Intel e5200 2 cpu w/ 4 gig ram... enough for Windows 7 Pro?

[The Gorn]

Benali, the Laserjet compatibility is not a big deal. The PCL language that those printers use is evolutionary and didn't change that rapidly.

I found a constructive tip here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/54079-hp-laserjet-6l.html

Look at the Microsoft tech support employee losers posting robotic thoughtless advice (one reason I see no value in buying a retail edition of the OS and obtaining "factory support". They won't do anything for you.)

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7hardware/thread/1560be45-be4a-411d-a972-998460dafaf4

[benali72]

Thanks for the link on the printer, G0ddard.  Pretty odd... the HCL does not list the printer but in fact you can download a workable driver for it. I found some other forum posts where people found other ways to get the 6L to work, too.  Not simple to get it to work, but definitely doable. Thanks.

[I D Shukhov]

I checked the CPU chip (Intel e5200 dual core) and found that it does not support virtualization. So it can't run VirtualBox, for example. 

Benali,

You don't need to have a CPU that supports virtualization.  I had been running VB fine on my AMD X4 620 box.  It worked great and I was happy with the performance.  When I downloaded and started using Windows XP mode / Windows Virtual PC on this box, which uses Windows 7 Professional,  I seem to recall running a utility that told me I should (or even had to) enable hardware virtualization.  I then discovered that it had not been turned on in the BIOS and did so.

I haven't done any before and after tests with VB, but my impression with just doing basic stuff like surfing the Web and the general user experience is that it didn't make much difference.  I'm sure it must make a difference, though.  I wonder how I can measure the performance with and w/o hardware virtualization?

[benali72]

Hey, thank you I D, I've never used VB and made the incorrect assumption one needed CPU virtualization to support it. Now that you've told me otherwise I'll definitely put it on this box.  Thanks!

[The Gorn]

I'm unclear on the exact benefits of CPU level virtualization but in general, I think it's a matter of the hardware supporting virtual machines rather than having software support them. In other words, speed.

[benali72]

G0ddard, I just read the VirtualBox User Manual and found exactly what you stated on page 155 -- that at least as far as VB is concerned, CPU level virtualization is a performance enhancer but not a requirement to run the product in most cases.