buying a new pc

[silax]

after many moons of coping with my athlon650mz pc that had millenium edition on when bought £650
i have decided to buy a new one this is what i've gone for
Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GhzBlack or black/silver tower case512 Mb DDR RAM80 GB UDMA Hard DiskDVD/CD/RW drive with Nero and/or programme Cyberlink Power DVD56k v90 modem UK Keyboard, speakers, mouse
for the costly sum of €300 or £200
also a legitimate windows xp pro version on.
its brand new never been used this sounds like a good deal to me but on talking to someone they said i could get better deals if i shopped about.
your thoughts please

[Win2Win]

Why XP? :doh....It's out of date!! 80GB so small. 512MB gives you plenty of Pagefile access.......shall I go on? :D

[orientalexpress]

Why XP? :doh....It's out of date!! 80GB so small. 512MB gives you plenty of Pagefile access.......shall I go on? :D

I cant see myself ever upgrading to vista. XP will be the last one for me. If only ubuntu ran most applications..........:ermmm

[Win2Win]

I run Vista on 3 machines, miles better, and a vast improvement on XP. However, you do need at LEAST 2GB's of memory, otherwise it'll bottleneck, especially the first few weeks while defraging & indexing everything, although not everyone has 5 million files like me :yikes:

[scoobydoo]

I run Vista on 3 machines, miles better, and a vast improvement on XP. However, you do need at LEAST 2GB's of memory, otherwise it'll bottleneck, especially the first few weeks while defraging & indexing everything, although not everyone has 5 million files like me :yikes:

I must say that I have been surprised how good Vista is, runs well on laptop but then I do have 2Gb ram as Keith says you need. Keith...what do you take to America then...just one laptop? I had visions of you with all your gear at the Airport....:splapme

[Win2Win]

:D

Laptop, pocket drive with important files, cloned WD Passport drive, printer...cables....about 10KG worth.....and maybe a t-shirt :laugh

[scoobydoo]

:D

Laptop, pocket drive with important files, cloned WD Passport drive, printer...cables....about 10KG worth.....and maybe a t-shirt :laugh

Christ I bet they love you!! :ermmm :laugh

[GlosRFC]

Vista (or the Aero shell) is causing some problems with graphics software, particularly Adobe as it's not 100% compatible with XP software. As yet, there's been no software released that is specifically targetted at Vista and also very few Vista-specific drivers available.

So yes, it is newer and the security is better than XP...but if you use Flash, or Photoshop, or Fireworks, or any programs that directly address your video card, you will need to turn off most of the Vista bells and whistles by right-clicking the program and selecting Properties, Compatibility, and then Disabling the desktop composition. You will need to do this for every program that's affected. The alternative is to disable Aero completely - in effect this simply changes the Vista theme to the Windows Classic theme i.e. it looks more like Win98!

So unless you have a specific reason to upgrade to Vista, my advice is don't do it just yet.

[scoobydoo]

Vista (or the Aero shell) is causing some problems with graphics software, particularly Adobe as it's not 100% compatible with XP software. As yet, there's been no software released that is specifically targetted at Vista and also very few Vista-specific drivers available.

So yes, it is newer and the security is better than XP...but if you use Flash, or Photoshop, or Fireworks, or any programs that directly address your video card, you will need to turn off most of the Vista bells and whistles by right-clicking the program and selecting Properties, Compatibility, and then Disabling the desktop composition. You will need to do this for every program that's affected. The alternative is to disable Aero completely - in effect this simply changes the Vista theme to the Windows Classic theme i.e. it looks more like Win98!

So unless you have a specific reason to upgrade to Vista, my advice is don't do it just yet.


Glos, I sometimes get a notice in system tray saying that vista cannot display certain things properly and is reverting in the aero shell....happened a few times. The aero shell is not the default one though is it?? It wasnt on mine...I had to change it over...which I thought was strange as all adverts show it turned on?

Good luck tomorrow mate...might have a £1 on them...you reckon the +4.5 handicap is right....I know of course you dont?!!! :doh :D

[GlosRFC]

That's almost certainly because Vista has noticed an incompatibility with your video driver. The Areo shell should be the default - essentially the "shell" is the container for the user interface, i.e. the desktop, toolbar, windows explorer, etc. although most people will simply call it Vista after the O/S. After all, XP is called XP yet the shell was called Luna.

We've a +4.5 handicap? Hmmm, I'd say that's a tad harsh given the amount of bonus points that Leicester have earned for tries this season and the fact that we're playing away from home. But the players are really up for the game and there's the small matter of the first time we were in a Championship playoff final and lost to Wasps after a three-week layoff and despite crushing all opposition in the league that year. There'll be a huge contingent of Cherry & White supporters there too which is worth an extra try in my book...so lump your £1 on them :)

[GlosRFC]

If I was going to recommend a PC that's suitable for Silax, it would probably have to be one of these:


http://i9.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/9b/11/682d_1.JPG

[scoobydoo]

That's almost certainly because Vista has noticed an incompatibility with your video driver. The Areo shell should be the default - essentially the "shell" is the container for the user interface, i.e. the desktop, toolbar, windows explorer, etc. although most people will simply call it Vista after the O/S. After all, XP is called XP yet the shell was called Luna.


Im almost sure my default shell was vista basic...it was an upgrade. Wasnt till I messed about that I turned on aero shell?



We've a +4.5 handicap? Hmmm, I'd say that's a tad harsh given the amount of bonus points that Leicester have earned for tries this season and the fact that we're playing away from home. But the players are really up for the game and there's the small matter of the first time we were in a Championship playoff final and lost to Wasps after a three-week layoff and despite crushing all opposition in the league that year. There'll be a huge contingent of Cherry & White supporters there too which is worth an extra try in my book...so lump your £1 on them :)


My pound is on them then....all the best Glos anyway..

[scoobydoo]

If I was going to recommend a PC that's suitable for Silax, it would probably have to be one of these:


http://i9.ebayimg.com/01/i/000/9b/11/682d_1.JPG

I have that pc with Millennium OS! :laugh

[Win2Win]

but if you use Flash, or Photoshop, or Fireworks,

All mine work fine in Aero! :doh

I only have two programs that switch it off, and they are not main stream software anyway.

Not had any video problems, all games, video editing, audio, photoshop, work just dandy, and I have a lot of software.

You seem to keep talking it down Glos without having given it a good run for it's money in real life. I run it on 3 systems, all different setup/hardware/software, no problems.

Even RSB works in Aero, and that software is from Windows 95!!

[GlosRFC]

I'm not talking it down at all...for an MS release it's actually quite stable. All I'm pointing out is that there's no real reason to upgrade immediately unless you have to, especially if you have software or hardware that you rely upon, or if XP is working fine.

To be fair, most of the programs that appear to be having problems are mainly Adobe - Reader, Flash etc. which need to have the compatibility mode altered. Anyone with an iPod will also have problems with their iTunes 7.1 software particularly as the Safely Remove Harware is anything but!!

You also need to bear in mind that Vista itself requires a huge increase in processor power and RAM - something that not everyone upgrading will be aware of or even have in their system. And most of that additional power/memory is being used to drive a nice glassy interface which, quite frankly, doesn't offer any real benefit other than making some people go "Aaaaaah" when they see it.

[silax]

back to the original question boys
can i do any better for 200 or 300 euros its too late i've bought the ****** and keyboard is in spanish will have to alter that

[scoobydoo]

I'm not talking it down at all...for an MS release it's actually quite stable. All I'm pointing out is that there's no real reason to upgrade immediately unless you have to, especially if you have software or hardware that you rely upon, or if XP is working fine.

To be fair, most of the programs that appear to be having problems are mainly Adobe - Reader, Flash etc. which need to have the compatibility mode altered. Anyone with an iPod will also have problems with their iTunes 7.1 software particularly as the Safely Remove Harware is anything but!!

You also need to bear in mind that Vista itself requires a huge increase in processor power and RAM - something that not everyone upgrading will be aware of or even have in their system. And most of that additional power/memory is being used to drive a nice glassy interface which, quite frankly, doesn't offer any real benefit other than making some people go "Aaaaaah" when they see it.


For all I have said on Vista, I am still using Xp mostly. I have few minor problems like with no ink levels showing for printer...got another error the other day with Quicktime update I think until I found the fix (unregistered DLL)but again I am not using loads of different software on it. But it really isnt as bad as I was led to think it was either.

[GlosRFC]

back to the original question boys
can i do any better for 200 or 300 euros its too late i've bought the ****** and keyboard is in spanish will have to alter that

You probably could've saved a bit...but not a lot. As Keith said though, your biggest problem is likely to be the shortage of RAM but then it all depends what you're planning on using it for. If it's simply a bit of word-processing, tinkering with a few spreadsheets, going online etc., then it will be fine.

[Win2Win]

He needs it for porn!!! :)

[silax]

He needs it for porn!!! :)

he's right but i can get extra memory at the touch of a phonrcall

[bigcumba]

he's right but i can get extra memory at the touch of a phonrcall

shouldn't that be extra mammary? :wink