My local bestbuy is selling these tomorrow morning for $399

http://www.gateway.com/retail/ml6720.php

It looks like it has everything I need. I can replace the RAM with 2x1gb for about $60 from cruical.com.

Will my old office software run on Vista Prem? How about all my other old software? How hard is it to put XP Pro back on this machine?

I've been holding off for years on getting a new laptop. I won't be playing any high tech games on it. Mainly internet, photos, dvds, and perhaps a little programming.

Please advise. Thanks!
D

It is ok. Get them to sell it with WXP instead of VISTA though

Hi,
I also think that its best for Winxp, Vista will annoy u.And about xp, its not difficult at all, its as easy as switching on a pc.Try it out and see u what u find.u will be impress.May be for the first time u will do alot of reading.but all i know is every thing is NEXT, NEXT, NEXT.Tell us what u found.

Can I ask them in the store? Is it as simple as that? I would much rather have WXP.

Wrong advice

wow hang on please i know you all mean well but dont give out advice on a subject that obviosly you have no clue about.
First going into your local BB and saying id like to have this laptop with XP is not going to happen.
Secong of all going from Vista to XP is not jusr Next ,Next like one guy said here it can be done but its a lot harder than you may think and its not necessary this laptop will run great with a little help.

Ok now ill give out some helpful advice. this laptop will hold 4gb of ram as oppsed to what Gateway says its just that under a 32bit version of vista or XP the most it will show is 3.5gb so they dont tell you this .
what you do is go to Newegg . com and look for 4gb of kingston kit for $89.99

Then when you have about an hour and a half of free time follow the instuctions that i will attach to this post in Word and you will have a sweet running machine . ok if you need any other help with this or computer related post a message again. Good luck by the way this laptop is one of the sweetest deals in a long time.

weegster,

That is a excellent post.

I was a little confused on the memory because Crucial said it can use 4 gb, but than said 32-bit o/s only use 2gb.

Newegg is $90 cheaper then the 4gb kit from Crucial!

When I decide that I will keep this machine, I will try the clean Vista install to get rid of all the crap on it. I've had a few minor issues(see posts). They have gone away for now. 14 day return policy. I really want this deal to work out!

thanks a lot

Hey no problem im glad i could help ,This laptop runs very fast with the 3.5gb
specialy when you clean all the factory crap of it ,im glad i got thsi one and not the compaq or the previos laptop they had on sale.
enjot it and post any other questions .

What's another good choice for memory? Kingston is sold out.

Will this work?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820141342

edit
I got the Kingston - just became available. I hope this stuff works.

That seems quite a good deal , you can get one.

Why the bashing of Vista?
Really, I mean I've run a 720p video on something with specs like that while running in Vista... from a compressed .mkv file...

I am in to desktop but here is the time for me a lappy and i have grabbed 2 deals during sales events .I could use your advice.First machine a gateway ml6720 the other is acer aspire 5520-5334 .The main question is proc and graphix compare.ML6720 has intel core 2 duo 2310 and x3100 video
Aspire has amd athlon 64 x2 tk53 and geforce 7000m .If i am not looking into any other features what do u think which one is a better performing ,i think power saving is better for itel side.Thanks!

Well, first, the ML6720 is NOT core 2. That makes a difference. Are you saying you already bought these because you won't find a ML6720 anymore. Bestbuy sold out of them in hours and they have been discontinued. You might find something close like ML6721, etc.

I had to return my ML6720. Too many problems. Other than the problems, it was a nice machine.

I wouldn't foresee any general productivity programs not running on vista, but there could be some.

Before you buy ram, read the ram guide in the guides forum.

Yeah !I have both sitting here next to me but i can not decide which onew to go.I am AMD oriented in desktop but i do not want this makes me blind and not to relise if the pentium better.I do not know what is the differrent between core 2 duo and regular duo.The box says pentium dual core ,i made the mistake writing down core2 duo.So anyway should i take the amd rig or the gateway?

Got my new Gateway...again. This one is running smooth. Did a clean install of Vista and will go to 2gb memory.

Nice laptop for $399.