New Vista Laptop - Not impressed

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chuckerants

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I just got a "hand-me-down" Dell E1505 laptop with an Intel Dual Core T7200 @ 2.o Ghz with 2 GB of RAM (maxed out). It's running Vista Ultimate and I've optimized it for performance. IOW, I turned off all the 3D graphics stuff and it still doesn't seem to run as fast as I would have thought.

This is my first Vista experience and I can't say I'm thrilled with it.

Am I missing something?
 
Oh and with a 100GB HD, after installing only Office 2007, I only have 51 GB left. The Recovery partition took 10 GB, so Vista is taking how much space???
 
Originally Posted By: chuckerants
Then it's really idiotic that the max RAM on this latop is 2 GB. ***???
Originally Posted By: Pablo
2 GB is minimum RAM


No it's really idiotic that vista needs more than 2 gigs of ram.
 
I doubt the max ram is 2gb, thats probably the installed ram. Laptops usually only have 2 dimm slots. If you bought 2x2gb dimms then you could get 4gb. Or you could buy 1x2gb and 1x1gb dimm.

Vista has a lot more services running than XP did. Vista is no where near as slim as XP was even if you trim the services to the minimum needed. Are all those necessary? I dunno.

That said, every OS has had higher system requirements than the previous one, so I doubt anyone can really complain about higher system requirements. If you want something that starts up really fast, try out Windows 98, it was blazing - especially if you used it on today's hardware.

That said, a lot goes into the "performance" of a computer. Laptops generally have 5400rpm drives, which can make boot times pretty horrid, and it would be even more horrid on an OS that has more services to load.

I don't want to sound like am an avid Vista defender. I've been using it on my home PC since it came out, X64 edition. Its definately had its problems and I 100% agree its slower than XP is.
 
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Could be any c-r-a-p left over from the previous owner.
I have a Dell 1720 with Vista and 2gb memory and it's surprisingly fast.All 3d candy on also.
 
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I thought of that too which is why I did a "fresh" install. The odd thing is, a program from the previous install was still left over. It almost seems like Vista didn't wipeout the previous partition. Hmm.

I also checked Crucial's website to make sure and 2 GB is the max. And RAM is soo cheap right now.
frown.gif

Originally Posted By: QuOk
Could be any c-r-a-p left over from the previous owner.
I have a Dell 1720 with Vista and 2gb memory and it's surprisingly fast.All 3d candy on also.
 
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You are right 2GB is the max on your system. I have a Dell Vostro 1000 (2GB Max also) and its loaded with XP Pro and 2GB on ram and for a Athlon X2 1.7ghz and ATI Xpress 1150 graphics it can run games in 1024x768 NO PROBLEM!!! For a $500 im impressed. If Vista was on it, it would be a DOG. If you can find a Dell XP disc from one of your friends you can put XP on the system no problem. I advise you do that, you'll be amazed how much faster it will be! Dell is only selling Windows XP computers until June 18th after that youll have no choice getting a computer with XP
frown.gif
 
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Hard drive speed has a LOT to do with Vista performance. Check out your hard drive's performance vs. the rest of the pack:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hard-disks/workstation-i-o-benchmark-pattern,693.html
(Be sure you check the button to view all hard drives)

I have had good luck with the latest Samsung Spinpoint series.

Some laptops only have a 2GB maximum as it depends on the chipset.

Is your laptop 64-bit compatible? I suggest using a 64bit version of Windows Vista. Noticeably smoother performance all-around.
 
It looks like the HD that I have - Hitachi Travelstar 100GB - is actually among the fastest HDs. Hmm.

Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
Hard drive speed has a LOT to do with Vista performance. Check out your hard drive's performance vs. the rest of the pack:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/hard-disks/workstation-i-o-benchmark-pattern,693.html
(Be sure you check the button to view all hard drives)

I have had good luck with the latest Samsung Spinpoint series.

Some laptops only have a 2GB maximum as it depends on the chipset.

Is your laptop 64-bit compatible? I suggest using a 64bit version of Windows Vista. Noticeably smoother performance all-around.
 
Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
If you have the cash, pickup one of these bad boys: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" hard drives.



Just picked up 2 for my new Raid array to replace my existing raptors:) Figured i'd bite the bullet now and order em before the NYS internet sales tax goes in to effect June 1st costing me more money in the long run. IM SO [censored] ABOUT IT. I gotta find a site other than newegg now who does not charge the tax but im afraid all sites will be required to collect tax now. NYS gotta pay for more prostitutes somehow!!!
 
Originally Posted By: chuckerants
I can install XP on it, but I thought I'd give Vista a try since it came with this computer.

I wonder if I can install XP as a dual-boot?
Originally Posted By: ToyotaNSaturn
If you have the cash, pickup one of these bad boys: Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000GLFS 300GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache 2.5" hard drives.



The velociraptor wont fix in the laptop, i believe its a little taller than your standard 2.5inch and you void the warranty if you take it off of the "ice pak". Just put XP on it or dual boot
 
Quote:

thought of that too which is why I did a "fresh" install. The odd thing is, a program from the previous install was still left over. It almost seems like Vista didn't wipeout the previous partition. Hmm.


You need to fdisk the drive and remove the NTFS partition; Windows keeps thinking it is doing you a favor by overlaying the information already there, even tho you do a "clean install"

Quote:

so I doubt anyone can really complain about higher system requirements.


Plenty of people are; for the "extra benefit" you get with vista, the amount of resources consumed over XP is ridiculous.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/310004_msftsued03.html

Vista capable doesn't mean squat.
 
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