Geek alert: New laptop/OS

[Guest Len]

Well, I've been offline for a number of reasons lately, not the least of which was setting up a new home PC system. I ditched the old Dell tower and bought myself a Dell XPS laptop. This sucker rocks. 250gb solid state hard drive (fast and quiet), 3 gig RAM, etc. A huge step up. I decided to go with a laptop as a "desktop replacement" so I can unplug everything and travel with my PC when necessary (I do this only once or twice a year, so its no biggie.)

A couple months back I bought an Acer 22" monitor. Yesterday I picked up a wireless keyboard/mouse set and a USB hub. I plug everything (keyboard/mouse, printer) into the hub so less unplugging hassle when I go mobile. I access Internet via my wireless hub so that's one less cord as well.

A big initial concern was going to Vista. Home Premium w/SP 1 came with the machine and so far I have had no problems. Seems smooth, fast, and so far no BSOD or anything like that. I like the look and feel too -very Mac-like of course.

Migrating over from old to new PC was fairly simple using the network -a bit slow for big files, but easy. Installed Office '07 and some other stuff, no glitches.

All in all, it was less of a hassle than expected and I'm quite happy. So far I can say that for general purpose computing, Vista isn't all that scary. So far.

Final note: Needless to say I'm POOR from all this buying, so no new guns on the horizon for a while.

[Guest SUNTZU]

Congrats on the new setup, Len.

Edited August 29, 2008 by SUNTZU
nevermind

[Guest bkelm18]

Sweet. I'm going to be building my first PC here in a couple weeks. I'm going with Vista Premium as well. I figured it would make the Mac to PC transition less horrifying.

[Guest SUNTZU]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npN9l2Bd06s&feature=related[/ame]

[Guest sling]

Transfering items to Vista isnt as big a pain as it was in the beginning. I remember when that thing came out... it was worst thing since Win ME.

Service Pack 1 has ironed out a LOT of the kinks.

[G27]

I figured it would make the Mac to PC transition less horrifying.

Why you do this awful thing?

[ShaunM]

I heard that they were going to stop making windows vista because of the problems it causes. I have it, at first it was good then it seems to just suck now, wish I had windows XP on my laptop. Windows 7 is going to replace Vista (because it sucks in my opinion). To many problems and compatibility issues. Hope you have better luck than I do.

[Guest bkelm18]

Why you do this awful thing?

Because I want a gaming computer. I'm keeping my iBook but I want a desktop for games/video/whatever and I can build it how I want it for a fraction of the price of a new Mac.

I heard that they were going to stop making windows vista because of the problems it causes. I have it, at first it was good then it seems to just suck now, wish I had windows XP on my laptop. Windows 7 is going to replace Vista (because it sucks in my opinion). To many problems and compatibility issues. Hope you have better luck than I do.

Windows 7 isn't even going to be out until 2010ish. Its just the next step in the OS. Just like they are retiring XP now that Vista is out, they'll retire Vista when 7 comes out. Just because they are coming out with a new OS doesn't mean the current one sucks. For the most part, people are happy with Vista.

Edited August 29, 2008 by bkelm18

[dunndw]

You have numerous friends around here that "dabble" in computers...and yet you still went with Dell...for shame :-)

[TGO David]

You have numerous friends around here that "dabble" in computers...and yet you still went with Dell...for shame :-)

Not a bad choice for a laptop.

[dunndw]

Dell hardware is OK...their tech support and after sales service is horrid

[TGO David]

Dell hardware is OK...their tech support and after sales service is horrid

For the casual consumer, definitely 200% agree. Enterprise support is actually pretty good.

[Guest sling]

Ditto. Enterprise support is actually pretty good. The times i've had to call for warranty issues in the past i've always gotten a knowledgeable American. The same goes for Microsoft corporate support.

Not some half wit Indian named Bob.

[dunndw]

That's because Enterprise support is paid for. I've had too many clients calling me cussing a blue streak after talking to "Bob"

Guess I shouldn't complain...they make me good money fixing their screw ups.

[Guest Len]

Well, I know who to call when Dell fails me!

PS. To a state college employee, Dells are irresistible. The discounts we get are impressive, and we get a free upgrade to more service as well. Plus I got Office 2007 for free (also due to work) and it just plain wont run on the old machine.

Dell hardware is OK...their tech support and after sales service is horrid

[ShaunM]

Well I have had bad luck and some other people I know have had the same luck. Never had any problems with XP. I think it sucks., but thats my opinion. Windows 7 is not that far from coming out year and a half or so. I will say this they have fixed alot of issues with Vista, but I think XP is the better choice.

Edited August 30, 2008 by Hunting101

[Guest monsterking138]

I have been using it for about 2 months and no problems yet. and i starting to like it more

[ShaunM]

I have been using it for about 2 months and no problems yet. and i starting to like it more

Not everyone is going to have problems, I like some things better with Vista than XP and vis versa. Vista just has to many compatibility issues for me. Windows XP was released in 2001 and is still used today and Vista was released worldwide in 2006/7 and now a new operating system to replace it?

Edited August 30, 2008 by Hunting101

[Daniel]

Dell's support suggestion for all problems = do you have the reformat disk?

[Guest Boomhower]

Dell's support suggestion for all problems = do you have the reformat disk?

So that's where it comes from. At my place of employment, our tech teams solution to all problems is......let's ghost your PC, reformat the hard drive, then we'll copy the ghost back over so that everything that was wrong will still be there.

p.s. well also use dell