..........positively amazing.

It's no wonder that a brand new machine never seems to give the expected speed. I know that this one certainly did not. Most apps take 10 seconds to load.

One last question:

If I install an older version of Office (Office 2007), will this, by definition, need to run in "virtual XP" because it's 32 bit?

To avoid this would necessitate the latest MS offering (2010)????

It's not a bad price from Dell ($149.)

Not worth running in virtual XP for the next five years if I can avoid it.

Brian, if there is a Solid State Hard Disk addon option from Dell, jump on it. For the price, they certainly dont hold much but I got a 128gb for 80 bucks. Installed my OS and a few choice programs on it... you will be amazed.

End result is programs basically opening up instantly, and startup times (at least for me) below the 10 second range.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Thanks...I forgot about that program. I found it easily on my Win 7 machines, but this laptop has Win 8 installed over 7, and I'm still trying to get used to it. Win 8 is definitely made for a touch screen device, which would make navigating it much easier.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

There is...........but, it's another $250. for it.

I'll probably go the route of additional RAM, which is considerably less, and see how it goes.

OK, here goes:

32-bit Windows 7 will run most 16-bit programs natively
64-bit Windows 7 needs the Virtual XP machine to do so. This is available in the Professional version and above.

Office 2007 will run without virtual XP, since it's generally a 32-bit program, not a 16-bit program.

Please explain:

A 32 bit program can run on a 64 bit machine..........with no issues?

Any benefit to Office 2010 on a x64 versus Office 2007?

Yep, a 32-bit program will run on Windows x64 with no issues. (This is a "Windows" issue, not an "OS" or "machine" issue to be clear.)

Thanks. Potentially, I can use Office 2007 in the new machine...........saves the purchase of Office 2010.

Not only potentially but really.

Wow. Talk about markup. Is it a 256gb?

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Nope.........it's only a 128GB. But, I was wrong on the price..........only a paltry $204 additional over the 250GB 3.5" SATA.

Any benefit to pay more for the 2.5" drives?

No, but SSDs are all 2.5" AFAIK. Yea i wouldn't go for it at that price. You can always add one later.

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1985 CA 300D Turbo , 213K mi

Not SSD.

They offer both 2.5 and 3.5 SATA drives. The 2.5's are more costly.

See Brian my friend, I knew you was a geek.

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