Windows XP Media Center 2005 Question

[shocky123]

I was glancing through Dell's website today looking (only looking..) at some of their laptops, and thought I'd go ahead and see how sweetly (or not-so-sweetly) I could pimp-out their XPS laptops.

.....

And the first thing I noticed was that they are running Windows XP Media Center 2005.
I havent heard a lot about this, but from my past experiences with 'Media' editions of Windows (win ME for example).. the performance for raw-gaming might lag behind that of the more mainstream XP pro versions.

Questions is:

How does the media center 2005 edition handle in terms of performance?? (compared to say WinXP Pro) ...

I cant imagine that it'd be better than XP pro, but on the same point, it'd be stupid to ship out your 'gaming' systems with (even-more)poorly performing OS'.

thoughts?

~Kyle

[zero2dash]

I've heard that MCE2002 (or is it 2003?) ran as well as XP Pro did, so, I'm assuming that a newer version of MCE should run equally well. (The key word here being should.) :heh:

Me - I don't use my PC for any HTPC stuff so I just stick with XP Pro. :)

[Kudos]

I haven't noticed a difference in performance between winxp 64, or winxp mce or winxp pro, nor have I heard of anyone with any complaints

[Grimm]

MCE 2005 is basicaly XP home with several intergrated applications.
It should run the same as XP home.

[Devhux]

There is a difference, but it's extremely sllight. In other words, you might see a few fps lower in games, but that's all. The only difference is that there are extra services running (the recorder and the scheduling service -- yes, the recorder service still runs even without recording anything).

[Jeffbx]

What everyone else said.

ME wasn't a Media Center edition, it was a bastardized version of 98 (and a pretty bad one, at that). Like Grimm said, Media Center is just XP Home with a few add on bells & whistles.

Having said that, I'd recommend that you stay away from the XPS notebooks - esp. the M170. WAY overpriced.

I'd recommend that if you want a gaming machine, just pimp out an E1705 or a Latitude D810. You'll get just about the same specs for less $$.

[shocky123]

Hehe, thanks guys.

And no, I'd never buy a 'gaming' laptop lol. I have to pay for college :)
I was just glancing for curiosity's sake.

Thanks,


~Kyle