Windows XP or VIsta For New System?

Desdinova · #1 June 8th, 2007, 12:44 AM

I am currently using HP Pavillion DV9260US notebook. it is Intel Centrino Duo mobile technology featuring Intel Core 2 Duo processor T7200; 2.0GHz, Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit os, 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM, NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 256MB (i wanted the 512MB version but it was not yet available except as a special order), 240GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive Dual HDD - 120GB x 2(SATA), HD DVD ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer. (I had hoped to avoid the whole blue-ray/HD dvd thing but the bastiches snuck this in on me. They also provided a HDdvd to go along with it, it was a verion of a movie i already had on regular dvd. so i got to see the difference, sneaky bastiches - LOL)

I wasnt really happy about getting Vista at the time but as my previous notebook was just about dead i didnt have much choice. At first it was more of a pain than it was worth (i couldnt even get SE:V to play) i lost internet connectivity on a regular basis and my options for video were very limited (i have a Dell 2405 24inch monitor and could not even get it to run any higher than 1024x768). Then there was the whole having to learn the new interface and where did (insert choice of insults here) MS put all the items i was used to.

MS has since released several patches and i no longer have the problems i did. I can play SE:V with hardly any lag, until later in the game, but whether that is due to the patches from MS or MM i do not know (I play on maps with 50-100 systems and btwn 12-19 races. once lag gets to be a problem i just shut down SE:V and restart and i am good to go again. I have not tried re-enabling multithread yet so not sure if it will help or not, but at first SE:V ran horribly with it activated in settings.txt). I can now run my monitor in 1900x1200 resolution.

as for other apps nearly everything i have is still 32-bit versions from before i upgraded so i dont know how well support is for the 64-bit ones. i am currently using a trial version of 3DS Max 9 with the Vista 64 bit patch and it is smooth. (i plan on buying the full version once i get enrolled in school, there is a rather nice discount for students $750 vs $4000+)

edit: my old laptop was also dying of a video card overheating problem. it was a step back in speed for me as i was also at 3.4 GHz and am now down to 2.0 GHz but i havent really noticed the difference very much.

dogscoff · #2 June 8th, 2007, 06:42 AM

I downloaded Ubuntu yesterday just to see how it is. I expected it to be a real hassle but it wasn't, you just download the image, download a little freeware app to burn the image to a CD and off you go.

Once you've burned the CD, you can boot into Ubuntu from it, so that you can try it out without having to actually install anything. It has open office installed, a media player and photo editor and stuff, so you can see if you can open all your existing files. Then when/if you do want to install, you can use the same CD. It even has a "install to a different partition and leave windows intact, with dual-boot menu when you switch the PC on" option.

Anyway, it looked prety neat. Tried it on 3 machines: On my work machine it didn't appear to work at all, but I think that's because the CD drive on here is dodgy and insanely slow. It probably would have got there eventually.

On my colleague's machine (another Dell) it worked really nicely. A tiny bit clunky, but that was only because it had to spin up the CD every time it wanted to do anything. It would be beautiful running from the HD. It picked up all the hardware automatically and completely transparently. That was pretty impressive.

On my home PC (Sony laptop) it worked, but very slowly. However that machine is 5 years old now and only has the bare minimum 256meg ram required by Ubuntu, and there is absolutely zero free space on the HD to use as swap at the moment. Again though, picked up all the hardware straight away. I think it even found my pcmcia wireless network card, although I didn't have much time so I gave up trying to get it talking to my router.

It looks like a really nice OS; very clean, very user-oriented. It would take a little adjusting to I'm sure but that's to be expected.

Anyway, point is, if you are thinking about OSes, you should definitely give Ubuntu a try, even if it's just so you can say "I tried it". You don't have to install anything, there's no commitment at all. All it costs you is the time and the blank CD required to download it.

Q · #3 June 8th, 2007, 01:49 PM

Dogscoff would you give us a link for the Ubuntu download?

Ragnarok · #4 June 8th, 2007, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Q said:
Dogscoff would you give us a link for the Ubuntu download?

I know I'm not Dogscoff, but here is the link to Ubuntu.
Ubuntu Download Page.

If you are on dial-up, forget about it. It is just under 700MB in total size.

Edit: You can order CDs from there. They are free, they just take a few weeks to get to you.

Baron Munchausen · #5 June 8th, 2007, 03:08 PM

Even more fun than Ubuntu (to my mind) is Knoppix...

http://www.knoppix.net/

It's a complete distro in a single CD, designed to run from the CD, though you can install it to a HD partition if you want. Using high compression, they can get close to a gigabyte of software onto the CD. And there is a DVD version as well, with a truly huge amount of stuff. They have torrents so you can even download it on dialup, though I can't imagine anyone nuts enough to download the DVD on dialup.

Fyron · #6 June 8th, 2007, 03:11 PM

Desdinova said:
"it was a step back in speed for me as i was also at 3.4 GHz and am now down to 2.0 GHz but i havent really noticed the difference very much."

Clock frequency is not a valid comparative metric across different CPU architectures...

Baron Munchausen said:
"Even more fun than Ubuntu (to my mind) is Knoppix..."

I would have to disagree with that sentiment. Knoppix may have lead the way with live CDs, but its a really crappy distribution. You are better off with Ubuntu as a live CD, IMO. I believe even Debian proper comes as a live CD installer these days.

Combat Wombat · #7 June 8th, 2007, 06:05 PM

I just built my brand spanking new computer and I am sticking with xp pro until theres something good that needs vista and considering I owned a copy of XP Pro already I can't lose!

Atrocities · #8 June 12th, 2007, 11:15 PM

Well I am about to make the plunge. I don't really know how I can justify the expense but to say that my current system is four years old and showing signs of its age. If, scratch that, when I buy a new system, I will then have 3 working PC's and parts for three more. (Older PC's)

I need a system with more memory, more HD space, better graphics, and better processor. So $1,500 for a new system that hopefully will last four years plus is something that I am just going to have to accept. I just want a girl with a short skirt and a long jacket.