laptop to run MS

andyv8van · Post by **andyv8van** » Thu Jul 02, 2009 10:21 pm

Hi Guys

What spec laptop or a note book do i need to run the MS on?

Andy

Post by **katanaman** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 4:24 pm

the cheapest one you can find. An old one with a serial port is ideal but USB only can be coped with if you get a USB-Serial adapter. Look up the MS forums for recomendations on this as they don't all work the same.

andyv8van · Post by **andyv8van** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:08 pm

Thanks,

i have ordered a serial adapter with the kit,

what windows does the MS work with best

Andy

Post by **katanaman** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:17 pm

only ever used it on XP myself. Word of warning, if your going Vista your going to need a pretty heavy duty laptop anyway. Duel core 2GB or ram minimum. If your buying new and can wait then hang on till end of year for windows 7 comes out. Its far better than Vista (I am a Microsoft tech net beta tester) it uses less resources and generally runs far better. If your in a rush then get a laptop with Vista business. This has downgrade rights to run XP and any laptop that is built for Vista business flies on XP. If second hand then I would stick with XP, of course you can get MS tunning software to run on Linux as well if your into that kind of thing.

Eliot · Post by **Eliot** » Fri Jul 03, 2009 6:58 pm

Any crappy laptop will be fine. In fact the older the better in some cases as the come with real serial ports. USB adapters are a pain.
I use both Dell Inspiron 600 or IBM thinkpad T22's - the thinkpads are well built and feel solid.
This is little Toshiba Libretto (P166 32MB ram, WIN95) that I use for monitoring and tuning (if desperate!). I fits into a docking station that's attached to the car - no AC adapter, just plugged the 12v straight into the back!

But that is really the lowest spec and its only really any use as a fancy dashboard. An old Windows XP laptop around 800Mhz will be fine. I was thinking of getting some of the early tablet PC's to try out.