A Question for the Computer Experts

Ian Anderson · Post by **Ian Anderson** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 2:53 pm

My wife is looking to buy a laptop computer to run a scrutineering program on (Dance scrutineering). Information on the program is here
http://dancesportphoto.net/ds/index.htm

The program uses Access database.

So we went looking for a cheap machine and all of them come with Vista Home Basic. Alarm bells rang from previous info I have seen about Vista.

So questions are - has Vista been improved enough to make it workable?
Is Vista Home Basic acceptable or is it necessary to upgrade to premium?
Would Office 2003 work with Vista Home Basic and run the Access?

The only thing this machine would be used for is this program - no internet or anthing else - hence the "el cheapo" sized pricetag. (We use Mac's at home and for music) Tesco has this machine on at £278 http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-9312.aspx - should be more than adequate we think - provided access will run.

Or is there an Access available for Macs? - I can not find anything on this.

So please could the computer gurus on here advise if this would be suitable and run the necessary access?

Thanks
Ian

Post by **katanaman** » Mon Aug 25, 2008 4:29 pm

Vista with service pack 1 on is ok, its pretty stable and will do what you want. Home basic is the bottom of the pile but will do what you want and will run office 2003 fine. As for that laptop you will need another 1GB of ram put in there. It will run like a slug with the amount it has stock as Vista really needs 2GB or more to run with any speed. A 1GB stick of ram is around £40 so factor that into your price and see if there is anything better for the same money.