jameshanley39******.co.uk shared these words of wisdom:

> i've heard some people say that the HP TC1100 is the compaq TC1000.
> But I think that's wrong looking at the specs, there are slight
> differences..

As has been already said:
They are similar. The form factor is the same. And all accessories are
the same.
But there's a huge difference: The CPU.

> one guy I know is selling an HP machine with an Intel Centrino at
> 1.1GHz another is selling a 1GHz compaq with a "Transmeta Crusoe "
> processor

Don't buy a tc1000.
The Transmeta Crusoe is bay far superior to the Intel Centrinos.
The high-end tc1100 came with a 1.2Ghz CPU.
Mine has a 1.1 CPU and there is not too much of a difference.
But I would not go below 1.0Ghz.

> I have 2 questions..
>
> Do both come with no CD/DVD drive, and if so, do they both allow
> booting from USB?

They both do not come with an optical drive.
But with both one use:
a) An optional docking station.
This comes really handy on the desktop.
The docking station has a multibay and one can use each and any device
with the 12.7mm COMPAQ multibay.

b) The USB Multibay Cradle.
The cradle hosts all kinds of 12.7mm multibay devices.
It can be used with any computer via the USB with an AC-adapter. If
used with a tc1000/tc1100 and some HP COMPAQ notebooks, no AC adapter
is needed as it comes with a special USB cable with an extra pin
providing the power from the computer.

c) With both all kinds of multibay devices can be used - be it a FDD,
an LS-120 hybrid drive, CD-ROM, DVD/CD-ROM,CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW and
DVD-burners (up to Double Layer and DVD-RAM) and even HDDs (with a
multibay adapter).
One can boot from all of these devices (including the FDD and the
LS-120 which is great for testing things without Windows).

d) As the 12.7mm mulibay standards has been around for many long years
and was taken over by HP (until they introduced the new 9.5mm Mulibay
II), there's literally tons of devices on eBay at really good prices.

e) Added: The new Multibay II USB cradle is not compatible in as far
as the power connection is concerned. The power pin is thicker and
does not fit.

f) Both models can use "normal" USB devices too and boot from them.
There were serious troubles, however, with using the "Recovery CDs"
for the tc1000 without a COMPAQ/HP cradle and CD-ROM. The system would
not detect third-party CD-drives properly and a workaround by manually
editing the files was not too easy. The latter does not apply to the
tc1100.

> How different is te situation of how soon into operation the cpu fan
> come on and becomes audible? Like, what is the average cpu temp of
> each and at what temp does the fan become audible..

I can not say for the tc1000.
The fan on my tc1100 is really silent and it does pop in only under
heavy usage.
The temperature breakpoints seam be set in a proper way.

HTH
Rainald