Opinions, Opinions....

[TheCrossMovement]

Hey folks,

Its been quite a long time since I last visited this board/forum. Hopefully some of ya'll remember me. For those who don't, I consider myself one of betaone's "Originals". I've pretty much been with this place since it first got started in 2001....or shortly thereafter. Used to be a mod way back than, but have since lost touch&time for that. Great to see this place is STILL around. My last visit was on September 1st, 2005......so yeah...been quite a long time.

Now that we've finished reminiscing, I actually have a computer related question. Not sure where to post it, so here's as good a place as any.

A few days ago, I placed an order for a new PC from HP.com. HP is the best brand, IMO. My current PC is 7+ years old (500Mhz Celeron). Got it in Jan of 2000. So yeah......probably a good time to get a new one.

My main focus of this new PC is to be able to get everything done FASTER.....alot faster hopefully. Anything from browsing the web to burning DVD's and everything in between...plus play a few games (like TheSims2). I basically want to know if the new PC I ordered will be fast and quick enough for the simple tasks named above. The specs of the new pc are as follows:

HP Pavilion Slimline s7700e customizable Desktop PC

• Genuine Windows Vista(TM) Home Premium
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ dual-core (2.0GHz, 35W)
• 1GB DDR2-533MHz dual channel SDRAM (2x512)
• 160GB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
• LightScribe 16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
• 9-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, audio
• 802.11 b/g USB Wireless LAN card
• NTSC TV tuner with PVR and FM tuner, remote
• Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE
• Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports
• HP Keyboard, HP Scroller Mouse
• Microsoft(R) Works 8.0

The only thing I really needed but couldn't afford was 2 GB of DDR2 memory instead of 1GB. But I can always get that later on.

So.......What are everyone's opinions on my speed/productivity with this new pc??? Will I be able to do the above mentioned without much problem or slowdown? I'm not a hardcore gamer nor do I edit music or videos or do any kind of photoshopping. Just using it for basic tasks. Besides the fact that 2GB of memory would've been better, is there anything I can add/take away to make it be quicker/more responsive?

Thanks for everyone's help. I'll check back soon to see if there's any responses. Take care everyone

TCM

[DoG]

Hi and welcome back- i remember you from way back when
The system looks fine though i personally would slap an extra gig or two of memory in there, I know Vista Ultimate Edition is heavy on memory usage and at IDLE my system uses 50% of available memory which doesnt leave a lot of memory for gaming etc I have a gig so keep that in mind.

[Cyberion]

Definitely welcome back! The candle is always burning mate. Going "geek", why on earth would you run Vista when you need to run a stable system with little to no memory. Be good to your self, go back to XP. I think its also a savings too, if don't use the newest products.

I was looking up SIM 2 for Linux:
http://transgaming.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=855
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=230255

So far .. I've been wicked nervous about switching from Windows XP to Linux.. I think if I'm going to take that switch. I was at the computer store yesterday and sales chap tried to sell Vista on a customer, showing him all the gismos that Vista did.. Yah.. it looks good, but is it useful and reasonably priced. 2GB of RAM is almost a grand CAD, for many folks.. that isn't possible. The customer told the agent that it could preform like Ubuntu could he wasn't going to be of interest..

Sorry for the long tangent. But ya.. switching to Windows XP should save you memory usage, or that even Windows 2000.

[KingCobra]

Welcome back, it's been a longtime.

[TheCrossMovement]

Basically, My concern is for the DVD burning process. With this old computer, it takes like 2 days to burn an entire 4.7GB worth of Videos and such. I'm hoping that with this new PC, the amount of time it takes to burn DVDs will be reduced to a matter of hours instead of days. Plus I really want the overall web browsing and computing process to be MUCH faster. If Vista Home Premium is really that much of a memory&resouce hog, I may be interested in switching back to XP Media Center Edition. But I'm really looking forward to checking Vista out and really digging in and using it since I've never really had much chance before.

I've heard a lot of the system services is what bogs Vista down and takes a lot of memory. Maybe someone can recommend to me which services I can safely disable without losing too much of the "WoW!" in Vista.

Anyways, thx for the warm welcome. Good 2 be back "at home"

TCM

[JacKDynne]

Welcome back TCM - Good to see ye

/JD

[wase4711]

running Vista with 4 gigs, I can burn a 4 gig dvd in about 5 minutes...
Bulk up your memory if you are going to use Vista..

[Cyberion]

I went to the computer store and purchased 2GB for my laptop.. figuring I would either max it now, or max it later.

[robinwilson16]

Welcome back
Days to burn a DVD!!!
Yes it should only take an hour or two to encode the video.
I heard that Macs are best for video work but I'm not really sure as I just use Windows for that kind of stuff.

Vista is nice although it does use more memory and run a bit slower than XP
It is also overpriced I think - especially the Ultimate "rip off" I mean edition

[TheCrossMovement]

Whew! Nice to know my dvd burning process will be much faster. I don't care if it takes an hour or two.....long as it doesn't take me a day or two.

as for the memory situation, I'm planning on getting a 2.0GB flash memory drive to compensate(for now) for only having 1GB of DDR2 system memory. I'd use that with the new readyboost feature which Vista Touts. So that'd be (kinda) like having 3GB of memory, wouldn't it? Can anyone comment on the Readyboost feature and how well it works?

I'm only using the Vista Home premium edition, not the "Ultimate Rip off" edition. . Maybe Basic was/is the way to go?? Of course than I'd have to install 3rd party tv tuner software cuz Basic doesn't have any built in.

Keep those opinions rolling in...

TCM