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My new computer [message #4619] Fri, 07 December 2007 04:38 Go to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
Arrived yesterday. Dell Inspiron 530S.

It shipped 1 day late according to the estimated shipping date and Dell sent it DHL overnight!

Then I didn't have any sound and, using the chat on the Dell Support site, the very capable tech diagnosed and fixed the problem in about 20 minutes. Dell rules!

The slim case is kinda cheesy and I can't get used to the vertical disc loading but it's sooo quiet and fast compared to my previous. I got it with XP and it's spec'd to run Vista so it's screaming fast.

The 19" LCD monitor is killer, too. I even watched a movie last night. Now if I just could figure out how to adjust the brightness, etc. Maybe I'll dig out the manual.

In 1986 I paid $4000 for an IBM AT. 1999, $1000 for a Compaq and $400 for a monitor then $400 more in 2004 to update it. This was less than $600.

I'm in Hog Heaven!



Re: My new computer [message #4620 is a reply to message #4619] Fri, 07 December 2007 08:22 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18670
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)
Excellent!

Stick with XP - Don't "upgrade" to Vista. I got a new laptop a month ago and it came with Vista. It is an incredibly bloated operating system and that makes it sloooooow A 2Ghz Pentium dual-core running Vista runs about the same as a 1.6Ghz Celeron 420 running XP. That's what I used to run and I think it was faster, actually. They've also added some "features" that make it harder to use. I don't care for Vista much at all.


Congratulations! (nt) [message #4621 is a reply to message #4619] Fri, 07 December 2007 10:59 Go to previous messageGo to next message
SteveBrown is currently offline  SteveBrown
Messages: 330
Registered: May 2009
Grand Master
nt

Re: My new computer [message #4624 is a reply to message #4620] Fri, 07 December 2007 12:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
steve f is currently offline  steve f
Messages: 236
Registered: May 2009
Master

i picked up a cheap laptop that uses Vista home basic, and I'm not impressed. I agree that it's slower than XP. No desire to add the full vista upgrade.

Steve

Re: Vista's a memory hog [message #4625 is a reply to message #4624] Fri, 07 December 2007 16:30 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
My son-in-law, the computer genius, warned me against Vista. MS is feeling the heat from Apple and had to do something. Makes you wonder how much real talent is still there if Vista was the best they could do.

Everyone I talk to who knows anything about computers is aware of the issue, it seems. 50% of the Inspirons on the Dell site are available with XP in one of 3 versions. It's probably a bust for MS as it should be.



Wayne--- new computer [message #4626 is a reply to message #4620] Fri, 07 December 2007 22:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
Wayne, since you're computer savvy I was wondering if you might recommend a computer for $800 or so (or less) that runs on XP for my son. We are wanting to get him one (he's chipping in all his BDay and Xmas money ) that he can do some graphics on. He's been messing around with Gamemaker and likes to write his own scripts, applets, and some code to make his own games. I was thinking if I can get something with 3Gb Ram, a decent graphics card, and a goodly sized HD like 500Gb it would get him started. We can even go without a nice monitor at this point to get him more puter as we have an old one to get him by for a couple months--then we could get him a nice 22" widescreen.

Bill-Specs [message #4627 is a reply to message #4619] Fri, 07 December 2007 22:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Shane is currently offline  Shane
Messages: 1117
Registered: May 2009
Illuminati (3rd Degree)
Bill, would you mind listing the specs you got?

Re: Bill-Specs [message #4628 is a reply to message #4627] Fri, 07 December 2007 23:24 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Bill Epstein is currently offline  Bill Epstein
Messages: 1088
Registered: May 2009
Location: Smoky Mts. USA
Illuminati (2nd Degree)
PROCESSOR Intel®Pentium® dual-core processor E2140 (1MB L2,1.60GHz,800 FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition edit
MONITOR 19 inch S199WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor with TrueLife* edit
MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 48X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive edit
VIDEO CARD Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100 edit
SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit
KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse edit
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive Included edit
MODEM & WIRELESS 56K PCI Data Fax Modem

$598 I paid also included $79 for a Works Suite with Word

You should try the Dell outlet store. Good hunting.

Vista Fix [message #4629 is a reply to message #4620] Sat, 08 December 2007 07:09 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Frances is currently offline  Frances
Messages: 1
Registered: May 2009
Esquire
Dual-boot Ubuntu. Save vista for when you HAVE to be in MS-space. Comes with office suite, web apps, easy to use, self-installs very well.

A little tweek, but the first real mainstream *nix.

AND IT'S ALL FREE!


Re: Vista Fix [message #4630 is a reply to message #4629] Sat, 08 December 2007 09:11 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Wayne Parham is currently offline  Wayne Parham
Messages: 18670
Registered: January 2001
Illuminati (33rd Degree)

Yeah, I work on UNIX and Linux all day, every day. Some of the guys I work with are real Linux biggots and won't get anywhere near Microsoft products. They refuse to run anything but SuSE or Fedora on their laptops/desktops. I'm a little more relaxed in that. I'll run MS products on the desktop if they do the job. Windows 3.1 did not, so I ran OS/2 (2.1 and 3.0) back then but when Win95 came out, Microsoft finally had a decent OS. Not great, but not bad. Win98 and XP were pretty good. The NT core stuff makes a decent desktop OS. I wouldn't run any Microsoft product as a server though. It doesn't scale. And Vista is a mstake, in my opinion. The preceding MS operating systems gave you something for your added weight. Vista doesn't even give you parity - it's a step back. It tries to look like a more secure OS but all it really does is get in your way. The mail program is absolutely snail bait, trying to do way too much in the background. Vista sucks in my opinion, XP is much better.


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