<p>T43 is fine</p>
<p>and XP Pro is a must even if your college doesnt require it (many do) because it definately is better. </p>
<p>"whether it is sold by Dell, IBM, Gateway, Hewlitt Packard or others is basically all the same stuff but you should compare prices for comparable units"</p>
<p>They make take thier components from similar places but they assemble them in much different ways and use varying grades of parts. For example, many of them use some pretty cheap harddrives in thier models while IBM manufactures their own quality drives. Also, IBM just announced a spring sale...</p>
<p>Tea....XP Pro absolutly for college. XP home doesn't allow you to connect to the college network.</p>
<p>Oops.. didn't see Otto's answer.</p>
<p>Ooh, I see. Thanks you guys. Now, I'm set for college. :)</p>
<h2>Tea....XP Pro absolutly for college. XP home doesn't allow you to connect to the college network.</h2>
<p>wth, where did you here that?</p>
<p>XP home has full networking but many colleges do not allow XP home to connect to their network for security reasons. Its a fairly simple process to block Home from the network (fairly simple to get around as well...but anyone who knows how to do that probobly isnt a security risk and probobly isnt running XP Home). </p>
<p>Even if its not required, pro is worth it (and cheap or free from your college)</p>