Windows 7 - Minimum Laptop spec for decent performance

Will be buying cheapish (£250 max), used laptop from surplus dudes soon, purely for business & Windows 7 use.

Will either be Toshiba, Dell, IBM, HP. (Sony's typically very expensive)

What's min spec, to get XP Pro like performance?

Will 2.0ghz Core2Duo + fast drive + 2.0gb Mem do the trick?
Will that dosh get me kit expandable to 8 gig mem?

My trusty old Tosh Centrino with 1.5gb Mem & XP Pro has served me faultlessly for 5 years, but time for something else.

I would keep XP, I dont like vista or 7, seems to save files in odd places, then i spend an hour looking for them..... XP platform still seems to be the most stable

why windows?
install ubuntu...ad if you want windows...make a virtual machine with virtual box

bitzo wrote: why windows?
install ubuntu...ad if you want windows...make a virtual machine with virtual box

Being a UNIX Developer, 2nd PC at home has Linux/Solaris.. smiley2

This is strictly for business use, and will travel with me...

So priority above all else is MS-Office, KAV11, Firefox, IE, Google-Earth, Foxit, Visual Studio, Toad, all running faultlessly and quick.

Seems used DELL D630 Core2Duo laptops with approx 2gb ram (exp to 8gb) are good price/performance ratio.

Any comments/opinions/experiences with these ?

MAutopsy wrote: I would keep XP, I dont like vista or 7, seems to save files in odd places, then i spend an hour looking for them..... XP platform still seems to be the most stable

Been running '7 x64 "Ultimate" on DELL D630 (Only 2gB ram) for 2x weeks, and it's definitely stronger, more polished OS than XPSP3 or Vista.

Mate is selling DELL D630s with 2gb RAM/70gb HD preloaded with Genuine Validated '7 x64 Ultimate if anyone interested.