If you use Vista then yes it's highly recomended. As for the note book... if it uses Vista then again I would say yes as it is a definate improvement over the 'vanilla' version of Vista. I think with the notebook it would be better to wait for the final release as these early releases will not work past June or July but obviously by then the final version will be out. (As I wrote above, rumour control says the date could be the 15th Feb)

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AMD X2 BLACK EDITION 3.2GHz SAMURAI COOLER::GA-M51 MB-HEATPIPE CHIPSET COOLER::3GB XMS2 PC6400 RAM::GEFORCE 8800 GTS 320MB 575/900MHz::160GB BARRACUDA RAID 0::SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY::SAMSUNG WRITEMASTER DVD-RW/PIONEER DVD::HIPER MODULAR 530W PSU::THERMALTAKE ARMOUR Jr CASE::RAZER COPPERHEAD MOUSE::VISTA HOME PREMIUM SP1