Everything about computers

[zaqrack]

starting to consider (other than high-end gaming, Office compatibility, and, until I reformat the NTFS partitions at least, DVD recording)full-time migration. It's pretty damn good...

Great choice. Too bad I have to use Vista at the office, at home I wouldn't leave linux for sure!
High-end gaming is a hard issue, but openoffice handles msoffice files well, and if it's not enough, you can always buy crossover office for linux and enjoy full compatibility.

[CTG]

My financial situation makes me postpone this new notebook thing. On the other hand the store run out of this type of Acer...

To tell the truth I really don't know what kind of computer would be the best choice for me. The most often things I do with it: MS Office, webeditor, some older games like NFS Porsche or EA F1 2002 (of course if the computer is better, I would try newer games too), video editing (current one is always frozen when using better video editors than Windows Movie Maker ), MSN...

Vista is on ignore list, XP is perfect for me.

[Krys TOFF]

Vista is on ignore list, XP is perfect for me.

I don't know the situation in Hungary, but in France no new computer (standard or notebook) is sold with XP, they are all with Vista or Linux (mainly Unbutu) now.

[zaqrack]

there are some notebook sold with XP, but you can downgrade your Vista anytime to XP free of charge.

[Krys TOFF]

there are some notebook sold with XP, but you can downgrade your Vista anytime to XP free of charge.

Sure, but you may encounter drivers issue with notebook. Most recent notebook computers often have specific drivers, not always retro-compatible with XP. Be careful of that when buying your notebook CTG.
Best choice is a notebook with Linux : no risk of drivers issues when installing XP on it normally.

[CTG]

No problem with softwares, I can download XP and Vista too for free (and it's still legal for students and university employees).

[CTG]

No problem with softwares, I can download XP and Vista too for free (and it's still legal for students and university employees).

Is it free? I don't think so. You should order it from the Campus society and pay the relative cheap CD. As far as I know the downloadable version is only for fixing errors and making updates. Or, is there a change I haven't heard about?


Offtopic: Sorry for making you read so much today, but connecting to the forum is a rare occasion to me (only when I'm in the university PC lab, my own mobile internet is a very cheap 200 MB/month pack allowing only the most essential things).

[CTG]

No, it's totally free, if you download it from 'timeout' server.

[CTG]

Thanks. Re-installing process will start in an hour, it seems that I'm going to wait a bit with Linux until I buy this "slightly" better notebook:

ACER Aspire 7520-6A2G16MI

Screen: 17.0" WXGA+ 16:9; 1440x900
CPU: Mobile AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK55 (2 cores, 64bit), 1800 MHz
Chipset: NVIDIA? nForce? 630M
RAM: 2048MB 2*1024/533MHz
HDD: 160GB 5400RPM SATA
Optical drive: 8x DVD+-RW DL SM drive
Graphic: NVIDIA? GeForce Go 7000M 128MB
Battery: 4000 mAh (Li-ion)
Interfaces: 56K modem, 5in1 Card reader, Digital Audio S/PDIF, ExpressCard slot, FireWire I-link, Gigabit LAN, Infraport, S-Video, USB 2.0 (4*), VGA screen, Webcamera, Wireless 802.11b/g
Size: 404 x 298 x 38/43 mm
Weight: 3.7 kg (monster...)

It costs 179,900 HUF (~700 Euro) - quite reasonable amount of money for this. I'm going to buy it in the early summer. Let's hope it's not a bad choice...

Luckily I missed this one - there are already better+cheaper types...

[Duplode]

Firefox lovers, or just IE haters? Here's a good opportunity for contributing towards a Guiness World Record entry: the Download Day...

[CTG]

Poll started, sometimes I'm going to change the questions. First one is about your RAM.

[Paleke]

Ok, at least I'm not alone 

[CTG]

Well, you aren't. 256 MB seems to be not enough for XP+SP3 with serious firewall. Booting and finishing all the updates takes about 20-30 minutes after every restart - during that time I can't use my computer, because it's just very slow. Svchost.exe is annoying!

[zaqrack]

the cheapest way to speed up your machine is to increase RAM amount.

[Duplode]

Well, you aren't. 256 MB seems to be not enough for XP+SP3 with serious firewall. Booting and finishing all the updates takes about 20-30 minutes after every restart - during that time I can't use my computer, because it's just very slow. Svchost.exe is annoying!

My late old Athlon ran on 256MB and was a bit like that. Waiting five minutes for the system tray to load, plus another two for starting Firefox was unescapable... up to a point I gave up optimizing the process and surrounded my desktop with as much lavish eyecandy as I could 

the cheapest way to speed up your machine is to increase RAM amount.

Seconded, not only cheapest but the most convenient by far.