New Computer With Vista

  • Thread starter Thread starter ChrisM
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ChrisM

Hmmm, looks like I might be upgrading to Vista sooner than I planned... Am
hoping to buy a new PC from Dell shortly, and most of their machine appear
to come with Vista pre-installed now... Assuming it is difficult/more
expensive to still get one from them with XP installed, can anyone answer me
a simple question:

What is the main difference between Home Basic(what Dell supply as standard)
and Home Premium(what Dell charge an extra £20 or so for).

Just a link to a good comparison table would be fine. Someones personal
experience of the differences would be even better...
 
Vista Home Basic == XP Home

Vista Home Premium == XP Media Center

Vista Ultima == XP Pro


Bob Eyster
 
A tip for you.

An account of mine was going to get a new Dell with Vista installed. He
wanted a 17" screen. The only Dell 17 " computer was about $2400.

I steered him to a new Toshiba (Satellite P105-S6177) that also came with
Vista Home Premium and had better physical and system specs. He brought it
to me (in the sealed box) last evening to clean out the crap and install
better protection software. He paid $1299 for it at Best Buy.

Note: The computer came with McAfee. Dump that. My 3 meg DVD connection was
running at dialup speeds until I removed it.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
I read something recently, perhaps in here, that reflected badly on Toshiba
in regards to DRM. I don't remember what it was though. Any ideas?

Dale
 
Other than the fact that all new hardware must have DRM built in (affects
all manufacturers and includes DVD/CD drives, hard drives, video cards
etc.), no I haven't.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard said:
Other than the fact that all new hardware must have DRM built in
(affects all manufacturers and includes DVD/CD drives, hard drives,
video cards etc.), no I haven't.
Click to expand...

Not in Europe.

Oops.

Alias
 
Aren't the Tosh Satellite series laptops? They certainly used to be.
I'm looking for a desktop to go in my home office, though I know I didn't
say that in my OP.

Cheers,

Chris.

In message (e-mail address removed),
 
Yes, it's a laptop.

I was just pointing out, I guess, that other manufacturers are ahead of Dell
in their offerings and lower in pricing for similar (or better) specs.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Fair point.
Once I've decided on a spec, I may look around and see what price sone of
the other manufacturers come in at. Just that in the past, my experiences of
Dell has been very good, never really had a serious problem using their
computers (that is desktops only) For laptops, IME, you can't beat Tosh.
At home, I currently have a Dell Pentium3(the one I'm going to replace) that
is still going strong, and has been used nearly every day for the last 5-6
years without problems. (Ha! now I've said that, I'll get home and find out
it has exploded or something!!)

Chris.

In message (e-mail address removed),
Yes, it's a laptop.

I was just pointing out, I guess, that other manufacturers are ahead
of Dell in their offerings and lower in pricing for similar (or
better) specs.
Click to expand...
 
ChrisM said:
Fair point.
Once I've decided on a spec, I may look around and see what price
sone of the other manufacturers come in at. Just that in the past, my
experiences of Dell has been very good, never really had a serious
problem using their computers (that is desktops only) For laptops,
IME, you can't beat Tosh. At home, I currently have a Dell
Pentium3(the one I'm going to replace) that is still going strong,
and has been used nearly every day for the last 5-6 years without
problems. (Ha! now I've said that, I'll get home and find out it has
exploded or something!!)

Chris.
Click to expand...

Dells are not a patch on what they used to be. The modern ones are
cheap crap, and their customer service and tech support is rubbish.

Sad for those of us who remember how really good they used to be.
 
In message (e-mail address removed),
Paul-B said:
Dells are not a patch on what they used to be. The modern ones are
cheap crap, and their customer service and tech support is rubbish.

Sad for those of us who remember how really good they used to be.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that if that is true. My chief experience of Dells is from
about 5 years ago. Haven't really bought a new one since then.

Sorry to go off topic, but what are peoples personal recomendations for well
build/spec'd home computers these days?
 
Build it yourself. It can't be beat.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
If I had the time, then I probably would, but time constraints mean I really
have to buy something 'off the shelf'.

Plus SWMBO wants something 'branded' rather than a 'homebrew' setup, and I
just can't be bothered to explain/argue any more...

:-)

Chris.

In message (e-mail address removed),
 
ChrisM said:
In message (e-mail address removed),
Click to expand...
If I had the time, then I probably would, but time constraints mean I
really have to buy something 'off the shelf'.

Plus SWMBO wants something 'branded' rather than a 'homebrew' setup,
and I just can't be bothered to explain/argue any more...

:-)

Chris.
Click to expand...

I can never understand this. I don't know about elsewhere, but here in
the UK you order from Dell, they take your cash and you get a cheap PC
with everything integrated and loads of junkl you don't want 5 or so
days later.

Build your own... you draw up a spec, order the parts which arrive the
next day. 4 hours later the PC is built exactly as you want it and the
o/s, antivirus, anti-spyware, utilities (Winzip, Acrobat etc) are all
installed and running, leaving you time to install your favourite
programs at your leisure.

Cons: Probably more expensive
Pros: Infinitely better quality.

I've *never* bought a PC off-the-shelf, and I never will.
 
While detailed recommendations would depend on the types of things you want
to do with the computer, I highly recommend the new Intel Core 2 duo
processors over the current crop of AMD as well as any of the older Intel
models. The cost savings on electricity to run the system over 3-5 years
with the Core 2 offerings is easily overlooked and should be well worth any
premium you might have to pay to get one.

Other generic recommendations IMHO:
RAM - Get as much as is reasonable in as few DIMMs as possible, with as fast
of a bus speed as affordable, 2x512 (1GB) 533mhz minimum, 2x1gb (2GB) 800mhz
would be better. Make sure the motherboard supports at least 4gb of RAM. 8gb
would be better.

Graphics - If you want Aero Glass capability, be sure to verify that your
graphics will support it. Most built-in graphics won't.

Hard Drive - Get as much as the manufacturer offers at a "reasonable" cost
for your boot drive. Remember that upgrading this first drive is much more
involved and so make it a good one. I would consider 160gb 7200rpm SATA-II
the minimum these days. I know it may seem like a lot but as soon as you
start using Media Center or any Video work, you'll eat it up quick. Also,
make sure that the system supports at least 2 drives. Those micro cases with
room for only 1 drive are incredibly frustrating to try to upgrade.

Optical Media - Don't even bother with a CD-ROM. At a minimum, a full
double-layer, +-R/RW shouldn't cost more than about $80 now. Anything less
will be obsolete before the rest of the system.

Floppy - Don't bother. If they offer a memory card reader instead or more
front USB or Firewire - take it instead.

Network - at least 100mbit built-in is probably the minimum all around. Get
Gigabit if you can and it's not too much more. Don't fall for built-in
wireless, A, B, and G are all too slow these days. 802.11N is the future but
the standards have been slow to finalize.

TPM - somewhat obscure but this is the enabling technology for the future of
encryption on the desktop. You may not be able to find anyone who can tell
you if their systems have it or not though.

I'm sure that there are other areas that I haven't addressed and some will
certainly disagree with some of my recommendations.

By the way, I highly recommend building your own too. Even though it will
almost certainly cost more and take longer, you will have an intimate
knowledge of your system that can only be understood by other home-builders.

Good luck.
 
ChrisM said:
Hmmm, looks like I might be upgrading to Vista sooner than I planned... Am
hoping to buy a new PC from Dell shortly, and most of their machine appear
to come with Vista pre-installed now... Assuming it is difficult/more
expensive to still get one from them with XP installed, can anyone answer
me a simple question:

What is the main difference between Home Basic(what Dell supply as
standard) and Home Premium(what Dell charge an extra £20 or so for).

Just a link to a good comparison table would be fine. Someones personal
experience of the differences would be even better...
Click to expand...

This may or may not be true.
Why?
1) It appears that the "preinstalled" actually means "XP installed at the
factory, with a free upgrade to Vista some time (so-far unknown) in the
future."
2) If it IS true, Dell is really going to get a LOT of people who purchased
their computers before Vista was released, and promised an upgrade to Vista
"when it is released to the General Public", VERY ANGRY that they have to
wait months to get it, while everyone else purchasing one since Vista was
released to the General Public get it on their computers right away. That's
just not fair, now, is it?
 
TPM - somewhat obscure but this is the enabling technology for the future
of encryption on the desktop. You may not be able to find anyone who can
tell you if their systems have it or not though.
Click to expand...

More like the future of DRM on the desktop.
I'm sure that there are other areas that I haven't addressed and some will
certainly disagree with some of my recommendations.
Click to expand...

Nah, the recommendations were right on the money and well put.
By the way, I highly recommend building your own too. Even though it will
almost certainly cost more and take longer, you will have an intimate
knowledge of your system that can only be understood by other
home-builders.
Click to expand...

The only thing wrong with this idea is that when something goes wrong, you
may have to buy/build a whole new PC to troubleshoot. I'm facing that now -
bluescreen with a 9C stop message could be any of a number of hardware
pieces. There's really nothing but swapping one piece at a time to be done
and no one to bear the cost but myself. Something to think about if you're
building your own. I do always build my own, just the same, but I don't
recommend it for most people.
 
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