TOSHIBA PORTEGE R100

The Portege R100 is, for the most part, a set configuration, with only a few ways to spruce it up when you buy. The choices are varying amounts of memory from 256MB to 1GB, a 30GB or 40GB hard drive, and 802.11b or 802.11a/b wireless mini-PCI cards. Otherwise, every Portege R100 includes a 1GHz Pentium M processor, Intel’s 855PM chipset, a Trident XP4m32 LP graphics chip with 32MB of dedicated DDR video RAM, and a 12.1-inch screen with a native resolution of 1,024x768 pixels.

The Portege R100 lacks an internal modular bay for secondary storage drives, so Toshiba sells two external drives for the system: a USB 2.0 floppy drive and a PC Card-based DVD-ROM drive. If you need newer secondary storage drives, such as a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, you’ll have to get them from third-party providers, such as Addonics--a lot less convenient than going through Toshiba.

In keeping with the spartan theme, the Portege R100 comes with one operating system--Windows XP Professional. Your two office suite choices are the standard Microsoft Office XP Small Business and Professional editions. Remaining software includes a couple of Toshiba utilities and Adobe Acrobat Reader.