Compaq Presario 2205AL a very good bargain The Compaq Presario 2205AL comes with Linux Mandrake v9.1 operating system Intel Pentium M Processor 725 that supports Enhanced Intel Speed com Step Technology (1.6 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB); 15-inch color TFT XGA (1024 x 768 resolution); 256 MB (1 x 256MB) DDR SDRAM (266 MHz); 40GB (4200 rpm); DVD/CD-RW Combo; Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 (up to 64 MB Shared Memory). The configuration is pretty good for 53000 rs(promotional offer as of dec 2004) The Brand speaks for it self HP’s Compaq range have always been the best in performance and relaibility And morever the The laptop comes with a one-year international travelers warranty. If you compare that with dell you need to take thier three year warranty which cost 20000 rs more to get international warranty The only draw back is it doenst have windows so you will need to shell out anothe 3500 for XP home or 7000 odd for XP proffesional and then another 6-11 for office and also another 4000 bucks for an antivirus(i recomend nod32 the bestand cheaper) The graphics are pretty decent and intel extreme surprisingly can play almost all the games in lower or medium resolutions The proccessor is more than enough for mobile usage but not enough for power usage like decoding/encoding video and 3d graphics( I dont think there exist a laptop that can do high end 3d creation)I was talking about 3d development but I am sure this laptom wont have any problems playing 3d content and can be used to present 3d walkthroughs etc I would love adding in an extra 256 mb to make it lightning fast but I think 256 mb should suffice for normal usage The combo is a very useful as you can see more dvds today What I am not sure is if the display is active matrix display Active matrix means you can view it from any angle this is important if you are going to take your laptop to give presentations where there are more than two ppl and you also have to keep an eye on whats going on but if it for personal use and to give presentation to one or two person I think you could manage with a little adjustments all in all it is a very good offer is it is still available under the promotional price of rs 53000 But one should remember that hp has an excellent service record but only in metros cosmos and a few important cities in smaller cities it is difficult to get support on time as the service personell actually come down from the bigger cities on demand I say go for it cos you will not get this configuration for less than 70000-75000 If you are comfortable with linux this is a blast or else you will have to add aroudn 4000 for Windows XP which is still worth it ABout office it think you can use open office an open source(means free :-)) office replacement if its active matrix then jump for it