Vista requirements
 

What might be the limiting factors with Vista? Is it clock speed, memory, .. ? I'm currently using a T41- 1.6ghz, 512mb ram.

with those specs, i'll keep XP for now for it will be supported my microsoft until 2014. The vista user experience index will tell you everything, if its less than 3, its not worth it, imo

You can run it if you upgrade that ram. I currently run Vista Business on a 1.8 AMD chip with 2GB of Ram (Pavilion dv9000). Runs fine. I ran XP before and Vista is running just as well.

How much ram? 2gb?

As far as Centrino clock speeds go..they're much more efficient than the clock speeds indicate..

2GB is a must IMO.

it will be fine!! read this http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/02/..._handle_vista/

Check out the Tom's Hardware article that flip_x posted. There's some excellent info contained in the write up.

In the case of older laptops, the question is whether or not the graphics chip on the mobo is Direct X9.0c compliant. If it isn't, some of the more complex graphics of Vista won't display, including the AeroGlass interface. If you can't use all the cool features of Vista, that could be a showstopper in deciding whether or not to upgrade.

i have a dell inspiron 9300 1gb ram, 1.86 centrino, 256 graphics card.

If i could do it again i would go back to xp.
Its noticably slower, not all of my drivers updated and lots of stuff doesnt work 100% including my creative sound card...