[intakexhaust]

My daily 'meat and potato' PC is an HP TX-2 tablet / PC. Best of both worlds but of course the moment you pit against an tablet VS PC, well then spend for one of each.

By no means am I a fan of HP but in '09 purchased new in a virgin sealed box, a TX21025dx with a dual core AMd proc. 4 gig ram and with a decent ATI graphics card. Simply fell into the deal at a Best Buy clearance and refused to let them get their muddy paws on it (meaning don't allow them to set it up). Paid $665 incl. the extended warranty (2 years on top of the factory 1 yr.). Came with the dreaded Vista Ultimate but received FREE later the full version Win 7 Ultimate. That was a promotion fluke and all I can say is wow!

A full blown workhorse for graphics, real world business functions, ACAD usage, webcam, audio SRS-Altec Lansing to plug into or bluetooth to aux. speakers, remote built-in to send to TV / mon. DVD burner, pen writing, drawing, even capable of online race league gaming, bla-bla... More important its a rugged traveling machine (ally chassis) with a practical 12.1 HD touch screen. The screen even took an accidental hard hit once and did the psychodelic thing, I turned it off and then back on... still works perfect.

Without shouting of why and how good it is and utility, I'll skip to the early problems (but now is perfecto). The problem was with Vista OS. Apparently, Gates was excited on the tablet PC direction and lots of resources went into it however it never took off. Why? I don't know.

This thing was a slug with Vista and further ran hot and burned up the main cpu. But once I had the replacement board done by the factory and installed Win 7 Ultimate, its a whole different machine. Runs 16 hours a day, everyday, heavy used ACAD applications and now no issues. It's often running with a second moniter AND running Win 7 with XP Pro (VM - virtual machine)... excellent feature. With its smaller screen for a laptop it easily runs an honest 5 hours with the screen full bright using the bulkier 8 cell battery (which elevates the rear slightly and now come to appreciate that feature too). What I'm saving in money to run all my older software on the XP Pro o.s. is outstanding and quickly discovered all of the early software works on the touchscreen feature. Awesome.

I deleted all the HP garbage and run the free Avast AV with MS Defender. Because of the Win 7 Ultimate and XP pro (VM) it really blows away anything I've come across. Yes its heavier and bulkier than a dedicated tablet but its no comparison how superior it is in when you need it all and in a compact size. Quite remarkable for the price too. I'm considering another with the i5 processor and with 8g ram. That package can be had in that $1100 to $1200 range.

As a secret to the nerd world and if your'e willing to risk somewhat on ebay and do the work you can pick up a later model unit on ebay for around $250. A CPU heat sink is attached (you-tube instructions) and install to Win 7 Ultimate.