quite handily so It's a contender as a decent solution.

Try to keep an open head all. We're on a budget and this is the best I could find.

 

i was thinking about getting him one of these:

http://www.xoticpc.com/product_info.php/cPath/95_51_178/products_id/1609

itll be about 1150 but its got everything i want aside from the hdmi port.

how cheap could i get one with a hdmi port for? sony wants about 2 grand, steep.

 

That looks like a pretty good choice.

I don't know about an HDMI port. But that laptop might be a good, all-purpose laptop.

 

Not having ever seen, I can't imagine HDMI ports are cheap. What is this for, input or output? I doubt you'll ever find a laptop with an HDMI input.

The Go7600 is good, far better than the 6600.

As for the 6600 question, I'd believe that about a 6600GT, but remember the standard 6600 was much slower.

 

Why not buy a new sony w/ vista and format the HD then just pop in a Windows XP SP2 cd?

 

What, and then find none of the drivers work?

 

What, and then find none of the drivers work?