Windows XP SP2 v. Media Center

[viperc0m]

All,

I recently purchased a new laptop which came with Media Center XP. I was thinking of replacing it with XP Pro, but I am not sure if there is a benefit to that.

Can you all please let me know your thoughts on the matter?

Thanks

 

[Homerboy]

well that depends on what you plan on using your laptop for...
do a google search to compare:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=XP+Pro+versus+MCE&btnG=Google+Search

 

[Cardio]

Originally posted by: viperc0m
All,

I recently purchased a new laptop which came with Media Center XP. I was thinking of replacing it with XP Pro, but I am not sure if there is a benefit to that.

Can you all please let me know your thoughts on the matter?

Thanks

MCE IS XP Pro with some additions and unless you are interested in the way it handles domains, don't think you could tell the difference. What would you expect from changing OS's anyway?

 

[viperc0m]

I want the OS that will give me the best wireless connectivity, best battery life, and thats it.

Does that help narrow down the choices?

 

[spyordie007]

I wouldnt spend the money on a license of XP Pro for that machine.

XP MCE 2005 contains nearly the entire XP Pro feature set (including networking and power saving components). AFAIK the only features that XP Pro contains and MCE does not is cached credentials and that they've made it harder (but not impossible) to join a domain.

There are lots of other threads regarding this very topic, if you have more questions please review them.

Erik

 

[viperc0m]

thank you very much

Originally posted by: spyordie007
I wouldnt spend the money on a license of XP Pro for that machine.

XP MCE 2005 contains nearly the entire XP Pro feature set (including networking and power saving components). AFAIK the only features that XP Pro contains and MCE does not is cached credentials and that they've made it harder (but not impossible) to join a domain.

There are lots of other threads regarding this very topic, if you have more questions please review them.

Erik

 

[mechBgon]

Support life is longer for XP Pro, although it doesn't seem to interest most people. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die...

 

[SLCentral]

I really don't get why people don't friggin SEARCH before making topics. Not only has this been posted many times on Anandtech, but it's also all over Google. Stop wasting everyone elses time b/c you're lazy.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: SLCentral
I really don't get why people don't friggin SEARCH before making topics. Not only has this been posted many times on Anandtech, but it's also all over Google. Stop wasting everyone elses time b/c you're lazy.

LOL. But if people searched, it would cut the size of the AnandTech forums in half!

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger

Originally posted by: SLCentral
I really don't get why people don't friggin SEARCH before making topics. Not only has this been posted many times on Anandtech, but it's also all over Google. Stop wasting everyone elses time b/c you're lazy.

LOL. But if people searched, it would cut the size of the AnandTech forums in half!

Heh; if people used search it would cut the size of the internet by half

 

[Lord Evermore]

I did a search just a few minutes ago and found no results that were useful to me. In fact this very thread didn't even come up using "XP MCE" as the search terms. I only found it using Google. The search terms HomerBoy linked to were helpful to me, as I'd been trying to find comparisons between the two versions and couldn't find anything useful, only "buy and compare" type sites mainly, and looking for the word "versus" hadn't occurred to me.

Now I know exactly what the differences are between the two version (which features aren't included from Pro, and which ones still are even though it's meant for the home). However what I'm really looking for is whether there's any performance differences between the two if you use it without the MCE functionality. Considering the price difference of 30 to 40 dollars buying the OEM versions, if MCE performs just as well, then why NOT get it? I've seen a few mentions of MCE even performing slightly better than XP, so I'm trying to get some details on that now. If on the other hand there are added features which can't easily be disabled which end up using CPU time or memory in MCE, then it comes down to whether the lower price is still worth it.

Heck, I just found this comment which pretty much answers the question of whether MCE should or shouldn't perform any worse:

"Interestingly, if you take your MCE CDs but type in an XP Pro CD key when it asks, it will never ask for the 2nd disc and you'll get a prefectly normal copy of XP Pro."