The Energon Pub

Yeah, I had XP put on my wife's laptop. I don't want Vista anywhere near me.

I still love my Mac though. I finally upgraded to Tiger, so now I'm only slightly behind the newest big cat. Unfortunately, I can't upgrade to the newest one. My G4 just can't handle it.

Hey Just an FYI. COMP USA is going out of business. Everything is for sale, I mean everything, fixtures and all. If anyone has one hear them, go and pick up anything you need.

TheMuffin wrote:Well that is confirmation that you're crazy. AKA Batshit insane.

"As always occurred when he quarreled over principles in which he believed passionately, he would end up gasping furiously for air and blinking back bitter tears of conviction. There were many principles in which Counterpunch believed passionately. He was crazy."

Tekka wrote:Crysis still runs at full speed, so that's all that matters.

Seriously? Did you have to set the graphics down to Nintendo 64 quality, or are you running off of a computer stolen from DARPA?

DREWCIFER wrote:Hey Just an FYI. COMP USA is going out of business. Everything is for sale, I mean everything, fixtures and all. If anyone has one hear them, go and pick up anything you need.

I told my dad about this, because nothing can beat buying upgrades I don't even need but want anyway at low, low prices.

Then he said the nearest COMP USA was in Lansing, a good hour away from me. CRAP!

Full detail of course, even though I have a modest machine. But I have disabled all the unnecessary elements of Vista, like I did with XP. I don't need an OS to be flashy, I just need it to function. It's only used for gaming as well, so features like Aero aren't necessary.

If I want flashy 3D desktops with all the bells and whistles I can do that in KDE without having the constant drag even when I'm not using it.

Shadowman wrote:

DREWCIFER wrote:Hey Just an FYI. COMP USA is going out of business. Everything is for sale, I mean everything, fixtures and all. If anyone has one hear them, go and pick up anything you need.

I told my dad about this, because nothing can beat buying upgrades I don't even need but want anyway at low, low prices.

Then he said the nearest COMP USA was in Lansing, a good hour away from me. CRAP!

Yeah, I've been going about once every ither week, since I found out. I get paid today, so I'll probably go again tonite. Cheap Upgrades Efin' Rock!

To those in the know about Laptops of the Windows Variety. How can one upgrade memory and Ram on a Laptop? Can you take the bottom off and install new memory like you can in a tower unit? Or, are you stuck with the unit as it was bought?

RAM is upgradable in most laptops. Modern ones like yours are more than likely upgradeable. The method for doing so differs from model to model though. My laptop came with instructions on how to open up the case and put in an extra board.

Take a quick look at your manual, if it's not there you can probably find instructions for your machine online.

Burn wrote:

TheMuffin wrote:Well that is confirmation that you're crazy. AKA Batshit insane.

In time you will rejoin us. The ranks of Vista Users will once again be graced by your presence.

And when that time comes, we shall give you .... a cookie.

So you're saying Vista will turn me into a cannibal. One more reason not to switch back.

DREWCIFER wrote:To those in the know about Laptops of the Windows Variety. How can one upgrade memory and Ram on a Laptop? Can you take the bottom off and install new memory like you can in a tower unit? Or, are you stuck with the unit as it was bought?

Yep. But it requires an entirely different kind of RAM.

I went to Dell's website and they have a 512MB and 1GB of memory. Man, my camera has more memory than that(2GB). Their's was 1GB for around $39. I'm going to go to COMP USA to see if I can find one cheaper. If not, that's not that bad a price, but 1GB really isn't much. Luckily I got the 160 Hard drive, so at least ii moves faster and has more room.

Still having issues with Wireless though. I'll work on it tonite.

You're mixing up Memory (RAM) and Storage.

Your camera has 1GB of STORAGE. Your computer has 160GB of STORAGE.

1GB of MEMORY has nothing to do with STORAGE capacity.

TheMuffin wrote:I would love a laptop....But you can't build one of those yourself. And the specs I want for mine would put it in the $3000 range. So a little above my affordable level at the moment. But congrats on the new one. If I absolutely had to buy a retail computer, it would be a Dell.

Muffin, go to Tech Bargins.com. You get an initial discount of $669 for Dell XPS series!!! This XPS M1530, loaded, cost only $1,424. Because the one I have would have cost damn near $2700 - $3000.

Autobot032 wrote:You can get Windows XP Home Edition brand new, or used on eBay here:
http://tinyurl.com/yptjxp

You can get Windows XP Professional Edition brand new, or used on eBay here:
http://tinyurl.com/29mvob

I must say Professional is the better of the two. XP Home has limits. Pro will allow you to use the Remote Desktop to control other XP computers in the home so you could do repairs for family, etc. Administrative tools out the wazoo.

It might be $50-100.00 for Pro, but it's well worth it. All you need to do is go to Dell's website and download the XP drivers for the hardware and you're done. It's a bit of a time consuming process and you'll lose Vista's Aero interface, but what you gain is sooo worth it.

Good luck! If you have any questions, I'm sure one of us will be willing to help you as much as we can.

Also, find out what the motherboard chipset is (NViDIA, ASUS, etc) and download the drivers from them if possible. Dell does a nice job of providing drivers, but if you've got SATA/RAID, you'll need the drivers whle you're installing XP, otherwise it'll be a pure pain to do it the other way around. Not impossible, just irritating.

EDIT: Okay. I went to Dell's site and checked on your Laptop. there's three models with slightly varied specs, however, the NViDIA drivers are universal for all GeForce 8 series chipsets. And here is the direct link on their site for the video:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

http://members.driverguide.com/ <--- has the Sigmatel HD Audio drivers for XP and Vista.

But until I know the exact specs of your laptop, I can't get all of the drivers you'd need for XP.

There's a service tag (white background, black barcode 5-7 alphanumerical line) on the laptop somewhere (my guess would be right on the bottom of it, or under the battery in it's compartment, something.)

You you post or PM me that number (which won't personally identify you at all) I can get the exact specs of the hardware and dig up some XP drivers.

Ok my Service # is: 8SPXCF1.

I have no complaints, as of yet, with Vista. However if my computer is going to run better, and the switch could be done easily and rather inexpensive then I'll give it some serious thought.

Oh yeah, let's just pretend I'm an idiot and with my computer savy didn't know what Vista's "Aero interface" is. What is it?

Optimist_Prime wrote:Oh yeah, let's just pretend I'm an idiot and with my computer savy didn't know what Vista's "Aero interface" is. What is it?

It's a very active and very interactive presentation of your documents. It's like highlighting a weblink and being shown a preview of the webpage, only for everything on your computer.

Optimist_Prime wrote:

TheMuffin wrote:I would love a laptop....But you can't build one of those yourself. And the specs I want for mine would put it in the $3000 range. So a little above my affordable level at the moment. But congrats on the new one. If I absolutely had to buy a retail computer, it would be a Dell.

Muffin, go to Tech Bargins.com. You get an initial discount of $669 for Dell XPS series!!! This XPS M1530, loaded, cost only $1,424. Because the one I have would have cost damn near $2700 - $3000.

Autobot032 wrote:You can get Windows XP Home Edition brand new, or used on eBay here:
http://tinyurl.com/yptjxp

You can get Windows XP Professional Edition brand new, or used on eBay here:
http://tinyurl.com/29mvob

I must say Professional is the better of the two. XP Home has limits. Pro will allow you to use the Remote Desktop to control other XP computers in the home so you could do repairs for family, etc. Administrative tools out the wazoo.

It might be $50-100.00 for Pro, but it's well worth it. All you need to do is go to Dell's website and download the XP drivers for the hardware and you're done. It's a bit of a time consuming process and you'll lose Vista's Aero interface, but what you gain is sooo worth it.

Good luck! If you have any questions, I'm sure one of us will be willing to help you as much as we can.

Also, find out what the motherboard chipset is (NViDIA, ASUS, etc) and download the drivers from them if possible. Dell does a nice job of providing drivers, but if you've got SATA/RAID, you'll need the drivers whle you're installing XP, otherwise it'll be a pure pain to do it the other way around. Not impossible, just irritating.

EDIT: Okay. I went to Dell's site and checked on your Laptop. there's three models with slightly varied specs, however, the NViDIA drivers are universal for all GeForce 8 series chipsets. And here is the direct link on their site for the video:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_169.21_whql.html

http://members.driverguide.com/ <--- has the Sigmatel HD Audio drivers for XP and Vista.

But until I know the exact specs of your laptop, I can't get all of the drivers you'd need for XP.

There's a service tag (white background, black barcode 5-7 alphanumerical line) on the laptop somewhere (my guess would be right on the bottom of it, or under the battery in it's compartment, something.)

You you post or PM me that number (which won't personally identify you at all) I can get the exact specs of the hardware and dig up some XP drivers.

Ok my Service # is: 8SPXCF1.

I have no complaints, as of yet, with Vista. However if my computer is going to run better, and the switch could be done easily and rather inexpensive then I'll give it some serious thought.

Oh yeah, let's just pretend I'm an idiot and with my computer savy didn't know what Vista's "Aero interface" is. What is it?

Wow. Quite a few options requiring drivers. Hmm. Without knowing which exact components they used for this build...I can't really pinpoint the exact ones. I'm afraid to dig up a bunch of 'em and have you put install the incorrect ones.

I will say, that is one powerhouse of a laptop. Good job. O_o

Oh and the Aero Interface is this: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... /aero.mspx

An XPS won't work for what I need to do. I have to get a Precision if I want to run SolidWorks well. It would actually be around $5,000 for my laptop if I got it. 4GB of RAM, dual 2.8 Ghz Intel CPU and an Nvidia Quadro FX 1600m workstation graphics card.

It would be a beast of a machine. But that is only because it has to be comparable to my desktop.

TheMuffin wrote:An XPS won't work for what I need to do. I have to get a Precision if I want to run SolidWorks well. It would actually be around $5,000 for my laptop if I got it. 4GB of RAM, dual 2.8 Ghz Intel CPU and an Nvidia Quadro FX 1600m workstation graphics card.

It would be a beast of a machine. But that is only because it has to be comparable to my desktop.

Planning on running the city with it?? O_O

Autobot032 wrote:Wow. Quite a few options requiring drivers. Hmm. Without knowing which exact components they used for this build...I can't really pinpoint the exact ones. I'm afraid to dig up a bunch of 'em and have you put install the incorrect ones

I will say, that is one powerhouse of a laptop. Good job. O_o

Oh and the Aero Interface is this: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... /aero.mspx

Hey, it's ok. Thank you for all your help and expertise . Thanks for the compliment too.

TheMuffin wrote:An XPS won't work for what I need to do. I have to get a Precision if I want to run SolidWorks well. It would actually be around $5,000 for my laptop if I got it. 4GB of RAM, dual 2.8 Ghz Intel CPU and an Nvidia Quadro FX 1600m workstation graphics card.

It would be a beast of a machine. But that is only because it has to be comparable to my desktop.

Still check the site and see if they might have what you want. They don't only offer Dell.

Autobot032 wrote:

TheMuffin wrote:An XPS won't work for what I need to do. I have to get a Precision if I want to run SolidWorks well. It would actually be around $5,000 for my laptop if I got it. 4GB of RAM, dual 2.8 Ghz Intel CPU and an Nvidia Quadro FX 1600m workstation graphics card.

It would be a beast of a machine. But that is only because it has to be comparable to my desktop.

Planning on running the city with it?? O_O

Nah. That's what it takes to do 3D modeling in style.

TheMuffin wrote:

Autobot032 wrote:

TheMuffin wrote:An XPS won't work for what I need to do. I have to get a Precision if I want to run SolidWorks well. It would actually be around $5,000 for my laptop if I got it. 4GB of RAM, dual 2.8 Ghz Intel CPU and an Nvidia Quadro FX 1600m workstation graphics card.

It would be a beast of a machine. But that is only because it has to be comparable to my desktop.

Planning on running the city with it?? O_O

Nah. That's what it takes to do 3D modeling in style.

I'm so glad I don't dabble in 3D then. O_o... although, have you considered a quad core from AMD? $250.00 plus on NewEgg.

I have an Intel 2.44GHZ Core 2 Quad in my desktop. 4 GB of dual channel RAM, 1.25 Terabytes of Hard Drive space and an Nvidia Quadro FX 4600.

It doesn't take much to create a few parts and an assembly. But when you're opening an entire assembly line for the Honda Civic up in 3D, you need some good stuff. The one I'm working on has over 7000 parts in it. And I'm only about a third of the way done.

TheMuffin wrote:I have an Intel 2.44GHZ Core 2 Quad in my desktop. 4 GB of dual channel RAM, 1.25 Terabytes of Hard Drive space and an Nvidia Quadro FX 4600.

It doesn't take much to create a few parts and an assembly. But when you're opening an entire assembly line for the Honda Civic up in 3D, you need some good stuff. The one I'm working on has over 7000 parts in it. And I'm only about a third of the way done.

I think I'll stick to my modest photoshoping .

TheMuffin wrote:I have an Intel 2.44GHZ Core 2 Quad in my desktop. 4 GB of dual channel RAM, 1.25 Terabytes of Hard Drive space and an Nvidia Quadro FX 4600.

It doesn't take much to create a few parts and an assembly. But when you're opening an entire assembly line for the Honda Civic up in 3D, you need some good stuff. The one I'm working on has over 7000 parts in it. And I'm only about a third of the way done.

*faints*

Cool but I Choose a MAc any day. I'm on my Macbook right now and I have a MAc Desktop and an ipod!
PC's.....eh
It's all mac for me! BIOTCHES!

NiteStar wrote:Cool but I Choose a MAc any day. I'm on my Macbook right now and I have a MAc Desktop and an ipod!
PC's.....eh
It's all mac for me! BIOTCHES!

I would, but I like having A) A usable machine, and B) games.

I should try a MAC one day... but I can't see myself ever needing to. Then I'd actually be able to participate in these wonderful MAC vs PC discussions.

I've tried a Mac. Wasn't bad, but it wasn't " Hark! The herald angels sing...." like I was lead to believe. The interface was a bit difficult to wrangle (though it could be learned, of course!) and IE for Apple crashed constantly and I ad no idea what to do. Perhaps if I grew up with 'em....